Kenwood KSC-SW11 Compact Powered Enclosed Subwoofer for CAR

I'm Lou, writing this review for this product we purchased through Mary's Prime account. I'm writing the review because frankly, I don't understand the negative reviews.I've retailed and repped boutique home audio. I've installed custom tri amped car stereo with DSP and all the trimmings. As a custom home builder, I've installed acoustically isolated and optimized home theatre. I've generally been an audio tweak.For our 2002 Odyssey, which just never breaks down and continues as our second vehicle, I wanted to keep it simple and I didn't want to give up any cargo space or passenger comfort. I wanted to invoke appropriate technology, application and cost.You need to know what else I put in the car to understand the review: it's an audio system, nothing works in isolation. I was a step ahead because I already had a pair of Boston Acoustics component speakers (surface mounted tweeters for direction), from a car the kids totaled. I upgraded the radio to an Alpine 145BT Bluetooth unit with Sirius for $150, and that's all I'm running at the moment. No external amp.* This unit lessens the need for an external amp, if you have a quality radio (head unit). I have reduced the bass level from the head unit, easing up on the mid range speakers, letting the subwoofer properly take over the bottom end.* This subwoofer fit under the front of the driver seat. It didn't even take away any foot space from the mid seat passenger. I fuse tapped the power from the driver side fuse box, used chassis for ground and ran the harness wires under the kick panel to under the driver seat. Very quick and easy. I just laid the box under the seat and ... done.* It looks really slick - great styling - it would look great if made visible in a custom installation.* It sounds very nice. You have to tweak the rolloff and volume for your material, but get that right and it blends in very nicely. I can definitely make it bump my butt, but that's not how I listen. I want deep bass, but I don't want it to overshadow.* The controller is a big deal. Normal installation: Listen, hop out, crawl under the seat, into the trunk, wherever the bass amp is, turn a knob or screw a sixteenth, get back in the car, listen and repeat about a hundred times. Then play different material, decide it's all wrong and start all over again.The controller let's you adjust the rolloff, rollin actually, and volume as you're driving down the road. You can do it by feel, you don't need to take your eyes off the road.* I drive and listen and bask in the glow that the woofer, amplifier and controller all cost $150. It's a great value.Don't let it's lesser size prevent you from trying it. It sounds really good. I suspect negative reviewers were expecting a boom box or perfection for $150 or perhaps the units were defective or not properly installed. I may have written a glowing review because the product exceeded my expectations, but ... it exceeded my expectations. I have no idea how you could improve on this deep bass, in this space, at any cost.

These are hands down the smallest powered bass boxes in the mass market today, and with a super low price point it was easy to get two. Such small units made finding space for them a snap; most cars will take these under the seat with no modifications. All their wiring attaches via included wiring harness that plugs in at the bass box. I've got them in a small Euro compact from the 80's, so when I carry backseat passengers for more than a half-hour drive, I can unplug and leave the subs at home.Did I just call these subs? They're not. As bass boxes they truly excel - the crossover can be adjusted up to 125 Hz, or as low as 50 Hz they'll still have plenty from a good CD to push out. But these are not competing with a 12" cone in a 40-lb box on a 500-watt amp. If you want to rattle the seals loose on your windshield these will not go there. They supplement your existing system. They also don't filter the low-end signal from the rest of your speakers: if you want to cut your main speakers' low bass, you'll need to either add high-pass filtering at those speakers or, more likely, look for an amp with sub outputs and main-speaker trim controls to do the filtering for you.But as good, economical bass in a good, economical car audio system, these little boxes are superb. I'm using 2 to augment my 1980's head unit, which puts out just 12 watts RMS per channel; with 2 of these hooked up to the speaker-out leads, I get plenty of sound and all the bass I could want. To be fair, one was doing the job fine, but I bought 2 and put 'em both in for just that little bit of overkill. :)Speaking of "modification" I did open the speakers and added 100 square inches of Dynamat Extreme to each box. The base is solid metal - feels like aluminum billet, it's that solid - but the upper is fairly thick but fairly flexible plastic. The plastic's flex helps keep the box from breaking things or cracking itself when jammed hard in a tight spot, so I still like the design. Opening the case was 6 easy screws; the speaker 4 more; reassembly was a snap. Adding the extra 2mm of dynamat to the inside (just the plastic surfaces)helps the sound a little. If you like Dynamat for the speaker enclosures in your car, you'll like it in these bass boxes, and you'll find it's easier to apply. (If you wouldn't bother with dynamat in your car, of course, you won't miss it in these great little bass boxes either.)Update: These little bass boxes just get better by the day. After a couple weeks' break-in using the default cabling setup, I re-cabled to try and get Left-Right channel separation. With the speaker cables all running to the center hump between seats, I connected both Lefts to the left speaker, both Rights to the right speaker, and set the Phase to 0 on both controllers. It works! True low-bass is omnidirectional, of course, so in the 40-60Hz range there's no impact. But the 60-125Hz range has a fair amount of directional bass on some works - think "Dark Side Of The Moon" for instance - and these boxes really shine on those stereo-separated bass/drum/synth instrumental licks!