Shopping: Real Estate |  Costumes  |  Guitars
This Issue Archived Articles Blog About Us Contact Us
SEARCH


Review: Jaycar's All-In-One Subwoofer/Amp

A refreshingly different approach

by Julian Edgar

Click on pics to view larger images

At a glance...

  • Compact, unusual shape
  • Subwoofer and amp combination
  • Low cost
  • Poor controls and instructions
  • Good results
Email a friend     Print article

The smaller the car, the harder it is to find a suitable subwoofer. That is, if you don’t want to lose a lot of cargo space and add a lot of weight. In small sedans you can use a free-air sub, where the driver is mounted through the rear shelf, but in hatchbacks that’s much harder to do. In those cases most people elect for a small sealed box with an 8 or 10 inch driver in it, but the finished design still often ends up an awkward package to fit in the back. If you want to transport a suitcase or anything large and square, the box will have to come out.

Click for larger image

And it’s just this sort of car that suits Jaycar’s new subwoofer – cat no CS2275. It runs an 8-inch driver, 75 watt amplifier and all comes in a package just 110mm thick! The design appears to use a wave-guide style folded port, which allows the box to be tuned to a much lower resonance than a straight, shorter port. A single driver is mounted in the enclosure (although the cardboard box the unit comes in claims that “dual woofers” are fitted!) and directly behind the driver, built into the enclosure, is a modest amplifier. The heatsink for the amp is the rear panel, which is aluminium but doesn’t use any cooling fins. Amplifier power is claimed as 75W RMS, or 150W music power, or 380W - depending on whether you read the instructions, the box or the amp control panel!

Click for larger image

On the control panel you’ll find level, phase and crossover controls. There are also LEDs for power, ‘fail’ and gain (volume). A wiring harness is supplied that includes a thick, fused positive supply, short ground wire, remote switch-on wire and two RCA inputs. A separate speaker level adaptor is also supplied.

MDF is used for the box walls and the dimensions are 600(L) x 380 (W) x 110 (H) mm. We measured the mass at 10.2kg – very light for an amp plus sub – and cost is just AUD$200.

The Unit

On the bench using a frequency generator and with both crossover controls turned up to their highest frequencies (more on these controls in a moment), the amplified sub had decent response down to 40Hz. That’s not very low for a sub but is fine for an enclosure with such a small volume.

Click for larger image

The internals of the amplifier look pretty cheap – the way the thermal overload thermistor is connected to the unimpressive heatsink is nothing wonderful and care in construction doesn’t look overwhelming.

Installation

Click for larger image

We mounted the unit in a Honda Insight, where it could sit in the small cavity directly above the spare wheel. The storage space above the sub was therefore made shallower by 110mm, but the major load space was left unchanged.

Installation was straightforward – we shoved the sub enclosure into the space (it’s actually a nice tight push-fit!) and then earthed the two ground wires nearby. Run forward towards the front of the car were the 12V supply, the remote switch-on wire and a double RCA/RCA extension cable that we purchased.

Rather than taking the 12V lead right to the battery, we found a very heavy gauge, permanently-on cable at the under-dash fuse box and used that supply. The remote switch-on lead (blue/white) connected to the same colour output wire of the aftermarket JVC head-unit and the RCA cable connected to the subwoofer OUT cable on the head unit.

Click for larger image

And that was the first problem – there was only one RCA sub OUT on the head unit, and two RCA INs on the sub. But the sub seemed to work fine with just one RCA input connected so we ran it like that.

Next were the settings of the crossover controls. Frankly, these don’t make any sense – even the Jaycar store personnel had no idea. Two pots are provided, one marked 40 – 280Hz and the other 40 – 600Hz. We’re not sure if the controls are meant to be used in series, in parallel or only one is to be used. But since in our case the crossover of the sub output can be set at the head unit, we just turned up both crossover controls and set the crossover frequency with the head unit.

Note: the supplied instructions are terrible - some aspects make no sense at all and others are misleading.

Results

Click for larger image

Even when covered in carpet, the output in the small cabin of the Insight was damned impressive. Go mad with levels and/or volume and the sub could be overloaded but set it up with sense and the increase in bottom-end was excellent. We played around with the phase switch and amp gain level and so tweaked the outcome a little, but from the moment of switch-on there was never any doubt that the bass was phenomenally improved. However, we don’t recommend this unit to someone who really likes to shake the inside of the car to pieces at high SPLs.

But if you’re pushed for space and don’t want to add much weight while still requiring a better bass response than you’ll get from normal sized speakers, this innovative product deserves a long look.

We’re happy with it.

Contact:

www.jaycar.com.au

The subwoofer was purchased for this review.

Did you enjoy this article?

Please consider supporting AutoSpeed with a small contribution. More Info...


Share this Article: 

More of our most popular articles.
Drives like a big engine... but drinks like a little one! How do you achieve that?

Special Features - 23 March, 2010

The Confidence Trick

Beautiful and sophisticated, but was it a technological dead-end?

Special Features - 30 June, 2009

The NS Savannah

Some aspects of fast driving never change...

Special Features - 15 September, 2009

Fast Past

Gorgeous and fast

Special Features - 3 June, 2014

The Auto Union Racing Cars

Want better economy or performance? Leave the factory filter in its place!

DIY Tech Features - 5 August, 2004

Don't Bother Changing the Factory Filter

How tyres really work on the road

Technical Features - 9 August, 2007

Tyres, Grip and All That

Useful in literally hundreds of car modifications

DIY Tech Features - 22 July, 2008

The eLabtronics Voltage Switch, Part 1

Making it easier to work on your car

DIY Tech Features - 12 June, 2012

The Spit

Electronic module that can sound high or low temperature alarms or warnings

DIY Tech Features - 30 June, 2008

The eLabtronics Pulser, Part 2

Looking at the Fiat Group's innovative new variable valve system

Technical Features - 1 December, 2009

MultiAir Technology!

Copyright © 1996-2020 Web Publications Pty Limited. All Rights ReservedRSS|Privacy policy|Advertise
Consulting Services: Magento Experts|Technologies : Magento Extensions|ReadytoShip