Home > Consumer Reviews > Infinity Powered 12IN Subwoofer 400 Watt

I purchased this subwoofer in 2007, and it died a year later, nearly to the day. I blame myself, really - when I was thinking about buying it, I read reviews, just about all of which said that it had excellent sound. That was true. What I didn't read at the time was all the complaints. Turns out that the PS12 and PS10 amplifier modules are notorious for failing around a year after first turn-on. In my case, I pulled the screws and yanked the amplifier module. Soot is everywhere. I honestly can't see exactly what failed, though it looks like an area under one of the inductors was involved in a flashover of some sort. In fact, about a one-square-inch chunk of circuit board is actually eaten away from this failure. Now, I'm handy with a soldering iron, but this is clearly unfixable, since a large area of the surface traces are destroyed. At least they had the sense to install an internal fuse - without that, this failure might have burned down my house. $300 for one year of use and the potential for a life-changing fire; you do the math. Anyway, I just bought a Cadence CSX-12 to replace this dog. Do your research, not just for audiophile reviews, but also for complaints!

built solid and tough. packs enough power to get the house shaking and wake the neighbors. very low, tight and undistorted bass. i paid 288 for this baby and i don't know how you can beat it for that price?

I recently heard a performance of Saint-Saens's Organ Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, which features a 9000-pipe Ruffatti organ. The very low organ notes are an essential part of the music. When I got home, my recorded version just did not satisfy anymore. I suspected my old subwoofer (Yamaha SW215) was not quite up to the job. It never really seemed to add a lot of range to my main (Bose) speakers (though it gave more control over the bass response) and I thought I needed something that moves more air. The Infinity does the trick. It is considerably larger, which caused me some problems positioning it in the room appropriately, but I guess that comes with the extended bass response. I am also discovering some richness in the bass in movies and other music that I did not miss previously, but enjoy now. Nothing against the Yamaha, which I used happily for two years, but I guess size does matter in some things.

I've auditioned the Energy ESW-V10, Polk Audio PSW12, Velodyne "###" , Paradigm "###", and Klipsch KSW12 subwoofers a few years ago. Energy was the best of all and wanted to buy the Energy ESW-V10 to replace my old Dahlquist PDQ-XII, but I accidently bought the Infinity PS212 for the heck of it even without audition it (what an idiot). After listening to it for couple days, I give it 5 star for now, and I'll wait for a few more months after break in period, then I may change the rating again.
Pro
1) Heavy and solid built
2) Tight bass, more power than what I needed. The whole house was shaking when I crank up my Marantz ZR6001 to db -6. Its bass match up with my Energy Connoisour C-5 very well.
3) nice looking design
4) One of the the best user manual with short and clear explaining how to set it up. I've been using powered subwoofer for a while and didn't know that I made a minor wrong connection to my old subwoofer until I see the Infinity PS212 instruction. All of the other electronic manufacturers should learn from this.
5) Respond to the music and movie sountrac (Lord of the Ring - The return of the King) very well, way much better than my old Dahlquist PDQ-XII.

Cons: Well not yet, but I hate to see it when it says "MADE IN CHINA" :( . Isn't there anything made in America nowaday?? besides the newspaper? :)

One thing I want to add that setting the Subwoofer is one of the most difficult task ever. There are many different ideas of how to set up the LFE and volumn on the internet and you won't ever find the same answer. For me, I set my receiver LFE at 80Hz, SW level at -5db on the receiver, and my subwoofer volumn right in the middle, and LFE at 80Hz. I found out that this is the best for my system.

So far, I'm not regretting buying this Infinity ( I did in the past for the Infinity PS8 - piece of junk), but I still want to buy the Energy ESW-V10. If I have a chance to choose again, I would buy the Energy ESW-V10 in a heart beat even it costs a few hundred bucks more.

Update: Cons - Annoying thumping noise during speech, I still study to see what is going on. I removed 1 star because of that.

I love this subwoofer. It is worth every penny. First night I tried it out with Terminator 2 and created an earthquake in my house. Things literally shook in my house with the explosions. I think of this as a higher end subwoofer. Probably could by one comparable in a store for twice as much. The bass from this thing makes movies much more realistic, very intense. And I only have it turned up half way!. I replaced a sony 10" 100W sub with this one, that one would distort at any big sounds in movies, whereas this one just reproduces the sounds and doesn't bottom out. It is incredible.