Subwoofer Reviews

This thing blows, I have it hooked to my Sony Mini system and it makes more bass w/o it. The bass is not clear, distortion, its all there. DO NOT buy this garbage. If you want a real test to see what a piece of garbage this is, play number seven on the Matrix Soundtrack, it is Prodigy, Minefields. To bad I cannot rate it zero stars, cause it is that bad!

This subwoofer kicks fine but if you wanna FEEL your bass this is not for you, the bass rings in your ear rather than rumble your body. Even on a ministereo (panasonic) it distorts badly when you turn up the volume. I ordered a different subwoofer the next day!Take my advice, this sub will hurt your ears more than it will entertain you. Consider something else.

I recently purchased a JVC FS-SD5 compact stereo component system (executive microsystem) which delivers 19 watts per channel. This mini system is an excellent product which I installed on my desk in my 11 foot by 11 foot office at home. This mini system has a subwoofer output jack. Since I never owned a subwoofer before, I searched for a small subwoofer for this JVC mini system. I soon learned that most subwoofers are too large and too expensive for an economical mini system in a small room. The AudioSource SW300 appears to be the only "compact" and low priced subwoofer available. This unit is excellent for my small 11 foot by 11 foot office. The amplified power output is 50 watts and it has a 6 1/2 diameter driver. It is 13 3/4 high, 8 1/8 wide, 8 1/8 deep, and weighs 11 pounds. It fits perfectly under my desk. For a good test of this unit, simply play the song Migra (cut number 8) from the Carlos Santana CD titled Supernatural and you will easily see the great performance of this economical, yet quality, space saving unit.

I've only had these speakers for 6 months and the subwoofer has already stopped working. These speakers are cheap but they are also flimsy and have poor workmanship. Spend the few extra bucks and get something better.

The sound quality isn't great but I didn't expect much for 9 dollars, or whatever. One thing though, the speakers are supposed to be black, it even says black on the box, but they're off white-ish grey. Oh well. Not terrible, overall.

I bought this speaker system a year ago and now it still works fine! The sound quality isn't that bad as some previous reviews stated. On the contrary, high is clear and bass is decent, mid-range is not that vivid though. But, wait, what do you expect for such a tiny little system. It's sylish as well IMHO. I really enjoy it. (...)

DO NOT GET THIS WOOFER! I REPEAT DO NOT GET THIS WOOFER!

After reading numerous reviews for this product there seemed to be quite a few reports of the woofer blowing below its rated power, but I took the risk and got it anyway:

First impressions: not very loud, didnt hit very low
Impressions one week later: still sounds like crap. My amp puts out 460watts rms and 800 peak, which is under this woofers rating.

One day I'm driving along and the voice coil welds itself solid, filling the enclosure with smoke.

Just look at the magnet on this thing, it's clearly not big enough to be handling 500 watts rms.

I replaecd it with an Infinty Kappa Perfect 12vq. It's only rated at 400rms but is 10x louder, 10x cleaner, and hits 10x lowe than this POS ever did.

this ONE woofer can do like a 3 woofer sound bite!. Worth the money. I picked this up at circuit city for $199.99.. BEAT THAT. I use it with a 600wt Bazooka Amp, and it rocks very very solid..doesnt rattle.. at all.. I fully recommend it..

the bad feature is finding a way to keep it from moving in yr trunk! I just nylon ropes (black) but not too happy with it.. i will look more into it.. You cant bolt..cuz its not wood =(

The most appealing aspects of this so-called subwoofer are price and size. It has a switchable auto on feature, a nice set of input options including 5-way binding posts, or RCA connectors. The subwoofer crossover and volume controls are conveniently mounted on the front of the subwoofer, and it's 8-inch front firing driver does a commendable job (given its size) at supplying some bass to a system consisting mostly of satellite-sized speakers. When placed in a corner and callibrated properly, this little subwoofer is capable of occassionally producing excellent bass sounds, especially with movies. However, this subwoofer distorts easily at moderate volumes, especially with movies containing extremely deep bass. The Yamaha's response time with music is also on the slow side. You won't be shaking your house too much with your favorite hip-hop albums on this subwoofer.

The Yamaha YST-SW45 is a decently priced subwoofer designed to be mated with incredibly small satellite speakers. If you really craving DEEP bass, you should look elsewhere. If you simply want a subwoofer for a small sized room for a small-sized home theater, then this is a very affordable solution. So affordable in fact, that you should take Yamaha's advice and get two of these subwoofers for the best possible imaging and sound-field dispersion.

Yes this is a low powered sub. No need to be a b---h about it, huh? Well, I have personally come to expect a lot from my Yamaha products. I bought this sub from Best Buy and was truly disppointed by its performance. I was all pumped up about the Active Servo Technology that is displayed so proudly on the front...I expected more control of the woofer during higher levels.
But this is just not the case.

In all reality, this sub is a waste of the technology...

It is known throughout the industry that low end drivers--woofers, if you will--from the size of ten inches down are the most accurate...atleast decently built ones...

So in reality the eight inch driver--unless Yamaha is admitting that it is a cheap driver--in this component is lacking power handling.

I feel as thoug this sub should only be used in rooms that are comparable to closets. My wife feels as though it is ok...well atleast she FELT that way until I went and bought the KLH 10" 120 Watt sub.

Now I know that these two products are incomparable, but, for the same price it is truly worth mentioning (you think???)

...

I gave it three stars because it is small. VERY small. And because I am a nice guy--I guess...:) ,,,and then there is always that chance that I bought a defective unit... :-)

So...

In closing, if you are looking for a good sub and have the money--don't buy this...hell...I can't see why anyone would buy this unless it is all that the WORLD has to offer...

Bad BAD Yamaha...

I'm gonna purchase the dual sub 200-Watt version some time this year...only because my KLHs (I have two now) are in storage (long story...they still work fine though)...and because I have heard this unit, and it is very impressive...

Happy searching!!!

Gen

I bought these speakers thinking "hmm... with USB i wont need a soundcard" .. well things dont always work out like they are supposed to. Yea, you dont need a soundcard to use these speakers. What you do need is a 800000 mhz computer with a few gigs of RAM. Seriously, these things ate up so many of my computers resources that I was unable to multitask anything. I couldnt even surf the net when i was listening to music, and if i even had the things plugged in i could forget about burning a CD. I wasted 5 blank cds before i realized what my problem was. I am running a P3 800 mhz with 128 megs of ram.. i should think i have enough power to listen to music AND check my email, but with these speakers its not possible. I finally took them back and bought a Turtle beach Montigo 2 Quadzilla soundcard and Some AWESOME monsoon flat panel speakers.. save yourself some greif and stay away from the yamaha USB speakers.

These are seriously some of the best speakers I have ever owned. I bought them because they are USB, and a soundcard is not needed. Considering I have a laptop with a not-so-good sound card (as most laptops have), I did my research and jumped on these.

It's a three piece system with 80W of power (20W for each satellite and 40W for the sub). The satellites produce the cleanes purest signal ever, and the sub a powerfull, yet not overwhelming, punch. And they're loud! I listen to them with the volume at about 1/5 the maximum.

And no you don't need and 800000MHz computer. I have a mobil P3850 with 384MB ram, and the USB seems transparent. There's no skipping and no slowing down of my system. The USB interface is like an external sound card, and the quality is superb. Before I bought my laptop, I had a PC with a SB Live! hooked up to a Yamaha Natural Sound system, and I must say the sound quality of the Yamaha YSTMS55D is about equal. I think these speakers are only *officially* for use with Win98, but the drivers that come with Win2k work great.

The only downfalls are the midi synth which isn't great (but who cares about midi?), and the fact that it doesn't have any 3D gaming support (such as A3D or EAX). But I highly recommend the system for listen to music and activities of that sort. Perfect for a laptop.

The little cubes are amazing, especially since they spread the sound to so many areas of a room (each speaker twists into two directions- for a total of 10). This is nice for me because I don't want it too loud (my walls are paper thin), but music just isn't the same on a Sat. afternoon when I want to rock out. My advice is to save your pennies and get something that carries more mid-range and bass in the satellite speakers. If it's movies that you want to enjoy, your in the right place. Lastly, the wires that Bose supplies are long and can accommodate a decent size room, but they're kinda flimsy.

I just recently bought this 6 piece speaker system as my first entry into the world of home audio. I have a very good receiver, its the Yamaha RXV-800, so these KLH speakers are not even close to the quality needed to fully maximize a solid receiver. In any case, the bottom line with this product is "you get what you pay for." For the price, it gives you a full speaker system that can fill an averaged sized room. The quality becomes distorted at high volumes, but this is typical of speakers of this quality.

The playback is fine, and I stress that the quality is decent for the amount of money. Again, this system should be a starter kit, with more money poured into speakers as one can afford to do so. Speakers are by far, the main component of quality sound when it comes to home audio. The subwoofer is actually a plus for the system, since the small satellite speakers need quite of bit of power to get them loud. I usually need to crank the receiver fairly high in order to get the full surround sound feel in my room.

On the whole, I would recommend this for a starter or temporary system, however definitely spend the extra cash to get a better system if you can.

with a nice sony amp, they put out. Worth the money, within reason. Better than cheaper subs, less expensive than better subs.

Proof positive of the power of advertising, Bose has made a name (and money) for itself by designing mediocre quality audio equipment.
Unlike AKG or Sennheiser and other high-end manufacturers, Bose uses cheaper parts and less than average electrical engineering principals. These are highlighted especially in their speakers. Their principle of direct-reflection, while novel in 1969 is now incredibally antiquated and is far surpassed by high and mid-end manufacturers whose products outperform Bose. The company was so humiliated by Consumer Reports who compared Bose with other products that it sued (and lost).

Someone once said "There's a sucker born every minute". Now that's appropriate.

Bought from pawn store, and took home to watch star Wars clones movie

took three hourz for hook ups, but then we set up, and put to stereo reciever. Big reciever sony one. play star wars movie and very loud, sounded vary good. Wanted louder, so we put louder. movie very fun movie .cool speakers, very cool! we put reciever to full blast maximum power but then get too loud and could not find remote-i lost remote in dark -could not turn down volume and volume knob was brokens .then big bang! and then we gets loud static speaker was static and the rest gots broken buts one

very angry why did they break? pawn store man says you can play full blasts and wont breaks!!! i loved my speakers and then now they's gone. gone to garbage. only have one of the five workings-kept one. very angry. now movies sound bad, only one speaker left. cannot fix-

I connected the Bose Acoustimass 5 with an onkyo tx-8511 receiver and the sound is incrediable. It really fills my entire loft area with lifelike sound. Definately a great speaker!

Proof positive of the power of advertising, Bose has made a name (and money) for itself by designing mediocre quality audio equipment.
Unlike AKG or Sennheiser and other high-end manufacturers, Bose uses cheaper parts and less than average electrical engineering principals. These are highlighted especially in their speakers. Their principle of direct-reflection, while novel in 1969 is now incredibally antiquated and is far surpassed by high and mid-end manufacturers whose products outperform Bose. The company was so humiliated by Consumer Reports who compared Bose with other products that it sued (and lost).

Someone once said "There's a sucker born every minute". Now that's appropriate.

Bought from pawn store, and took home to watch star Wars clones movie

took three hourz for hook ups, but then we set up, and put to stereo reciever. Big reciever sony one. play star wars movie and very loud, sounded vary good. Wanted louder, so we put louder. movie very fun movie .cool speakers, very cool! we put reciever to full blast maximum power but then get too loud and could not find remote-i lost remote in dark -could not turn down volume and volume knob was brokens .then big bang! and then we gets loud static speaker was static and the rest gots broken buts one

very angry why did they break? pawn store man says you can play full blasts and wont breaks!!! i loved my speakers and then now they's gone. gone to garbage. only have one of the five workings-kept one. very angry. now movies sound bad, only one speaker left. cannot fix-

I connected the Bose Acoustimass 5 with an onkyo tx-8511 receiver and the sound is incrediable. It really fills my entire loft area with lifelike sound. Definately a great speaker!