Pioneer S-21W Active Subwoofer with Downfire Bass Reflex Cabinet (100 Watt RMS, for home cinema speaker configurations 2.1 to 5.1, subwoofer cable 3m included) Black

Bought this subwoofer to compliment my new Pioneer receiver, which I bought at the same time (a VSX-830). I previously had a Onkyo receiver for eight years but without a sub. I use 4x Mordaunt Short (2x medium sized MS20i and 2x small MS10i) speakers in a stereo config. This sub has definitely improved the overall sound of my setup.It is a large black box, with two inputs on the back (AC and cable for connecting to amp), a volume knob, an on/off switch and an auto-standby more that appears to work fine. Some people have complained about the light on the front but it hasn't bothered me as it is buried behind my whole setup, but it is very bright. Some insulation tape would mask it easy enough though. The sub worked right away and needed no real work, the amp detecting it and after changing the cut-off to what I wanted it was ready to use.My old large speakers produced decent bass, but this is more refined, accurate and less "rattling" more "booming". Kick drums sound sharp and aggressive from bands like Slayer, and well mixed tracks by a band like Muse sound positively mesmerising with the added bass. The big sounds of orchestral soundtracks like LotR and Star Wars are huge and powerful and on Xbox every gunfight punches hard, without the harshness the speakers gave with huge reverberant explosions and sci-fi rumbles of passing machines sounding well rounded and accurate. The speakers themselves sound better when using this, their highs coming through sharper than before which is a plus, I'm assuming the separation means the speakers are not working so hard below 100Hz.Overall I would recommend this. I'm no audiophile and I don't see this as anything less than perfect for someone on a moderate budget looking for a decent but affordable sub to boost their system or for their first setup.

Money well spent. It's doing great!Pros:1. Solid. It's heavy enough to keep itself on the ground without wobbling around, even on laminate.2. Surprisingly punchy, shakes the room with the right film!3. Nice rounded low end, no 'mud' that often plagues cheap subwoofers. I did however crank the LPF down to 90Hz on my receiver. Set at the default 120Hz I found the sub a little too boxy for my liking.Cons:1. There's audible 'hum' from the amplifier that lasts for roughly a second after a large bass impact, not noticeable mid action scene but stands out with quieter scenes.2. The sub will auto-standby even if it's receiving a decent amount of level. The auto-standby feature is very handy but I wish it had a higher threshold. Films with less low end and effects will send the sub to sleep at a normal listening level for my average sized living room.3. I personally dislike the cabinet port on the front. In my opinion it cheapens the design. It's also a very desirable destination for small toys in the eyes of a toddler. There's no grill on the port internally so small toys will fall into the enclosure, hit the speaker and rattle around the box until you unscrew the amplifier module and fish them out.Overall:A great sounding bit of kit if you're on a budget. Filter out the mud by cranking the crossover point to around 90Hz on your receiver output if you've got beefy enough front speakers and you're away to go.FINAL NOTE - The LED on the front is unnecessarily dazzling. A bit of black electrical tape sorts that no problem.

An excellent product for an excellent price. I have an old 4.0 surround sound amplifier by Technics, the old pro logic version 1. This is the bridge between the old stereo amps and the new home cinema amplifiers - the 5.1 / 7.1.In many ways I prefer the old Dolby Pro Logic Surround mk1, the two rear speakers share just a mono depth/echo channel (so it doesn't matter so much if you are sitting by one rear speaker more than the other, you get more freedom to sit where you want,) and you can (as I have done) hook up a graphic equalizer (it has the old tape recorder monitor button).Mine is one of the later ones (mid to late nineties) and it marks out its territory by having a new fangled subwoofer-out RCA output. To do this it has to 'make up' a Low Frequency Effects channel, not like a newer 5.1 / 7.1 where the bass is cleverly diverted and solely goes through the subwoofer, in my amplifier the lower frequencies are 'copied' and 'duplicated' through the RCA-out socket at the back of the amp.When you tell the amplifier to go from stereo to Pro Logic Surround, it sounds great... but occasionally the bass 'disappears'. What I needed was a 'defining and underlining' of the bass (because bass is already coming out of the 'normal' speakers), to ever-so-carefully make the bass stronger and more audible (this is a problem on certain low frequencies because the stereo signal is basically split up across 4 channels - front, left, right, rear - in an analogue way).I have tried other subwoofers and they did not have the necessary 'bottle' for this old-fashioned job. This does... it underlines and makes more definite the bass guitar, cello, sonic booms, explosions - as occasionally they would 'disappear' into the general track and be generally indistinguishable from the main chord pattern etc... this subwoofer does the trick - it brings the bass out of the woods and into the living room.And it's cheap!