Alpine8" Amplified Subwoofer (PWE-S8) 120W Compact Powered 8" Car Subwoofer for Under or Behind The Seat

As a 30 something with a car he'd like to keep for a long time, this was the missing piece to my sound system upgrade. I wanted something that I could live with on a daily basis. I wanted an increase in sound quality without blasting music down my block. I always wanted my system to fit in seamlessly with my stock interior. I also wanted something that was easy enough for me to install with no prior knowledge or experience installing car stereo equipment. If that sounds like you, then this is what you are looking for!I have a 2015 Jetta that had the very basic stereo set up with four speakers. I upgraded my head unit to a touch screen Android Auto unit an wanted to get more out of my music. I started by upgrading the door speakers. I have Alpine components in the front, with tweeters mounted in the upper door. The rears are Alpine coaxials. To power them, I had an Alpine powerpack installed that easily fit behind the head unit. Once I had that setup, I really liked the clear sound and mid-bass, but was missing the low end that the powerpack effectively filtered with a high pass filter in order to keep the sound quality clear on the door speakers. So I knew I needed some low end, but I did not want to install another amp and take up space in my trunk with a box. That's when I started looking for powered subwoofers that could fit under my driver's seat.This Alpine powered sub fit snugly but perfectly under my driver's. The install was also very straightforward. I did have to buy some more materials like an amp kit and some shrink wrap and t-taps to make the wire connections, along with an aux cable. After watching some install videos on youtube, I started my install. It took about half an hour, even with a bump in the install when I couldn't get the accessory power to work. I tapped into the 12v in the back and bam, the unit was powering on. I had to tune the low pass to match up with my system, and tune the gain to avoid overpowering the sound system and distortion.This powered sub will not shake your whole car, and if you've been reading up until now you'll be okay with that because it wasn't what you were looking for. If you are looking for that, you won't get very clear sound trying to get too much bump. If you tune it to complement your sound system, you get powerful, clear bass to fill in the -80 range of sound the door speakers won't play. I like having the remote level control to make minor adjustments based on the type of music playing. That allows this sub to work well with anything from punk to hip hop. Hell, it even sounds good with Mexican Banda music. I bought this through an Alpine approved vendor and paid under two hundred bucks. That made it a great value and, pun intended, bang for my buck.

I have been a fan of Alpine car audio for a long time, and currently all the component speakers and my head unit came from Alpine. The Alpine 6x9's I have in the back do provide decent bass in their own right, but I was looking for something a little more well rounded. I listen to lots of hip-hop and EDM, so I was desperately needing an upgrade. I was considering doing a traditional amplifier and subwoofer box when I ran across this. I drive a Honda civic, so I was not in need of anything all that extreme to do the job. I am not in high school anymore, so waking the neighbors down the block was not a priority. I am useless when it comes to wiring, so I had my local Best Buy take care of the install. They had it done in about an hour.The great advantage of this device is its small and compact size, making it possible for you not to have to sacrifice cargo or people space to get rich sound. Even in my little Civic they were able to install the device under the seat, though the Best Buy guys informed me that they had to unscrew and raise the seat first to accomplish this. It's tucked neatly away and giving me maximum space and no wires sticking out anywhere.As to sound quality, unless you are a hardcore bass head I would suspect that you will be highly impressed with this little sub. It provides WAY more boom than I was anticipating given it's small size. Though also bear in mind that we are talking about a Civic here. If you rock a Suburban or some other Large SUV, this might not be enough for you. It comes with a separate gain adjustment knob that I had installed near the front center console for rapid adjustment. That said, if you have an Alpine radio that has built in subwoofer control in the audio settings, you can get much more precise control. I recommend setting the knob to about half way, and then adjusting on the radio itself if you have this setup. After you play around with it for awhile, you will get it exactly how you like it.A problem you will run into with this speaker is that turning the regular bass control down on the radio to give more power to the mids and highs of the component speakers, you will also effect the bass output from the sub slightly. To get around this, and to make sure you have balanced sound levels for lows, mids, and highs, I also had what Alpine calls a power pack installed:http://www.amazon.com/Alpine-KTP-445U-4-channel-Power-Amplifier/dp/B003VVYL46This can be installed directly on the back of your Alpine radio (or most factory radios I am told) and will juice up the the highs and mids from your component speakers without effecting the sub. This was a good investment also.My car audio system sounds flat out amazing now, and sometimes I just get the urge to take a drive so I can jam out. Everyone that rides with me as a passenger is similarly impressed by the range of sound my little Civic is kicking out. I spent well over a grand on everything when you add it all up (head unit, amp, speakers, this device, etc.) but if you are a music aficionado like I am, it's all very well worth it.