Tight base response, small size

Lacks control at higher volumes

I had my doubts about such a small sub, but I was pleasently surprised. At low to moderate volumes it provides plenty of nice tight, controlled base. Not boomy or distorted until you get to higher levels. The cabinet is also well designed--never rattles. Great if you listen to rock or mellow music. Not a good choice if you listen to primarily rap (no 8" sub would be). Overall, a great deal for someone looking to add base to their system.

Similar Products Used:

None

Compact size, magnetically shielded, reasonable price for performance

Could use a bit more power but I could not detect any hard clipping when pushed

This is not a stand alone subwoofer. It will go to 35 Hz at -5 db in my set up. Best to call it a powered woofer. Use it as a woofer for my center channel. Boy does it work great for this! Can set my center channel bass management to wide and it makes a big difference rather than having the fequencies below 80 Hz routed to the left and right speakers. This is a very reasonable up grade to any one's system who has a center channel speaker with smaller woofers (less than 5 inches). Since it is shielded, one can place it next to the TV without interference. The low power of 70 watts may dissuade some, but it seems to keep up with the reast of my system, which has 150 watts to front speakers and 100 watts to rear.

My set up is as follows:
Yamaha RX2095 reciever
Audio Source Amp 3 to power the 2 front speakers
Velodyne HGS 10 Sub
Polk RT12 front speakers (2x6.5 in. woofers per speakers)
Polk RT/fx rear speakers
Polk CS250 center channel speaker (2x4 in woofers)
KLH 970A effect speakers

Looked at and listened to other 8 inch 'sub woofers' and they were either not shielded, were $100 or more expensive, or too large to put it in the space I had avalible. Considered the following manufacturers: Polk, Mirage, Paradigm, KLH, Audio Source, Velodyne but choose the Yamaha for this application to extend the center channel response to lower fequencies.

Similar Products Used:

Velodyne HGS 10 subwoofer, Yamaha YST SW120 (4 years old)