Price Paid:  $90.00 from etronics

Summary:
Do you need a powered subwoofer to complement satelite speakers for both music and home theater? Are you in a small to medium listening area? If the answer to both is yes, then your choice should come down to this unit and the Polk 10WS. This sub is cheaper, has a similar feature set and sounds as good or better. I say BUY IT!!!

I had most of those characteristics when I bought this a year ago. For better or worse (mostly better) my circumstances changed and now I have a very large listening room and full range front speakers. This sub - good as it is - is pretty much redundant. It doesn't do much to improve the bass handling of my Sony SS MF650 front speakers on music (actually it detracts a bit) and it doesn't provide enough umph at nearly subsonic frequencies to enhance movie sound effects.

When I was shopping I chose this over the 12" SA WM500 because that is really only good as a sound effects machine. Now I wish I had waited. If you are just starting, I think a system including the 4 MF650s, a quality center (not necessarily from Sony) and a MF500 subwould be about as good a 5.1 HT sytem as you could put together for under $1500. And it would cost you $5-600 total depending on your choice of center speaker.

As for the features that this doesn't have - I really don't think you need line level R and L inputs or auto shutoff. I have it plugged into my reciever (a switched outlet) and use speaker level inputs. I think it works bether in that setup than it would the other way.

Strengths:
Very musical and accurate. Pleny of power for a medium sized room.

Weaknesses:
Not much umph below 40Hz.

Price Paid:  $79.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
For a $80 sub, I have been very impressed with the sound quality coming from this little thing. The sound is pounding against my chest in our 12x20 room. My wife has told me several times to keep the noise down when she is resting upstairs in the room directly above. The clearness of sound is surprisingly crisp for an 8 inch sub. I tested this with the pod racing scene in starwars and believe me this thing really kicks out the base. Music was just as clear and can catch a wide variety of lows in music. This speaker is highly underated and overlooked by many music freaks but trust me when I say this kicks out the base. I don't know how it would do in larger rooms because I don't have any rooms in the house bigger than 12x20. If and when this speaker goes, I am buying another.

Strengths:
Excellent sound and range of lows.
The price is cheap, cheap, cheap with wonderful sound
The looks are ok too.

Weaknesses:
The speaker does not shut down by itself.
I had to avoid this by plugging it into the back of my Harmon reciever.
Problem solved!

Price Paid:  $89.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
I use the Polk PSW 350 in my home theater room and love it, and bought this smaller Sony subwoofer for my second room to add a little bass to my Polk R30s. I must say I was very impressed with the bass that came out of this 8 inch sub. Listening to music is fantastic and also works well for DVDs. You won't get that room shattering bass from it, but for the price it packs quite a punch. I would recommend it to anyone needing to add some bass. The only downfall is that it does not automatically turn on and off, but for less than $100, it is well worth it.

Strengths:
sounds great

Weaknesses:
no auto on/off

Similar Products Used:
Polk PSW350

Price Paid:  $86.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
I have a really odd room with horrible standing waves. Necessary corner placement of my lumbering Polk 450 sub caused the bass to vanish in my listening chair. TONS of bass everywhere except in my chair! The little Sony fits beautifully on the bottom shelf of my equipment rack and has been an absolute eye-opener. No, it won't shake your fillings loose, but I don't want it to. It blends perfectly with my Paradigm mini's, gracefully and subtly filling in the bottom end and letting their midrange open up. I was surprised at the quality of the construction, too. Heck, the little thing is cute!

Strengths:
Size. Price. Build.

Weaknesses:
It doesn't have a sensor. You have to manually switch it on and off. No biggie.

Similar Products Used:
Polk PSW 450. It's headed for e-Pay.