JBL P1224

Since receiving this sub from Sonic 6 months ago, I've been beating it within an inch of its life, and it's a tank by all means. It hits very hard and digs way down low. We're talking 20 hz low. I played a 20 hz test tone, and I thought my trunk lid was going to give. Seriously, this single 12 inch sub makes my wipers bounce on the windshield. I'm guessing it's hitting every bit of 138 dbs. Not bad from a single 12 in a super low tuned box. I'm a SQ guy, but there's no way to avoid praising the output of this thing. I feel silly bragging about my trunk lid violently trying to give, but I digress. This sub also makes bass a plenty at lower volumes for lower listening levels. I'm impressed.

I have a Boston Acoustics GTA-1000m (also from Sonic) pushing it with around 750 watts RMS by my calculations, as the coils wired in parallel test at 2.5 ohms, not 2 ohms. Definitely take that into consideration when setting gains with a digital multimeter.

It's in a 2.5 net cubic feet box tuned to 25 hz with lots of port area for SQ, output, and super low bass extention. I have since concluded that I built my box too big by about a .25 - .5 cubic feet margin, as it bottoms out a little above tuning before the port begins to decrease the excursion. I would blame that on the fact that it's overpowered, but I know boxes, and that's more of a factor in this problem than the power, as it takes the power quite well for a good while.

However, with that said, I've bottomed it out and had the coils stinky more times than I can count, and it continually delivers up the SQ and the immense output. And, speaking of its SQ, it's hands down the best SQ from any subwoofer that I've experienced personally. I want to hear all the little nuisances with drums and bass guitar, and I get it for sure. No mud, just powerful reproduction of the recording. And, of course, throw in some Bass Mekanik or rap or whatever, and you have flexing car panels all over.

The only downside of this sub is the big, funky basket. It measures 14 5/8 inches across, yet has a typical cutout measurement for a 12. So, good luck finding a prefab for this thing. And, it sticks out of the box by 2 inches. The cone is exceptionally awesome looking Kevlar impregnated paper though. That may be why it's so efficient at lower power levels.

Nonetheless, this product ended my incessant search for an all around excellent performing subwoofer. Get one (or 2!!) while they can be had. JBL out did themselves with this one.

I've used a lot of subs in the past, high dollar ones and cheap ones alike. This is solid quality right here. Pictures do not do it justice, it is BIG and the motor assembly is HEAVY. It's larger and heavier than my old RE SX12's which were twice the price. It will fit most standard 12" cutouts (11 1/16 inch is not that uncommon), but make sure your box can accommodate its 14 5/8" frame, many prefab boxes won't.

I tossed two of these monsters into two custom 2.5cf ported enclosures tuned to 35hz. Because they are so big, the outer ring blocks a small portion of the port, so I have no idea what that's doing to the tuning. Nonetheless it is loud and the clarity rivals some of the best I've heard. Amp is a HiFonics BXI1608D, rated at 1600 x 1 @ 1 ohm, so conceivably each woofer should be getting 800W RMS each.

I'd stick with JBL's recommended enclosures, I get the feeling mine are a little too large, and that these may have more potential in a smaller box. They are plenty loud enough that I'm probably going to ditch the ported boxes and go sealed to free up some trunk space and get a flatter frequency response.

Buy these, they are practically being given away at this price.

This is a very clean, hard hittin, super sounding sub. I would definitely recommend anyone to buy this over any other sub out there, in this price range. Thumbs wayyyyyyy up!!!!!!

I got this sub because I once upon a time had a much older model that I liked. This definitely doesn't disappoint either. It's very solid and quality constructed. Much heavier than I thought it would be too. I put this in a 1.75 cubic foot ported box according to JBL's recommendations and paired it with the JBL MS-A5001 amp and it's loud, clean, and accurate. I threw everything I had at it from metal to hip hop and it all sounded great. It's no dub 7, but it is a fraction of the price including the materials cost to custom build the box. One additional note to the durability of this sub. The box this came in looked like Ace Ventura delivered it. As badly damaged as the box was I was almost sure it was broken, but it definitely wasn't.

Big heavy monsters.. they love to hit low low low.. custom box needed.. most prefab boxes wont work with these.. you need a super strong box as well or you will rip cheap boxes apart.. they are optimized in sealed boxes.. but if you listen to mixture of rock and pop.. run ported.. tuned to 34hz to factory TS parm's for box size.. been running 2 of these for 3 years.. over powered and still banging like new.. I can't seem to blow them..