Home > Consumer Reviews > JBL PSWD112 Powered Subwoofer
JBL PSWD112 Powered Subwoofer
Average Customer Rating
(3.5 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
Great Sub when it is workin but ...
(1 out of 5) by Amazon Customer on Jun 6, 2000For the money, this is a really good sub and easily worthy of 4-5 stars. I was completely satisfied with it for 14 months until it self-destructed and therefore must rate it so lowly. I suggest anyone interested in buying this sub read the comments posted in audioreview.com to see the problems this sub will give you. Many people have reported the same problem. The cost to fix is approx $150 and JBL is no help.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Love the rumble - but watch for trouble!
(4 out of 5) by Mike D on Mar 30, 2000 (Atlanta, GA)Finally, the last speaker of my 5.1 setup! So I pop in the "Blade" DVD -- the added bass from this subwoofer sounded wonderful, and definitely brought a smile to my face. HOWEVER, about 30 minutes in the movie, it died! Kaput. So, off to the repair shop I go (JBL's warranty covered it completely), to discover that there was a bad diode. It was replaced, and once again I am smiling. It sounds great with bass heavy CD's as well, though the front firing speaker is a bit more directional than I would like. Overall (and after the repair), good speaker!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
What A Great Sub!!!!
(4 out of 5) by Nick on Sep 28, 2000 (Canada)This sub not only did it fill my need for extra bass, it killed it!This sub delivers extremely high quality bass for anything (music, DVDs etc...)I give it a full 4 stars. And I plan to get another
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Amazing Sub for the Price
(5 out of 5) by Conspiracy on Aug 4, 2006 (Akron, Ohio)I've had this sub for quite a while (approx. 5 years) and haven't had even the slightest hint of trouble from it. This unit has proved both it's durability and functionality over time.
First, let's talk about some areas that could use some improvement. This sub is GI-NORMOUS! Not, big... not large, not even huge... I repeat, THIS SUB IS GI-NORMOUS! Soon after purchasing it, I "field tested" it like no other field test before: I invited over 75 of my closest friends, and we had a crazy party. We cranked that sub for hours and the bass was unrelenting. At one point, my best friend was seen DANCING ON TOP OF THE SUB. The BASS THUMPED ON. The point here isn't that I had a great party, but instead that this sub is large enough for a grown man to comfortably dance atop it.
As far as functionality goes, this sub has it's act together: You have both line-level and speaker-level inputs so whether or not your sound source has a dedicated subwoofer out port, you can still hook up this sub. Also, this sub supports dual channel input for more accurate bass response. Don't worry... if you only have a single line-out for your sub, you can plug it into either the left or right channel (a better solution would be to use a y-adapter to plug into both ports).
Additionally, you can adjust your high-pass and low-pass filters to tailor bass response to your personal listening preferences. Also, there is also a video contour mode which when selected optimized bass response for movie watching.
I'm a professional DJ and have been exposed to many different brands of speakers and subs. My personal choice for my own home theatre equipment has been and will remain JBL.
First, let's talk about some areas that could use some improvement. This sub is GI-NORMOUS! Not, big... not large, not even huge... I repeat, THIS SUB IS GI-NORMOUS! Soon after purchasing it, I "field tested" it like no other field test before: I invited over 75 of my closest friends, and we had a crazy party. We cranked that sub for hours and the bass was unrelenting. At one point, my best friend was seen DANCING ON TOP OF THE SUB. The BASS THUMPED ON. The point here isn't that I had a great party, but instead that this sub is large enough for a grown man to comfortably dance atop it.
As far as functionality goes, this sub has it's act together: You have both line-level and speaker-level inputs so whether or not your sound source has a dedicated subwoofer out port, you can still hook up this sub. Also, this sub supports dual channel input for more accurate bass response. Don't worry... if you only have a single line-out for your sub, you can plug it into either the left or right channel (a better solution would be to use a y-adapter to plug into both ports).
Additionally, you can adjust your high-pass and low-pass filters to tailor bass response to your personal listening preferences. Also, there is also a video contour mode which when selected optimized bass response for movie watching.
I'm a professional DJ and have been exposed to many different brands of speakers and subs. My personal choice for my own home theatre equipment has been and will remain JBL.
It's not that bad...
(4 out of 5) by dearephesus64 on Oct 31, 2009 (Oregon, USA)I have owned this subwoofer for about nine years, and it only recently had some trouble. I realize it's kinda pointless to review equipment that is nearly a decade old, but there is a fair amount of negative press for this item that I thought I might balance.
I bought it in 2000 at a clearance outlet, and I don't remember what I paid. $200 to $250, I think. It has been through a lot of music for most of those years. I have even taken it places several times and used it with full-size PA systems for bass reinforcement. It's not a room-shaker for huge areas, but it added in the bottom octave decently well for what it is. It never blew out or made funny noises in that time.
I set it up in a friend's home theatre system, and while there it stopped working and made some buzzing noises. I took it home, and now it works fine. It may have been a problem with their system.
Summary: Loud, dependable bass in my experience. A bit boomy and muddy though--it's a loud home theatre sub, not a precise hi-fi subwoofer. Plenty of people have experienced failures according to what I've read, but if you see one that still works at this point and appears to be in good shape, it might be a safer bet than it seems from its reviews. Possibly.
I bought it in 2000 at a clearance outlet, and I don't remember what I paid. $200 to $250, I think. It has been through a lot of music for most of those years. I have even taken it places several times and used it with full-size PA systems for bass reinforcement. It's not a room-shaker for huge areas, but it added in the bottom octave decently well for what it is. It never blew out or made funny noises in that time.
I set it up in a friend's home theatre system, and while there it stopped working and made some buzzing noises. I took it home, and now it works fine. It may have been a problem with their system.
Summary: Loud, dependable bass in my experience. A bit boomy and muddy though--it's a loud home theatre sub, not a precise hi-fi subwoofer. Plenty of people have experienced failures according to what I've read, but if you see one that still works at this point and appears to be in good shape, it might be a safer bet than it seems from its reviews. Possibly.