[BK_856er]

I need to send my out-of-state college freshman son a powered subwoofer for his dorm room.  He's keeping up awesome grades 

He has a set of powered monitors that struggle with low frequencies.  Obviously we're not talking about audiophile listening, just bass-heavy young people stuff     Don't need to worry about HT or gaming or anything like that.  Just want to extend and fill in the bottom end of the music with something that can take a beating.

I'm hoping to keep it around $100.  Are the Dayton units at parts-express good candidates, or are they geared mainly for home theater use?

I have the ability to build something from scratch, but factoring in shipping costs it might not make financial sense.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

BK

[FireGuy]

Here's one from Pioneer.  Their lower end gear appears to be getting some good reviews so I suspect this should be a respectable purchase.  It will not accommodate a large room however.

http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Subwoofer-System-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B004MF2ZG6/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1422062449&sr=8-6&keywords=pioneer+subwoofer&pebp=1422062463741&peasin=B004MF2ZG6

[mresseguie]

Have you checked your son's Craigslist for subwoofers? I see ads for reasonably priced subs all the time.

Michael

[bregez]

I think subwoofers and dorm rooms mix like oil and water.  However, if you must the Dayton units are a good choice.  If you really want to get cheap check out the local goodwill / salvation army for some old computer 2.1 channel systems.  The subwoofers in some of these systems should be more than adequate for a dorm room.

[charmerci]

I've had the Dayton SUB-1200 before. They are excellent for the price.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

I second the Pioneer.  It's cheap and it sounds good for the price and it is compact for a dorm room.  The Dayton is going to be over kill in a dorm room.

But get the newer version-

http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-SW-8MK2-Designed-100-Watt-Subwoofer/dp/B008NCD2PC/ref=pd_cp_e_2

Frank Van Alstine from AVA gave it a thumbs up for a budget sub.

[JLM]

A subwoofer in a dorm?      You "need" to send him a subwoofer?     Will you adopt me (58 years old, short, chubby, balding)?   

I recall coming up from the basement one Sunday afternoon and hearing the booming of someone's stereo in my cinderblock dormitory.  Sure enough it was coming from my 4th floor room (no sub necessary).  The best system I had there was headphone based.  No body messed with them, no complaints from neighbors, smaller than a sub.

The Pioneer is only rated to 38 Hz (F3?), hardly a subwoofer but more than adequate for a dorm room.  The smaller Dayton's can be found on sale for under $100.

[srb]

I'm just glad that back when I took up residence in a college dorm, subwoofers were for the most part non-existent.  It was bad enough putting up with stereos blasting from various rooms, now one has to put up with the tiresome thump, thump, thump of close-proximity multiple subwoofer pollution?!

Nobody played rap or hip hop back then either.  I imagine today I would be spending even more time at the library to distance myself from from this annoying bullshit.

Steve

[WGH]

I'm hoping to keep it around $100.  Are the Dayton units at parts-express good candidates, or are they geared mainly for home theater use?

I had one of those $100 Dayton subs for a while, they certainly can't keep up with the fast drivers in high end speakers so it was used only for home theater. I sold it to a friend to use in his real cheap home theater setup and it blended nicely with the $125 Polk towers.

I would characterize the sub's sound as slow and ill defined with no punch but it did thump along and would probably work just fine for the music your son will be putting through it. Just remember whatever you buy him will be destroyed in a couple of semesters either by him or his friends when he is in the library trying to escape the thumping so I would keep it cheap.

Wayne 

[Odal3]

I have the 10" of the Dayton series. Works well for the money and better than some more expensive alternatives you can find at Best buy and other places. Dosent play superloud or super low, but works ok in smaller room.  I have it set up with a pair of bookshelves.Agree with the comments that they can't keep up with expensive drivers in high end speakers, but that's probably not the design goals for the sub either considering the price.Sounds better with music than my larger Klipsch sub. So for "bass heavy young people stuff"it  is a good option in the <$100 class. Heard good things about the Pioneers as well but never heard one.

[srb]

I had one of those $100 Dayton subs for a while, they certainly can't keep up with the fast drivers in high end speakers so it was used only for home theater.

With that in mind, I think that where real cheap subwoofers are concerned an 8" driver model will usually have better luck keeping up than the 10" or 12" models.

Here's one from Monoprice:  8 Inch 60-Watt Powered Subwoofer

On sale for $51.72 + $10-$20 shipping, depending on location.

Steve

[I.Greyhound Fan]

That Mono Price sub only goes down to 50Hz.

Here is another small sub that goes down to 32Hz, the Martin Logan Dynamo 300

http://www.amazon.com/MartinLogan-Dynamo-300-Theater-Subwoofer/dp/B004LRPXAU

[stlrman]

I own the Pioneer sub, and I use it in a pretty big room. I am very happy with the sound for movies, and for music I actually dial it back to 50% for music. I would like add a second one for movies one day.

[BK_856er]

Thanks for the great suggestions, guys.

You've given me some good stuff to think about.

Sounds like an 8" makes sense here.  Too bad the Pioneer isn't on sale right now!

BK

[BK_856er]

I was all set to go with one of the options above, but after some follow-up discussion we decided on the 8" Cerwin Vega XD8s powered sub.  Mainly because it integrates easily with his current XD series monitors and it has a nice footprint for the prison cell dimensioned dorm room.  Definitely not the cheapest option.  Initial reports are that it gets the job done big time.  Thanks again for the great input.

BK

[mresseguie]

Good for you....or him....lol!