Pioneer SW-8 100 Watt RMS Subwoofer System (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

Bought this Subwoofer to use with our TV. We use a Bose Wave Radio as a Soundbar which works nice and coupled with this woofer, the sound is very full. We actually have the sub hidden behind our TV stand but you could leave it out as a piece of furniture, it has a very attractive exterior. It has a wide range of controls to taylor your sound as needed. Everything considered, I think it's a great Sub for the price. Very happy with the purchase.

I was going to hide this in a corner, but it sounded better on a front/side wall, angled with the port facing the couch. I have watched movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, and the cannon fire was awesome - freaked my kids out a little to feel the floor vibrate. It takes a bit of tweaking with the volume and surround cut-off frequencies (that, I mostly control at the receiver), but I have it at the perfect balance. Got an HDMI adpater for the Wii, and the increase in sound depth is excellent. I have also listened to digital music, mostly 80's and 90's new wave/alternative stuff, and I think it sounds great. I'm not into rap, and I don't want a subwoofer that overpowers the music/dialogue. This subwoofer does a very decent job at a very decent price-point. If you want to damage your walls and windows (and hearing), you'll want a bigger, more expensive box. This is not a tiny subwoofer, but it's more than plenty for me, and I do like to turn it up (to "adult-loud" levels). My wife surprisingly didn't mind the box being in the open (it's got a nice sleek black finish), and yes, the light is a little bright. but it's blue, and both of us think it looks cool. It also reassures you that the subwoofer is on. This has an automatic mode, unlike some of the others, so you can plug it in, and forget it. When some bass comes through, it will spring to life, and I think it adds plenty of life and depth to both movies and music.

I currently have both the Pioneer & the Yamaha 8" subs, which are about the same price. This Pioneer has the bells & whistles, such as phase control, standby power and extra terminals. However, the output is not that good, even for a low end sub. The Yamaha 8" does a much nicer job in hitting really good lows & puts out much better bass, but it has none of the bells & whistles of the Pioneer - just an on/off & volume.Note that the Pioneer is bigger by nearly and inch in the depth dimension than what is stated on Amazon. This is because they don't include the terminals in the back. If you have a very tight space, as I do, this size measurement discrepancy can be very important.The Pioneer is being returned and I am waiting on the seller (Founder Direct - requires me to pay for return shipping!) to issue a refund/return.(Also note that even though the Yamaha lacks standby circuitry, it puts out no discernible heat when not getting a signal. I think Yamaha kept this sub simple, so they could concentrate on the sound reproduction for a low price.)

At first I was concerned with the relative small size of this sub. However, after matching it to a Pioneer Receiver,(I believe it's the 1080), I found that it does the job. The lows rumble the living room, and at higher volumes, the entire house. Coupled to our Bose system with satellite speakers, this Sub provides very realistic booming and thunderous sounds. Our set up is such that initially my wife, and in other occasions visiting friends have actually ducked when hearing unexpected sounds from the satellite speakers. Needless to say, those of us who witnessed this were on the floor laughing. Normally, I tend to do an overkill when purchasing certain items, and could have easily spent a lot more money on a sub woofer, but I can honestly tell you that I am not sorry that I decided to give this one a try. It is just enough. I may add that I have, among others the Bose 901, Panasonic double 15" DJ speakers, and like my music loud. The wonderful thing about Amazon is that if you are not completely satisfied, one can always return the item. Although as a business person I understand profit and cost too well and don't abuse this outstanding service, it has, at times, made it a lot easier to take the plunge, go for it and try it out. I believe that Amazon must keep track on good customers, and has never hassled me over any returns that I may have had, usually due to defective, or simply mis-advertised item.

For the price you pay, this is a sweet little sub. I love the fact that it's down firing, also the phase switch is a pretty cool feature. It's plenty good for games, movies and music for a bed room, living room, apartment, and probably even a small auditorium. all in all, if you need a sub and don't want to spend $500 on a name brand, buy this.

Set up in my home theater room, producing solid round bass. Purchased it about 9 months ago. Only reason it gets 4 stars instead of 5 is that the auto power-off seems to take a bit long to shut down and the blue light showing it is actually receiving power is rather bright for a dark home theater room. Overall a solid performing product as expected from Pioneer.

I have a fairly nice sound system in my computer room, and this sub tops everything off. I like bass, so now my room sounds as good, on a smaller scale, as our multi-multi speaker home theater system out in the family room. That has speakers in several room ceilings (including the garage!), in addition to the 7 channel system out there. That one has 6 speakers in the ceiling, plus two Pioneer HPM-1100s, from back before there were ceiling speakers, and on the other side of the room is a subwoofer about 3 times the size of this one. Listening to 'Rag Doll' by the 4 Seasons, or "I Can See Clearly Now", by Jimmy Cliff (I like that version better), will fill the house with full range music at a quality you'd fine at a live show.

I thought the subwoofer was great for movies but not so great for music. When I compared this to my denon (midlevel subwoofer) the music base tones are not as intense as my denon, but when I hooked it up for movies, this subwoofer has deeper more clear base tones. Maybe I didn't set up the receiver for music correctly but that was my end result.

I love my new subwoofer. I out it on quarter strength, and it is enough for me for now. Its frequency range is 40-150, which is enough for me; however, it is not top of the line, where the lower level could go down to below 30. Just be aware.