Are active subwoofers any good?????

gdjohny

Crazy Mechanical Engineer
Dec 25, 2010
815
0
Kettering
Fitted a JBL one in my mates golf mk4
Sounds great
There is no big difference between active and passive sub. One have amp built in other uses external amp.
What I have noticed is that active sub have amp and speaker matched perfectly to give you perfect sound
 

andycupra

status subject to change
they are fine,
but as always plan the install from where you are now to where you want to end up, not bit by bit.

as hinted at above, an example would be you want to end up with a standard upfront/ boot sub set up where a 4 channel is a good way to go, 1 channel for each side up front and bridge the 3/4 channels for the sub. Whereas active sub means you may end up buying 2 amps.
However some are very well priced and good bits of kit so it really depends on what you want out of the system once complete.
 

leon cupra r

Back in an LCR!
Nov 10, 2009
902
0
Barnsley
From the ones I have seen in the past the amps are usually underpowered - they will quote some ridiculous figure of 1000 watts for sub and amp but this is nearly always a peak (useless) figure. RMS values are much more usable and you will normally find the amp is notably lower than the sub - it's cheap to make a speaker that will handle big watts but amps are the expensive part and this is where manufacturers will save on costs....
 

goldie74

goldie74
Jan 1, 2013
608
0
Oxfordshire
Ive gone with a sub and seperate amp after reading what you guys reckon,i did wonder if the amps fitted were any good with the active type,Ive gone for a 12 inch pioneer sub (300 watts rms) and a kenwwod 2 channel amp to run it (also 300 watts rms),just waiting for the sub enclosure to arrive so i can install it,hopefully they will be a suitable match,Cheers guys.
 
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dgjdrummer

Part-timer
Nov 5, 2011
1,310
4
Wrexham, N. Wales
Sounds like a good pairing, does it come with low pass filter or an kind of EQ-ing? Or do you have a head unit that has a dedicated Sub channel on it? Play around with these settings a little until you get a decent punch without any distortion.
 
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