Dayton Audio SUB-1200 12" Powered Subwoofer

Updated review: I wish I would have puchased two Dayton Audio SUB-1200 Subwoofers 4 years ago, instead of only one. These subwoofers truly deliver low frequencies which you can actually feel & hear, unlike the bass shakers which only vibrate to the bass frequencies & produce absolutely no sound. You can verify this youself with Parts Express Technical support. Additionally, this is simply plug & play w/o having to purchase an additional amplifiers as required with the bass shakers. However, you'll definitely need to use an SPL Meter to calibrate your subwoofers separately. Remember to disconnect your other subwoofers, before calibrating! I recommend using the Digital SPL meter by Radio Shack, which makes calibrating very easy. Use C weighting with slow response. I recommend positioning the back of the subwoofer exactly 7 inches away from the wall corner & exactly 4 inches away from the side corner of wall for maximum bass response. (or vice versa depending upon space restrictions) I positioned the subwoofer in an used closet behind my sofa with the door shut. This is considered a NO NO, but using an SPL meter will definitely be required to eliminate closet door vibrations or the unpleasant boomy sound. I recommend postioning the front of the subwoofer 4 inches away from the back of your sofa, if your sofa is not placed near a corner wall, if you want to experience the bass shaker effect. Note: Postion the SPL meter by the subwoofer as if you were sitting in front of it about 4 inches away & at ear level position. If you use a Hometheater PC you may need to adjust the equalizer settings, if you use to maximize the effects &/or to reduce the effects. If you patiently do everything I suggest, you should be thrilled with the results you get. The sound & bass shaker effect appears very natural & realistic. Please let me know if this review helped you in any way by clicking the yes button. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Original Review "The Dayton Audio SUB-1200 Subwoofer Delivers Deep Quality Bass 25-30Hz... You'll Feel & Appreciate (But Not Your Neighbors) Are you kidding me? A subwoofer for only $129 with free shipping claiming 25Hz frequencies? Try comparing against HSU, SVS, Klipsch, Velodyne, BIC & Polks 12 inch Subwoofers. As you may know you'll pay 3x & more for a subwoofer which can truly produce 30Hz & lower bass frequencies. True this subwoofer won't reach beyond 25Hz, but the audio frequencies of almost all music & movies typically don't extend beyond 30Hz with a few extending as low as 25Hz. The frequency output is predetermined. 30-25Hz will satisfy virtually everybody- even serious audiophiles. Which is why this subwoofer is a true an underrated little-known gem. Note: I highly recommend ordering this subwoofer as it truly does delivers deep bass 30-25Hz for an absolute bargain. This is rare to find such a hidden value like this especially if you appreciate high end audio. I really you won’t be disappointed. Continue reading if you want to discover tips which may appreciate trying. Here’s My Story: I'm thinking, this must be total garbage or it's completely constructed out of cheap low grade materials. (However, my assumption was wrong) Do you have any idea how much a quality subwoofer costs which can really deliver 30Hz & under low frequencies? These are the frequencies you need & want for surround sound effects & for the effects of live music. Do you realize you'll pay on the average $500-$1000 & more for such a subwoofer, which does not include the high cost of shipping? I accidentally discovered this subwoofer after reading another Amazon reviewers positive review with a high end system posted elsewhere. At the time I was just searching & had limited funds, but the review sold me on testing it. So I decided it was worth taking the risk under Amazons return policy. I honestly I felt like an eager kid ordering a pair of X-ray see-thru glasses from a comic book with great expectations. Within 4 days of ordering I received a HUGE heavy box. The shipping alone would cost almost the price of this subwoofer to ship an item this heavy & securely packaged! After unpacking the box sealed within another box. I placed the subwoofer in the front right hand corner of my living room for maximum bass amplication. Note: Don’t use equal distance for best results. For example: Place 6 inches away from front wall & perhaps 9 inches away from side wall with driver aimed toward wall for bass amplification. However, this may or may not work for you depending on your sound acoustics/environment-just test it. Now I turned the crossover frequency dial to the max to allow my receivers crossovers to control the low frequencies. Then I turn the subwoofers phase switch off. Note: Leave on the phase switch, if you have another matching subwoofer placed diagonally across the corner from the other matching subwoofer. For best results for calibrating/fine tuning the frequencies of the subwoofer to match my surround speakers. I used a Radio Shack SPL meter (sound pressure level meter). Use either analog or digital. I have both but prefer the digital. Don't be cheap & rely on your ears, audiophile or not. Today’s receivers have this already, but I don’t trust the accuracy. I recommend using the Radio Shack SPL meter & no other substitutes. From experience other SPL meters are simply not accurate. Expect to pay from $15 to $50 used & $50 new. You won't be disappointed. The Radio Shack SPL meter will help unlock the full potential of any subwoofer like The Dayton Audio SUB-1200 Subwoofer. For example, instead of hearing the music I can literally feel the music even at low volume levels. It's like experiencing the sound impact of an IMAX theater. It's hard to believe or even explain. Definitely test your favorite music & movies as a demo. The Dayton Audio SUB-1200 Subwoofer will compel you to feel like you’re actually experiencing a movie like "Saving Private Ryan". It almost literally feels like you're there experiencing the action. Whatever you do, absolutely use the Radio Shack SPL meter along with an audio calibration disc for aligning matching the frequencies of your subwoofer & satellite speakers to get true 3-D surround sound. Or use the SPL meter within your receiver’s remote control. Furthermore you'll want to use an audio calibration disc from either Avia or Video Essential together with the SPL meter to match the loudness of your subwoofer with your front left speaker for seamless audio. Actually I recommend you get the "Disney WOW: World of Wonder [Blu-ray or DVD sold on Amazon with rave reviews. Save your money & just order the 1 disc version as you don't need the 2nd disc. You can download WOW Technical Manual from disney.com, which you should read before receiving your disc. [...]Thanks!

Well this WAS offered at an incredible price. I don't know if it still is. this is a great subwoofer! Its rather large, and it has a great sound as a result. It has clear lows and its a powerful unit. I keep the gain knob down on this one. Especially for late night movie watching. I found this subwoofer in a rather round a bout fashion. I have a nice Yamaha 7.2 Surround Sound system for my 47 inch HDTV, and up till now I have been buying only Klipsch Speakers for it.Ffor this is my "main" system. Of course I can'tt afford the real high end Klipsch line, so I have bought the more affordable Icon and Synergy speakers. I never bought my subwoofer as I kept watching the Klipsch brand subs and they were just too expensive for me.. However I saw one Klipsch subwoofer on "sale" but while reading through the reviews, this one reviewer commented that unless you pay top dollar for a Klpisch Sub, this Dayton Audio Sub-1200 was impressively less costly and had an incredible sound that he matched up with his other Klipsch speakers. He highly recommended the Dayton 12 inch and said the Dayton 10 inch was not really good. So I clicked over to the Dayton 12 inch, and saw there was like mostly 5 star reviews. A couple of four stars and nothing lower. So I bought this. It came in very fast, and really well packed. It has this very nice almost furniture finish to it. It has a very nice look to it. It is very easy to use, as I just plugged it into my subwoofer out port on my Surround Stereo, and it started working right away. It does have other types of possible connections, but I am not a tech specialist when it comes to super advanced wiring of speakers through Subs, etc.. This Subwoofer did need a "break in" period. Most of the speakers I buy need a good 100-200 hour break in period. Especially the Klipschs. At first I didn't hear the bass clearly but after using it for about a week, it started breaking in, and rapidly became incredibly clear and crisp and very strong! It has a regular front end speaker in it, and a "down-firing" open port.. There was a little confusion as to whether the speaker itself was aimed downward. I know it sounds silly, but I just wanted to clarify that the speaker is not "aimed" downward. This is a great Subwoofer that will really be a great addition to anybody's Surrround System. When its all on and its during the day or early evening when I won't be torturing my neighbors, I turn the volume up, pop in a Blue Ray disc, and I swear! It sounds like I am in a movie theater. This Sub really makes the whole system sound very "Real." I highly recommend it... Now that I have it, I cannot even imagine not using it.

The Dayton Sub1200 is an excellent super budget subwoofer for HT! I ended up ordering it thru Amazon because there was a 10% coupon which essentially got the tax free and then some. Also the shipping was faster with Amazon. I felt bad not buying direct from parts express and although I had a coupon for both, the fact that my payments are setup and secure thru Amazon was the deciding factor. As for the sub, I’ve had it added to my Samsung Q990C soundbar long enough and put it thru its paces to have a good feel of what this sun can and can’t do. First off, this sun WILL hit 24hz in room and with some authority but under 20hz even with in room response, it just doesn’t cut it. I researched for months and do regret not saving up for the new OSD FS12 which plays down to 18hz and lower or even better the RSL Speedwoofer 10S II which plays down to 22hz anechoic, both of which are about $400 or less with free shipping, I wasn’t sure if what I wanted to do was even going to work. I figured out that you can splice into the speaker wires inside the Q990C soundbar subwoofer to get a high level signal out to a powered sub with hi level inputs!! This actually works very well! Much better than the guy on YouTube that just cut open some RCA cables and spliced into the speaker wire inside the q990C sun and connected it to the low level input on his Klipsch subwoofer. Not knocking his video since he’s the one that confirmed my idea, but I figured out that you can add any sub with high-level inputs to any Samsung soundbar subwoofer just by tapping into the soundbar’s sub speaker wire. I then used some Amazon tech flex and heat shrinks to make an interconnect ran out through the port, make sure you secure the cable coming out inside the box and especially inside the port. (If the cable is loose or even just sitting freely inside the port, it will cause all kinds of horrible noises!) then I just made up 15 foot speaker cable with opposing spade connectors and ran that to the high level input on the back of the sub1200. In my pics you’ll notice I made a jumper from right to left inputs, this isn’t necessary and does Not affect resistance, I found I was able to more accurately dial in the gain by doing this. Lastly, I strongly recommend the Dayton 12” sub1200 because where the Dayton 12” starts to come alive is when the Samsung sub starts to die off! It took some time to find the sweet spot on the crossover to do this, but once it was dialed in, and having both subs at the front of my room next to the soundbar, the bass sounded astronomically better!! The whole system sounds better now and with the extra kick of the Dayton 12”, plus having 2 subs instead of one, the whole room fills up with bass! The downside… I dunno if it’s the driver or the amp (I think amp, but it did “bottom out” on me a few times playing certain low frequencies or certain soundtracks. For example, the very beginning of Cloverfield, has a heavy super bass note that gets louder and louder, and at one point the speaker just popped! Like it was about to blow or something. Of course, nothing was damaged but I did end up turning the gain down a bit after that. Plus, with the soundbar controls, any changes you make to the q990C, bass, sub level, ai sound etc, Carrie’s over to the Sub1200 because it gets its signal from the factory 8” sub. My only other “thing of note” is, the box itself is pretty well built, however the “knock test” on top of the box isn’t great. I wish they had added some extra bracing around the top and other areas. After warranty is up, I’m prob gonna open it up and glue in some 45s or maybe just a couple braces across the top and sides. I did buy some polyfill to staple to the insides but after some research, It seems I need to buy some of that noise cancelling material kinda like “No rez” from GR or parts express. One free mod I did do however, is I had some old hardwood closet shelving from a previous house, I sprayed that with some black truck undercoating paint I had laying around and cut it to fit under Meath the Sub1200 to lift it off the carpet. This cut down on the nominees of the subwoofer big time from it just sitting on the carpet (my room is above the garage, so it would just resonate everywhere). Next I’d like to get some isolation feet for the sub1200. And eventually I may add a 3rd sub, but the next one will have to be at least an OSD FS15” $699 plays sub 14hz or the RSL Speedwoofer 12S $749 sub 16hz, or maybe even an HSU VTF-3 MK5 15” 999.00 for much more SPL and to finally get some sun 20hz performance. Btw. The Paradigm V12 is on sale for $584! Plays down to 18hz DIN but more importantly, it has Anthem Room Correction ARC, which would be awesome to have to better dial in your subs. *all subs above have high level inputs so you don’t have to use a Hi-low converter! Thank you Dayton Audio! Highly recommend for anyone with super budget in mind but wants more bass than any soundbar sub will give you!!

I just got this a few days ago as another piece of upgrading my home theater. I graduated from a 165 LB 35" RCA Tube television to a new 50" LED model. I had a basic surround system of KLH vintage that provided "acceptable" sound but knew it was far inferior to what the new television was capable of. I had routed the sound from the tv to my stereo and while it as much better than the stock stereo speakers on the television I knew it could be much better. So after a bit of research and reading an extensive ongoing dialogue between Mr. Steven Level and Mr. DB62 I settled on this Dayton for a subwoofer. I also upgraded my other speakers going with the JBL ES20 for my fronts and a Yamaha NS-C210 center. My system is a 5.1 system, but I have no rears as my sitting arrangement does not allow rears and I really don't want to hang some on the wall above my head.......so I guess I am actually running my system as a 3.1. All I can say it......awesome. I have been a fan of JBL since 1972 when I bought a pair of the Century L100's that still serve faithfully to this day after 42 years. The original foam cube grilles have long deteriorated and were replaced with brown grille cloth but all else is original. These ES20's do not disappoint. They are great and the Yamaha center is fantastic. But what really shines is this Dayton sub. I have not evolved to the point of experimenting as Mr. Level did. I simply hooked it up using the LFE input, set the crossover to roughly 100 or so (the JBL ES20's go down to 60hz) and have set my sub gain to roughly 45. The bass is incredible. It is not so loud as to be overpowering, but is definitely something you can hear. But most of all, it is something you can feel. I have a couple of movies I love and have watched repeatedly so I am well versed on how they have been sounding in the past. Using them as a reference point, I could instantly hear and feel the difference. Some have stated the bass was muddy. Mine is crystal clear. It is very precise and gives a clean, solid thump. The difference is so great I instantly felt good about my purchase. Well worth the investment. I can only imagine what it may sound like when it "breaks in" as others have said it has to do. Sure the unit is large.......I have mine sitting at one end of a sofa and have ran a 25' cable to it. I plan to sit a lamp or something on it and let it double as an end table. Yes, it is that large. But it is a very attractive, stylish unit and begs to be displayed, not hidden in a corner. I have also ordered a 35" cable which will allow me to relocate it to another area where it will fit under an end table with room to spare if I so choose. The difference is also readily apparent when listening to music. I currently am listening to a Greatest Western Movie theme song CD that has lots of bass. The difference in sound was recognizable instantly. And all this is with just a simple hookup. I do not have the fancy setup DVD for video and audio (Disney WOW) but have ordered it an expect it this week. In summary........doing nothing but hooking it up has made all the difference in the world. I can only anticipate what it will sound like when I take time to balance everything and maybe go to the Y-splitter Mr. Level spoke of. I highly recommend this sub to anyone who has the need and space available. You will NOT be disappointed. I am not. Thanks also to all those who post freely offering tips and suggestions. It is a community like this that binds us. I appreciate all the comments I read that helped me with my decision.

This is a powerful and great sounding sub. It's been a great addition to my surround sound system. It took a few days getting broken in but now it hits the low notes with beautiful accuracy and adds drama to any movie we watch with surround sound. For the price you can't beat this.

What an amazing sub-woofer! Come on a sub for $109 bucks that can get as low as this can! And hit as hard as this one does! If you are looking for a sub, there should be no doubt about getting this one! I am still completely in awe with this sub and I have owned it now for about 1 month and have watched dozens of movies on it and every time the sub makes a sound it brings a smile to my face! :) Watching Pacific Rim or any Transformer movies and you will see what I mean! I honestly can't express enough on just the sheer value alone on this sub! I originally bought one of these bad boys hooked it up, and LOVED it. I loved it soooo much, I had to buy another and have a 5.2 speaker setup. And I just couldn't be happier! One of these subs is just amazing, hook up two of these and I hope you are friends with your neighbors! Cause if your not they will probably call the cops! Be warned!!! Thankfully I put my theater room in my basement, and my cinder block walls keep in most of the ground shaking base inside my own house!! I don't how else you can describe speakers on an online review? You really can't! You always have to trust your ears and get whatever sounds good to you. And honestly they will not disappoint most people out there! You will hear and FEEL the pure power of these! Also do not let the 120 watt and Dayton name scare you off! More than enough power, and Dayton has been putting out some high quality stuff for decades! Oh and I would like to mention that I have not had any issues with the Auto-On features at all. Both subs seem to work just fine, auto detect fine and shut off just fine after a while. Works great. I read some reviews stating people had problems with those. I have not had any issues...

My setup is a lepai2020a+ amp with two mb42x speakers. I consider myself to be a discerning when it comes to sound quality but not an audiophile. This setup is by far the best sounding audio system I've ever owned and compares to systems I've heard that cost 4x as much. This sub was the perfect addition to these bookshelf speakers. With the cut off turned between 70-100hz it fills in the low end nicely. This sub has enough power to rattle my glasses and you can really "feel" the sound which was obviously not happening with just the little bookshelf speakers. Even with speaker volumes where you would have to almost shout to be heard this sub has plenty of power to keep up in my 1200sqft listening space. Continuing on with my subjective observations. My point of comparison is highschool friends car stereos with 600w dual 10in subs. This sub does not give you the chest compressions like those subs, but I think that it actually sounds better. And you can definitely feel it around the entire house. Unless you're looking for sonic wall kick you in the chest levels of base for your hip hop/ rap music this sub should fit the bill nicely. **update** I noticed that a lot of people had trouble getting the auto on/off feature to work. It has been working flawlessly for me which makes me believe they've fixed the issue. Will update if it stops working. **update** I've had the sub for almost a year and a half. The auto on-off feature still works perfectly, and I'm continuing to be happy with my purchase. A few weeks ago I moved my system and in the process of setting it back up I crossed a wire. A negative from the amp into the positive of the sub. The sub continued to work, but was a lot more quiet than normal. If it's not rattling your dishes, check your wires.

DON'T LET THE PRICE FOOL YOU! This thing is LOUD! At $109, I got more than I expected with this sub. I have it hooked up to a Yamaha RX-V671 7.1- Channel Network AV Receiver using LFE. I set the crossover to the max and used the receiver to set crossover (I think mine is set at 80 or 90hz). Now, a few things to consider. As others have posted, using LFE, it seems the gain needs to be set ~75% or more to get any real sound out of the thing. The good news is, I didn't have any issues with distortion (from what I could tell) at any gain setting. The bad, and the reason for losing a star: Like other users have mentioned, the auto-off/on switch is not 100% functional. Let me repeat, THE AUTO-ON/OFF FEATURE DOES NOT WORK. I've tinkered with it, and cannot get it to work properly. When the switch is set to off, the unit is off and the light is red. When the switch is set to on, the unit is on and the light is green. When you move the switch to auto, it sticks with wherever the switch was LAST (if you went from off to auto, the light is still red and won't turn on when it should. If you went from on to auto, the light is still green and won't turn off when it should). Certainly not shipping it back for repair/replacement, so I'm dealing with it. I leave it on when I plan to use it for the day, and I turn it off when I leave the house for an extended period of time. Oh well.