Kenwood KSC-SW11 Compact Powered Enclosed Subwoofer for CAR

These are hands down the smallest powered bass boxes in the mass market today, and with a super low price point it was easy to get two. Such small units made finding space for them a snap; most cars will take these under the seat with no modifications. All their wiring attaches via included wiring harness that plugs in at the bass box. I've got them in a small Euro compact from the 80's, so when I carry backseat passengers for more than a half-hour drive, I can unplug and leave the subs at home. Did I just call these subs? They're not. As bass boxes they truly excel - the crossover can be adjusted up to 125 Hz, or as low as 50 Hz they'll still have plenty from a good CD to push out. But these are not competing with a 12" cone in a 40-lb box on a 500-watt amp. If you want to rattle the seals loose on your windshield these will not go there. They supplement your existing system. They also don't filter the low-end signal from the rest of your speakers: if you want to cut your main speakers' low bass, you'll need to either add high-pass filtering at those speakers or, more likely, look for an amp with sub outputs and main-speaker trim controls to do the filtering for you. But as good, economical bass in a good, economical car audio system, these little boxes are superb. I'm using 2 to augment my 1980's head unit, which puts out just 12 watts RMS per channel; with 2 of these hooked up to the speaker-out leads, I get plenty of sound and all the bass I could want. To be fair, one was doing the job fine, but I bought 2 and put 'em both in for just that little bit of overkill. :) Speaking of "modification" I did open the speakers and added 100 square inches of Dynamat Extreme to each box. The base is solid metal - feels like aluminum billet, it's that solid - but the upper is fairly thick but fairly flexible plastic. The plastic's flex helps keep the box from breaking things or cracking itself when jammed hard in a tight spot, so I still like the design. Opening the case was 6 easy screws; the speaker 4 more; reassembly was a snap. Adding the extra 2mm of dynamat to the inside (just the plastic surfaces)helps the sound a little. If you like Dynamat for the speaker enclosures in your car, you'll like it in these bass boxes, and you'll find it's easier to apply. (If you wouldn't bother with dynamat in your car, of course, you won't miss it in these great little bass boxes either.) Update: These little bass boxes just get better by the day. After a couple weeks' break-in using the default cabling setup, I re-cabled to try and get Left-Right channel separation. With the speaker cables all running to the center hump between seats, I connected both Lefts to the left speaker, both Rights to the right speaker, and set the Phase to 0 on both controllers. It works! True low-bass is omnidirectional, of course, so in the 40-60Hz range there's no impact. But the 60-125Hz range has a fair amount of directional bass on some works - think "Dark Side Of The Moon" for instance - and these boxes really shine on those stereo-separated bass/drum/synth instrumental licks!

So I'm an MECP Certified Technician Professional Installer. I bought my truck a little over a year ago (2000 Chevy 2500) So please pay attention to what I'm going to tell you about this subwoofer. The installation is much easier than installing a Kicker Hideaway system. The sound is close to it (The Kicker has a little bit better lower sound). Now I had plenty of options to put in my truck I could have went with a custom built box however I have tools under the seats that I keep away from the elements and tend to use my back seat for storage (It's rained for the past 53 weeks in my area). So keeping in mind that I Needed something that was going to deliver enough bass that I enjoy without breaking the bank or getting my pulled over for a noise violation (3 communities in my area have Noise Ordinances that are STRICTLY Enforced with $400 fines). So when I bought the truck the previous owner blew the speakers, the AC Delco Radio was trashed, so I decided to install a high end pioneer touchscreen single-dinn radio with back up camera. Fronts I went with the new Kenwood 6 1/2's and swapped out the suicide door speakers with Rockford Fosgate 5 1/4's since I was going to have a hide away subwoofer. The Installation can be done a few ways if you have a good understanding of your vehicles electrical system. Running aftermarket I decided to go with the RCA's instead of military tapping into the speakers rear wires or using a Line out Converter to give it a better sound. You can run the power wire to the battery if you'd like to or if you want to you can also run it to the accessory wire of the Radio or another accessory wire in the vehicle. I ran mine to the accessory wire to the radio which pulls more than enough current for this subwoofer after testing it with a Digital Multi-Meter. The ground wire is slightly shorter so please find a VERY good place to ground it on the chasis (I ran mine under the carpet stripping the paint and tapping in with a self tapping screw & Star washer sealing the bottom with Silicone as to prevent any water leaks). The sound pressure level in the cab is amazing. It's not too loud and believe me you're not going to win any sound competitions with this subwoofer however for as small as it is, fit firmly and neatly underneath of the drivers seat. I used some 3M Velco Strips to ensure that it didn't slide around underneath in case I hit a bump or went up on an incline. Impressive Yes. Easy to Install Yes. Great Sound Yes. Competition NO. But those who get in your vehicle will know that you have a subwoofer. The controller is wired and will need to be mounted somewhere (I ran mine to the 3rd Seat and left it there in case I have to turn the sub off when I go through these Ordinance enforced communities nearby) and my only complaint IS the remote. It takes about a half second to react, but that's not a big minus to me for me to mark it down any. Now with all speakers, your initial sound on installation isn't going to be the best. The speakers have to flex for a while in order for them to mature but after 2 weeks the sound was just amazing. Parked and watching movies on break makes me feel like I'm in a theater setting. Listening to Rock, Metal, Rap, Hip Hop and other various genre's will need some tweaking within your head unit but the subwoofer itself is very reactive and doesn't phase out the other high end woofers I added to the doors. In fact it enhances the over all performance (The Rockford Fosgate 5 1/4's have bass blockers built in so there's no bass overpowering coming in from the back other THAN the subwoofer) Overall a great performing subwoofer, with easy installation and for the price WAY worth the recommendation. I still give it 5 stars because of the fact even though I'm not very pleased with the remote control it's NOT the selling point for me on an inexpensive self contained AMP/Sub. Great Job Kenwood!

I have been listening to this sub in a Subaru Forester paired with my Hybrid Audio Unity speakers for a couple of weeks now, and I am satisfied with it. I am now blown away - and don't expect to be - but the very noticeable gap in my audio spectrum is no longer missing. I chose this sub because I did not want to sacrifice any trunk space and I didn't want to do any battery modding to support some giant thumper. This sub fits cleanly under my passenger seat with room to spare, and comes with a handy remote that I velcro'd to the side of the center shifter area. The remote gives you control over sub power and low-pass frequency, which is great for tailoring the amount of bass you want for the track of the moment. It also glows high-tech blue -- albeit uselessly, since the light goes through two strips on the sides of the remote and not anywhere that makes the controls visible. As other reviewers have pointed out, the audio spectrum from this sub does cut out on the low-end. It does not hit very deep, which means those vibrations you get from really fancy setups that make your heart tremble are not to be found here. It does stay relatively clean though, and for the most part it is not boomy (although I do have to turn it down from time to time when boomy occurs). I set the low-pass frequency to cut off at 63 hz and set the high-pass for my mid-woofers to 65 hz. This makes the two blend nicely and keeps the sub from getting boomy and my mids from getting muddy. I keep the low-pass on the remote at 125 hz so the head-unit can stay in control and vary the sub power from 50-100% depending on what I'm listening to. I installed this sub myself, and it was the first time I really took a car apart. That made a fun (but nervous) experience, particularly with dealing with the battery. For those who are interested in doing this themselves, here are some things that I've learned that I hope can help you too. The videos on Crutchfield are a good start and cover most installation basics. Google 'Crutchfield Powered Subwoofer Install' to see. 1) The manual that comes with this thing is very hard for a beginner to understand. But Google can answer most of your confusion. One thing in particular was that the blue P.Cont wire means Power Control -- it connects to the blue/white wire in your head unit sometimes called remote antenna. 2) The connectors on these wires generally need to be removed and replaced with other terminals. Coming from building computers, I thought everything just snapped in place. Not really. Make sure you have all the tools you need going into this. 3) These are the tools / parts: - RCA male to male cable (the 6ft HOSA sold on Amazon is a very good deal) - Wire cutter / stripper / crimper - Heat-shrink circular terminals for your ground and battery (get large, good ones rated for automobiles) - Heat-shrink connectors for splicing the sub wires to your head unit - A lighter or heat gun - Gloves when dealing with the battery - A decent ratchet set - Screwdrivers - Plastic no-scratch panel removal tools. In reality you just need a small set like http://www.amazon.com/No-Scratch-Audio-Refit-Panel-Removal/dp/B005909KWA - File, sand-paper or power grinder for exposing bare metal to your ground connection - Wire sleeve for protecting your power cable to the battery - Electrical tape (weather rated, >200 degrees f) - Google / YouTube It will also be good to have some light-duty zip-ties or velcro ties to organize your wires. 4) Make sure you disconnect your battery any time you are dealing with live wires. I got lazy at one point and kept the battery connected when I moved my grounding cable and did some changes to my power line, and it ended up blowing the fuse. 5) If you do something dumb and blow the fuse, at least fuses are cheap. 6) Do not take your car's interior panels off without knowing exactly what you're doing. Google and visit online forums or find videos on YouTube that explain how to disassemble your specific car model for head-unit access and running wires to wherever you need to run them. It is very easy to break the clips or mess up something that will be expensive to replace if you don't know what you're doing. 7) Heat-shrink terminals and connectors will work with a lighter - just use low heat and keep the flame as far as possible while still melting the plastic. You just don't want it to burn. 8) Once you get everything installed, it's a great feeling to know how your car works and how to take the interior apart! I spilled a shake into my shifter a while ago and paid the mechanic over $100 to clean it out. I could have done it myself if I knew what I do now (and done a better job).

Very happy with this little bumper. Having a 2004 Colorado Crew Cab left very few options for a sub. MTX or JL Audio options would cost $500+ and all I wanted was to fill in the sound. Have JBL components in front door and two-ways in rear on the simple Clarion 45W amp. Have good low-mid bass but no bass. This thing nails it. I knew it would fit under the rear seat, but it managed to fit behind the rear seat, it's tight but leaves my under seat space free. I used RCA cables for my install as I have a Kenwood receiver with built in subwoofer controls so I optimized using those. It has good clean bass. This is not going to annoy the neighbors 6 blocks away, but fills in for a solid full music experience while driving. It's size provides for multiple mounting opportunities. Though I already had amp power wires running if this is your only add-on you might need to only buy some mounting hardware, connectors (if you use speaker input), or RCA cable, as everything else is included. In this day and age of different music recordings the remote is really handy for basic adjustments to help compensate for radio, to CD, to iPod, to 80's Rock, to Classical, to....... My main complaint is the wiring plug/remote plug being on the bottom of the amp. You have to preplan your wiring to a T beforehand or risk repeated removal of the amp to correct. This isn't as big an issue with the power wire connector, but for the remote it can be a headache. Kenwood should have put the remote cable accessible. They also should have made a plug on the remote instead of hard wired to allow for cleaner mounting options. So be sure if you plan to run the remote under the carpet or have a complex install to run that cable first and know where on your dash/center console you plan to mount it. Also leave any extra cable near the remote so you can try to move it later if needed. As you can see it was such a pain I still gave it 5 stars. Just plan it out. Primary music is Metal, Rock with some Country, Classical, Top 40 stuff so haven't listened to Rap, Hip Hop, R&B, Jazz not sure how it sounds there but should be good for basic thorough sound.

I'm Lou, writing this review for this product we purchased through Mary's Prime account. I'm writing the review because frankly, I don't understand the negative reviews. I've retailed and repped boutique home audio. I've installed custom tri amped car stereo with DSP and all the trimmings. As a custom home builder, I've installed acoustically isolated and optimized home theatre. I've generally been an audio tweak. For our 2002 Odyssey, which just never breaks down and continues as our second vehicle, I wanted to keep it simple and I didn't want to give up any cargo space or passenger comfort. I wanted to invoke appropriate technology, application and cost. You need to know what else I put in the car to understand the review: it's an audio system, nothing works in isolation. I was a step ahead because I already had a pair of Boston Acoustics component speakers (surface mounted tweeters for direction), from a car the kids totaled. I upgraded the radio to an Alpine 145BT Bluetooth unit with Sirius for $150, and that's all I'm running at the moment. No external amp. * This unit lessens the need for an external amp, if you have a quality radio (head unit). I have reduced the bass level from the head unit, easing up on the mid range speakers, letting the subwoofer properly take over the bottom end. * This subwoofer fit under the front of the driver seat. It didn't even take away any foot space from the mid seat passenger. I fuse tapped the power from the driver side fuse box, used chassis for ground and ran the harness wires under the kick panel to under the driver seat. Very quick and easy. I just laid the box under the seat and ... done. * It looks really slick - great styling - it would look great if made visible in a custom installation. * It sounds very nice. You have to tweak the rolloff and volume for your material, but get that right and it blends in very nicely. I can definitely make it bump my butt, but that's not how I listen. I want deep bass, but I don't want it to overshadow. * The controller is a big deal. Normal installation: Listen, hop out, crawl under the seat, into the trunk, wherever the bass amp is, turn a knob or screw a sixteenth, get back in the car, listen and repeat about a hundred times. Then play different material, decide it's all wrong and start all over again. The controller let's you adjust the rolloff, rollin actually, and volume as you're driving down the road. You can do it by feel, you don't need to take your eyes off the road. * I drive and listen and bask in the glow that the woofer, amplifier and controller all cost $150. It's a great value. Don't let it's lesser size prevent you from trying it. It sounds really good. I suspect negative reviewers were expecting a boom box or perfection for $150 or perhaps the units were defective or not properly installed. I may have written a glowing review because the product exceeded my expectations, but ... it exceeded my expectations. I have no idea how you could improve on this deep bass, in this space, at any cost.

I bought the Kenwood KSC-SW11 to add some bottom end to my Honda Civic aftermarket audio system, without sacrificing boot space. This unit fits perfectly under the front passenger seat without intruding into rear passenger footwell, and completely out of sight. Came with most of the wiring needed, except for an RCA splitter which was needed to split the Sub-woofer out terminal from my head unit. While the subwoofer did add some low end oomph, it does not hit teh real low frequencies that you can feel - my guess is that it goes as low as 40Hz, and that is it. Turned up enough, it does rattle the rear view mirrors, but distortion kicks in pretty early. Pros: ------ Compact size - fits under front passenger seat of my 2009 Honda Civic. Okay performance at medium sound levels - adds some low end punch. Nice Looking blue illuminated remote control. Well built - looks & feels solid. Cons: ------- Does not hit real low frequencies Distorts easily if power is cranked up. Overall, if you are looking for adding a little low end punch to a decent sounding system, and are looking for something that will fit under the passenger seat of a compact sedan, this is a value for money option. However, if you are looking for serious thumping bass, you will be disappointed.

This little sub is awesome for filling in bass on a PT Cruiser. Plenty of room under the passenger seat. The factory speakers are small and bass is non existent. It will not shake the car but the bass is tight and has great punch. Not what you want if you want your neighbors to know you have a sub! But it balances normal music listening volumes great! It is connected to a Kenwood KDC X399 eXcelon. The adjustments and features available on this head unit will tailor to just about any sound desired. I have the sub low pass crossover set at 85hz and the rest of the speakers on high pass at 120hz. I only needed one quarter on the volume dial on the remote for this sub to do it's job. The tightness and punchiness of the bass really surprises me for its small size. Update: I have added a second one under the drivers seat. Wow, I didn't expect to be twice as good but it is! I knew there would be some improvement but I now have punch from bass drums like I have a 10" sub in the back. Cool thing is two of these cost no more than a 10" with box and amp. No cargo space is taken up is a big cool factor. I have the volume for each set at about 1/3 and I have the crossover on the drivers seat unit set at 60zh while the other is set at 85. Freeway road noise is no problem at all. These little subs can be felt! Someone said these have to be connected directly to the battery. There really isn't much benefit to that. Each one doesn't use that much power. I have one connected to the hot lead on the power outlet on the console and the other connected to a spare on the interior fuse panel. Main thing is to make sure the power lead is fused at the source with the included inline fuse. High powered amps do need to be connected directly to the battery but not these little subs.

I was skeptical about this powered "sub" to begin with, but after hooking it up it's basically a powered speaker that has the same exact range as 6x8 door speakers. If you amped your door speakers, this is what they would sound like. Maybe some of the positive reviews have really terrible and small speakers throughout their car, but this thing is still not worth it. It handles ZERO lows. None. I have an 06 F-150 and have installed tons of audio systems in vehicles, but this time I was hoping for something simple. The included cables actually make this harder to setup because they can only be ran one way. So trying to breach the firewall through a current cable breach on my truck I had to use a metal hanger and attach the battery cable to get it through, and it was a PITA. The best way would be to go from the battery into the truck, but because you have all these cables attached at one end you have to go the other way. Overall, I would not recommend this even to someone who has terrible speakers. Just upgrade your head unit and speakers then if you actually want the lows to be out of the speakers and have clear sound, get a sub and amp. I also tried the kicker version like this that is $200, and it was EVEN WORSE! For that one you have to buy a seperate RCA splice cable. All of these things are designed the same and are no different than a powered speaker. They are NOT subwoofers. Even if you don't want deep glass rattling bass, the point is to keep the lows from 12hz-30hz out of the speakers so there are no drop outs, and you can turn down the bass level accordingly. Not the case with these all in one deals. The kicker I tried was even a 10", and it sounded worse than the kenwood! So, I ended up returning both the kenwood and kicker then just got a custom box for under my rear seats and a seperate sub & amp. Now I have clear audio. I was able to kick the hz up to 80 in the door speakers and get the mids clear without having bass in them. Now I have all lows in the subwoofer. Sucks, because I really hoped for the best, but was skeptical from the beginning and my skepticism turned out to be justified. Don't waste your money. Do your audio right, even if you are not an "audiophile" at least recognize the difference between bass and mids. Not all bass has to rock the vehicle in front of you, but it shouldn't have mids in it either. TL;DR: Don't buy it. Get an amp for your speakers, or just upgrade your speakers and head unit. This is no different than a powered 6x8 and includes too many mids without compensating below 50hz. I listen to metal and rock, and even in the small drops that music has, it was terrible.

Je viens de monter ce subwoofer après une longue hésitation. Montage sur Aygo car j'avais mis une autoradio Android chinoise et son son manquait de basses. Si on veut bien le monter, il faut enlever le siège passager, la console centrale et l'autoradio. J'ai branché le fil bleu sur la sortie alim ampli de la radio, le jaune sur le jaune (+perm) de la prise autoradio et le noir sur le chassis un des boulons du support de levier de vitesse. A mon avis le jaune autoradio est suffisant en alimentation car le fusible derrière est de 15A alors que le sub est limité à 10A. Le résultat est une amélioration significative côté basses. C'est pas fait pour faire boîte de nuit même si ça secoue la voiture à volume max mais pour les gens qui veulent avoir un bon son à volume moyen c'est parfait. J'ai réglé le volume à 50% et ça suffit. J'ai acheté un câble RCA 2.5 d'Amazon pour faire la liaison avec les sortie OUT de la radio et visiblement ces sorties gèrent aussi le volume du son car j'ai pas besoin de régler le volume côté sub une fois le réglage fait. Je suis content de cet achat et je le recommande pour les personnes qui aiment écouter de la musique de qualité.

Ich möchte gleich das Nötigste vorweg nehmen! Bei meiner Lieferung fehlte leider das Montage-Zubehör, was bei mir zwar nicht tragisch war, aber dennoch unnötig! Habe sofort mit dem Verkäufer Kontakt aufgenommen und geschildert das diese Teile nun fehlen. Als Antwort bekam ich, das ich doch bitte eine eidesstattliche Erklärung abgeben soll um weiter fortfahren zu können. Hierbei dachte ich mir lediglich: "Geht's denn eigentlich nocht?!" Nun gut, wie erwähnt brauche ich das Montage-Zubehör nicht deshalb lasse ich dies nun auch bleiben. Jetzt aber mal zum Hier zu sehenden Gerät: Ich hatte bis dato immer große Autos und zuletzt hatte ich eine Mercedes C Klasse welche viel Platz und viele Möglichkeiten in Sachen Car-Hifi bietet! Es war eine Komplett Anlage von Audio System (kenner wissen das dies schon zur Oberklasse gehört) im Gesamtwert von Knapp 3.500€! Der Mercedes wich etwas kleinem und somit war leider absolut KEIN Platz mehr für irgendetwas davon. Es war ein 16er 2-Wege Frontsystem, 20er 3-Wege Hecksystem. (alles mit aktiven Frequenzweichen) Dann darf natürlich ein Ordentlicher Subwoofer nicht fehlen! Mit insgesamt 3 Endstufen, 2 Batterien, 2 Relais und 1 5Farad Powercap lieferte diese Anlage absolut bombastischen Sound mit richtig richtig viel Druck! und wie gesagt, alles Audio System. Nach langem hin und her habe ich mich dann doch überwunden mal einen dieser kleinen Aktivsubwoofer für mein kleines neues Fahrzeug zu holen da mir des Bass doch einfach fehlte. Einbau verlief problemlos und sogar recht flott, knapp eine Stunde (wenn man etwas übung hat) und das Teil sitzt startbereit an Ort und Stelle unter dem Fahrersitz. Hier kam nun die Überraschung!! Klar weine ich meinem alten System hinterher und Dieser Subwoofer in Verbindung mit einem 2-Wege Eton Frontsystem kommen nie an diese Leistung heran! ABER, hier stimmt alles, der Subwoofer erreicht einen Sauberen Pegel, er verzerrt nicht, clippt nicht und bleibt selbst bei hoher Lautstärke Konstant Stabil! Auch die Leistung und der Satte Kickbass sind absolut empfehlenswert! Zwar Spielt er Frequenzen unter 50Hz nicht mehr sonderlich Laut und auch bis 25 Hz ist keinerlei Bass mehr zu hören geschweige denn zu Spüren, das darf man allerdings nicht erwarten bei einem 20 Cm Aktivsubwoofer. Dennoch kann ich klar sagen das dieses Gerät jeden Cent wert ist! Werde mir selbst noch einen zweiten Kaufen der Dann unter den Beifahrersitz kommt! Klasse Kaufempfehlung an jeden der zum Frontsystem, in einem kleinen Fahrzeug, Etwas satten Bass haben will. Lediglich werde ich darauf achten, den Subwoofer nicht mehr bei Caraudio24 zu bestellen.

Muy cool cumple con su función a la perfección ya complemente ese bajeo que le hasia falta a mi equipo de audio de mi Trocka lo recomiendo para el 80' tero que le gusta la calidad en sonido

Great and compact little subwoofer. Takes up no space at all. Includes all wiring and great for factory sound systems to add that extra oomph that's missing without a subwoofer. Being a small unit it is limited in terms of deep bass but if you don't want to give up trunk space and like a stealthy install this is the one for you.

simple to install and improve your sound quality in your car...