picked one of these up just for kicks ,at 249 bucks i coulndnt pass it up .
To my surprise it acually sounded pretty good,better than a
lot of subs in the 500 to 1000 dollar range,who would have
thought! im givig it 5 stars for the value preformance is
acually 3 1/2...

Litterally best bang for your buck

Remote control, power saver

1050SW, I picked this unit up as a discontinued floor model in 1998. I ramped up the amplifier and got security's attention, purchased it right there happily.

The first film I watched on DVD was the Sci-Fi ALIENS. Some of the explosions this sub produced were very life like. The hollow thud that hits your chest before the explosive roar was just unreal.

This thing sounds flawless with some notable exceptions. The power saver feature is nice, but it kicks in when there's not enough drive from the amplifier. This is annoying when programs switch from Dialog to Action.. there's a 5 second delay to power the amp back up and by then the action is over. The other annoyance is the remote. It was a great feature until it got destroyed. It'll make the amp nearly useless without it, try listening to movies in Radio mode. There's no menu function to switch it back. There's no universal remote that will talk to it. (That I found anyways)

I have had it bottom out on me, but I really had to drive it hard to achieve that. If I wanted the perfect amp, I would have shelled out $1000-$5000 and had no other toys.

Conclusion: Perfect for an intermediate system! I won't need to upgrade this until I blow out!

Deep powerful tight bass. Very controlled. More than I expected at this price.

Auto sense switches on and off seemingly at random.

I bought my sub almost three years ago on closeout from Crutchfield. I've had this sub for a long time in many different locations both in my old apartment (it almost got me evicted) and now in my house. I have gotten to know it and have it located in a corner. The usable bass goes to about 24 Hz in my room and I can listen to it at Dolby reference level without it bottoming out. The combination of the small woofer with the overbuilt amp makes the bass very tight in music mode and very satisfying in movie mode. Since it is the cheapest component in my system I keep considering whether to upgrade to a HSU, but I just can't part with it. It disappears into my system until it's needed. Saving Private Ryan or the plane crash in Fight Club is downright scary.

I currently have it connected to the LFE out on my Sony 'DA30ES using the crossover from the Sony. I then set the level with the subwoofer's volume control using VE and AVIA. With this setup, I can't make it bottom out unless I wanted to turn my receiver up to a ridiculous level, even with Toy Story 2.

The sub has an auto power on function that has never really worked. It's supposed to sleep until it detects a signal. It never really shuts off and the power clicks on and off occasionally while watching TV depending on what it senses (I'm running no power conditioning so it may be AC it's picking up). This doesn't ever happen during movies so it isn't a big deal. I programmed the macros in my remote to turn the sub on and off anyway.

A friend of mine has a SVS 20-39CS with a Marantz monoblock, and it sounds great. While it sounds better every time I hear it, I'm still not sure it handles low frequencies any better or adds more impact than the Kenwood does, especially not for the price difference. His speakers are way better than mine and that's where his system really impresses.

Although I may lack some extreme low end and control, I'm really not willing to pay $700 dollars for it at this time. This sub was the best thing I could have bought. I highly recommend it to anyone who can find one. If you can't, save up for a HSU.

Similar Products Used:

none

Great Value

Have Had my sub for over a year. In stand-by mode sometimes it turns on when the receiver is off. Now one of the lights went out on the front of the unit. Has anyone else had similar problems? Otherwise, I like the remote and music and move modes and the power. Again, it is a great value.