I've owned a few of the popular compact subwoofers out there and the subcompact 8 can hold its own against most of them, especially when it comes to music. In fact, I would say it works better with music than it does with home theater (something that is hard to come by today with a lot of companies moving towards HT.) The only compact sub that I feel is better overall is the Velodyne Minivee - It reaches a bit deeper and is a bit more solid sounding but its still a close call between the two. It has excellent build quality and looks better in person than the photos... plus its made in the USA.

If you are buying a sub mainly for music and need something small, look at the Pinnacle subcompact 8... it's a lot of sub for the money and its very musical and fast.