Sony XS-L1230 Subwoofers

Sony XS-L1230 Subwoofers 

DESCRIPTION

12" COMPONENT SUBWOOFER

USER REVIEWS

Showing 11-20 of 28  
[Mar 28, 2001]
Simon

Strength:

Good looks, price

Weakness:

power handling, sucks heaps of current!

Okies, to start with I had one of these in a ported box, it sounded ok! I am running this with an Xplod XM754HX 75x4watt amp!! When bridged it is pumping in around 400watts to the XSL1230. Now I have a double sealed box and have a JVC strobo woofer with the sony. They sound unreal together. They shake the crap out of my car and the car next to me! For example, I was about 25m from my dads shed and they could feel the sound from there!! You buy, try it out and you'll be

Similar Products Used:

Clarion, JVC Strobo, compares to them quite nicely!

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
4
[Mar 21, 2001]
tyson

Strength:

none

Weakness:

they barely push enough bass to make the car next to me hear it and i have them in a convertible i would trade these two subs for one sh*tty sub besides it would probably push better

well i think i just about sum my review up in weaknesses dont push dont pound dont thump all they do is a very poor a** boom

Similar Products Used:

jensen 12's, mitsubishi 15's competitions

OVERALL
RATING
1
VALUE
RATING
1
[Mar 21, 2001]
Sixpack

Strength:

rubber surround, nice look, rigid cone design, beefy magnet.

Weakness:

none...very well built unit at a great price. Maybe could use a little larger power handling capabilities.

I purchased these subs after auditioning them while connected to a Sony XM1002HX amplifier (see amplifier review) hooked up parallel. These subs performed extremely well with very good low response. The amplifier is a perfect powerplant for these subs as it produces approximately 140 Watts RMS/channel when bridged. It is this power range that these subs are in their sweet spot. These subs are an excellent choice for the average music listener that wants some "punch" to their music. They are very efficient and run very well with even lesser powered amplifiers. I would recommend these subs to anyone looking for a lot of sound for reasonable dollars. Most people aren't looking to enter sound competitions, just good sound and value and you can't go wrong by purchasing the above mentioned combination. I've spent 2-3 times more money on amplifiers and subwoofers and have found no advantage to it. Higher powered, more expensive subs require higher powered, more expensive amplifiers to run them - been there, done that. I've been using this setup for just about 2 solid years with various types of music and have never been more pleased with the amount of money I spent and the sound quality that I'm getting. Before you buy anything else, assess your needs and make an informed decision. Forget about all of the hype you hear about other brands and give these a listen. You will be surprised about how little you have to spend to still get very good quality sound. More expensive does not mean better. I would highly recommend these subs to anyone looking for some good base with out breaking the bank. If your looking to enter sound competitions, look elsewhere. This was not their intended marketplace.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer, JL, Rockford Fosgate,

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Mar 14, 2001]
Jesse Althouse

Strength:

Phat bass i have it hooked up toa 600 watt v12 amp. i have to tighten the hatch on my mustang once a week so it doesn't blow off.

Weakness:

sucks alot of power

Sweet sub for low money

Similar Products Used:

Fosgate DVCs

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Feb 28, 2001]
Adam

Strength:

Look kinda cool

Weakness:

Extreamly poor sound quality
Poor spl
Very poor low bass response

These are one of the worst subs I have seen in a LONG time. I do installs for people all the time, and after seeing a lot of setups with Xplodes I was not impressed with them. Then my little sister's boyfriend came up to me all happy because he got some new subs for his car. I shuddered when I seen the boxes.

We tried everything, and I mean EVERYTHING to get good sound out of these subs. They just suck. We tried all sorts of different sealed boxes, we tried different amps, we tried using just one sub with a lot of power, nothing worked. They would get kinda loud, but were still very sad for a pair of 12's. They sounded horrible too, the low bass was NOT there, and that is the whole point to getting a sub. Eventually we just put his single Pioneer Diamondplate back in, because it was nearly as loud, and sounded 10 times better. Diamondplates aren't even that great of a sub, and the Sony's are CRAP next to it.

Stay away from these, there are so many better speakers for the money out there. A pair of JL Audio W-0's will completly wipe the floor with the Xplodes. My frind has a pair getting 150rms each, and they sound SO much better than the other kids Sonys that are getting 200rms each. I bet the W-0's are hitting about 6-7db louder, which is a HUGE difference.

Just don't buy these. They are made to catch your eye and then your wallet. They are made for uneducated buyers that don't know what a good sub is. They are probably the worst sub I have seen lately from a large company being sold.

Similar Products Used:

JL Audio W-0: kill the Sonys
MTX 5000: kill the Sonys
MTX 6000: kill the Sonys
PPI Pro's: slaughter, annialate, and spit out the Sonys
Pioneer Diamondplate: kill the Sonys
Memphis Studios: kill the Sonys
Memphis Powerbass: kill the Sonys
Infinity Perfects: hahahahahaha, Sonys killed once more

OVERALL
RATING
1
VALUE
RATING
1
[Feb 24, 2001]
Billy Golden

Strength:

Totally Rocks. Running this sub in mono bridged mode pushed by an MTX Thunder 102. Sounds REALLY GOOD>

Weakness:

None so far.

Very Very Pleased would recommend to anyone.

Similar Products Used:

None

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Feb 26, 2001]
Deuce Bigalow
Model Reviewed: 2000

Strength:

They look nice.... Thats it

Weakness:

These subs suck.. They can't even handle 300 watts without being blown

These subs suck... I have two Phoenix Gold XS2300 amps (300 watts bridged)hooked up to a 12" each. They worked for about 5 hours then they blew... And yes it was wired correctly and the gain was just below half on my amp.

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood KFC-2503 The kenwoods worked good and sounded nice

OVERALL
RATING
1
VALUE
RATING
2
[Dec 27, 2000]
mike finch

Strength:

good, solid, deep, hard hitting bass. enough said. But I might also add that these do very well in small sealed boxes (mine seems to be about .75-1.0 cubic ft per sub.) I've got two in the back of my mitsu. 3K GT running on a Rockford punch 500, and I am well pleased; especially for the price ($150-pair).

Weakness:

none yet. Sony seemed to really put it all togather, they made a really good sub. all that seems to be lacking is the attractiveness of the rear basket -if you had plexi and wanted to see the whole sub in box.

I recomend this sub to anyone who's looking for a decent sub that makes good bass well worth the $. If good, solid bass is all your looking for buy these. Anything else would be a waste of money. These subs don't need a whole lot of power to perform quite impressivley so it wont cost big bucks to make them sound good.

Similar Products Used:

I've used american pro bass machine (not bad for a cheap sub), crunch (krap), JL audio, and pioneer premier which had me hooked like a feem.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Dec 29, 2000]
Jonathan

Strength:

Hard Hitting Bass, 2 12's are loud enough for me. I have a 600 watt Jensen amp hooked up to my 2 12's and it sounds great! I've heard my subs playing from the outside of my car and I love what I hear. I'm looking for a new box to put them in and I can't wait to hear what they sound like in that.

Weakness:

My subs are in the trunk of my CONVERTIBLE. I used to have some cheap ass 125 watt Sony amp hooked up to the subs and it was not making any bass hit.
I then got my brother's 600 watt Jensen amp fixed and hooked up and boy did that sh*t make a difference. I've heard that the ES model does not sound that great but I've never heard them before. My models are the competition speakers.

If you want to purchase some Sony Explods go for the competition models and get the 12's with a good amp to push them.

Similar Products Used:

1st pair of subwoofers I've used, don't plan on getting rid of them anytime soon. My friend told me that Audio Itch told him if you hook up an odd # of Sony Explod subs (1,3,5,7,etc.) in your vehicle, they tend to blow a lot eaiser than with an even # of Sony Subs (2,4,6,etc.). I don't know if that is true or not but that is why he hooked up 3 JL Audio 12W3's instead of Sony.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Dec 06, 2000]
Jason Boudreau

Strength:

good solid bass

Weakness:

None

These speakers hit pretty hard, even though I had them in a truck speaker box and a crappy amp hooked up to it, and they are a great deal for the price I paid for the 2. I would recommend these speakers to somebody on a low budget that would like some good bass (just put them in the right type of box).

Similar Products Used:

None

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
4
Showing 11-20 of 28  

(C) Copyright 1996-2018. All Rights Reserved.

carreview.com and the ConsumerReview Network are business units of Invenda Corporation

Other Web Sites in the ConsumerReview Network:

mtbr.com | roadbikereview.com | carreview.com | photographyreview.com | audioreview.com