EARTHQUAKESound CP-8 Couch Potato - 300W Peak Powered 8-Inch Slim Home Theater Subwoofer with Down-Firing Bass Reflex Enclosure Design (Black Laminate, Single)

I have been an audio nut for as long as I can remember and became aware of Earthquake Sound in the 90s in the car audio market. They have always been known for making solid products at reasonable prices, so when I saw the CP8, I was intrigued.I originally bought one a few years ago to compliment my computer audio system which consists of a Peachtree Audio Decco2 integrated amplifier and D5 bookshelf speakers, as well as Sennheiser HD 650 headphones for when I need to be a little quieter. This system cost a couple of thousand dollars all told, even after "bargain" shopping, which puts me into "He's clearly crazy!" category for my friends, but "mid-fi" category for audiophiles. Hopefully, this gives you an idea of my audio experience for this review.This sub fits perfectly in the cavernous foot well of my over-sized desk, and since it and my desk are both black, it blends in very well. It gets a substantial low bass boost, similar to corner loading, because of my foot well, but doesn't get too boomy as a result, which surprised me to be honest. It plays low enough that it will cover all but the most infrasonic of music, and in my small office, will energize the room with bass quite nicely, especially when sitting right on top of it at my desk. This system sounds phenomenal to me while seated at my desk (which is the most important thing)...but the bass quality varies dramatically around in the room due to its placement in the foot well.Given its excellent performance in my desktop system, I decided to get one for my office "home theater." My significant other wanted my "ugly speakers" out of the living room. Surprisingly, I was able to talk my way into keeping the sub...whew! So, I recently replaced those old speakers with in-ceiling surround sound (GoldenEar HTR 7000...another highly recommended product!). I re-purposed the old ones to my office and needed a sub. With the lack of space in my office, I bought a new CP8 to go behind the love seat, and it sounds wonderful, as I knew it would. It goes plenty deep, shakes the love seat nicely during explosions, and fills the room with bass.This won't replace my giant 15" sub and couch bass shakers in my primary home theater (how I was able to talk the S.O. into keeping those, I don't know!), it's a small 8" woofer after all. It's designed as an auxiliary sub to be placed right next to the listener in order to provide a similar tactile sensation as the bass shakers in bigger rooms and systems, but performs well enough that it can also be used in smaller situations like my office as the primary sub. Use it as designed immediately next to your listening position and it will perform excellently!

If you need a slim sub, do not hesitate. 150W is not a lot of power, but in a small room it's plenty. I turned it to half volume, dialed in another -6 dB on my Wiim Ultra, and the room EQ knocked it down even more! Then again, I disregarded the name and did not place it next to or under my couch. All subs benefit from corner-loading. Placed in a corner, the walls & floor of your room act as a horn, amplifying the bass & creating fewer reflections that merge & cancel each other. I appreciate the simplicity: there's no app required to tune it, but that's fine because receivers and streamers all have pretty good bass sync & level controls these days. This is just a very basic sub that does one thing and does it well, at a minimum price in space and dollars. While it's no replacement for a home theater sub designed to pulverize kidney stones in large rooms, it's quite good at filling in the bottom octave that bookshelf speakers can't reach, giving them a full, rich sound. If hidden & properly adjusted, your guests will never notice it, and might even believe your main speakers are doing all the work.Amazon sells 90° RCA cables, so if the included ones aren't long enough, there's no problem finding one that will still work. Also, rubber furniture anti-slip pads are a good idea. At higher volumes the plastic feet will walk the sub on a wood or tile floor! Damping the case vibration improves bass response as well.

This is an amazing subwoofer for music when your option is no subwoofer or having one that needs to be hidden. For movies it was a bit less consistent. It did great for movies with impacts like Top Gun and music and clearly punched well above its weight, but struggled with classic subwoofer tests like Oppenheimer or Titan AE. What is good is that you don’t hear abnormal stress or clattering under these conditions, it just doesn’t output as much SPL as you know is there.I am very impressed with its performance, despite having 15 and 18 inch woofers elsewhere.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this subwoofer. I purchased this subwoofer 6 years ago in October of 2018. It served me well for years, until finally, I just happened to notice a very soft, very subtle "humming" sound coming from my primary speakers. All 5 speakers, the front left, center, front right, right atmos, and left atmos speakers were all humming. Yes, it's amazing i went 6 years without hearing the "hum", but once I heard it, I could not un-hear it. So . . . I decided to swap out this sub for another similar sub by Theater Solutions. I believe the lack of an electrical ground in the power plug has eliminated the hum from my home theater.

I really want to like this. It stops working once running for 1/2 hour or so. I realized it is due to the built in AMP overheating. Why? I don't know.I bought it from amazon warehouse so I guess the issue was already present. When I initiated return, they told me to just dump it since it was probably returned more than once already. I was going to dump it but just to try it out, I sealed off the plate amp opening with MDF. Running it with an external OSD 100w Sub amp which doesn't overheat seems to do the trick. The BASS is really full. I bought an OSD slim SUB to replace this. I like the OSD for music, but this is what I like for movies. The BASS is nice and enveloping. Really impressed with the box/speaker.