I have scoured the internet (via Google 
) and could not find 1 decent review of this subwoofer offered at Parts Express, so I thought I would write my findings in the hopes of helping others in making a purchasing decision. The following was first published at HDTVoice.com and I thought it belonged here as well. First is a link to the sub itself, followed by my review...
Parts Express Dayton SUB-120 12" 150 Watt Powered Subwoofer
Got the sub just before dinner. After dinner the wife went out and it was time to play!!! Unpackaged the sub (it is 8lbs lighter than the Infinity it was replacing) and it was not as wide as the Infinity (all comparisons are to my beloved Infinity RS12 Servo sub), a hair shorter (not as tall) but approximately the same length.
The Dayon sub description states that there are 2 rear ports...My RS12 has a bottom flared port. When initially played these 2 rear ports made for a boomy appearence during playback of movies and music. I did NOT attempt to plug either port as I feel if that should need to have only 1 port, it would have been designed that way. So I was not thrilled with this but all in all it sounded acceptable for the most part.
The subwoofer itself is a treated paper cone with foam surround. A far cry from the IMG injected cone on the RS12. But again we are speaking about a $150 sub vs. $1000 sub (when new). The sub has excellent extension, maybe a few millimeters less than the IMG sub but the treated paper cone has a noticeably larger voice coil than the IMG sub. I attribute the excellent power handling capabilities to that motor structure.
The 150watt plate amp is made in China and does not have a removable power cord. It has a 3 way power switch, ON/Automatic ON/OFF which I like having the option of having the sub continuously on for those extended periods during a movie that has little or no bass. So far I have not noticed any off/on action when leaving the amp set to 'Auto' so no 'popping' from suddenly powering up can be heard.
The plate amp also has a phase reversal switch, a frequency cutover dial, and of course a volume dial. I always leave the phase reversal switch to 'norm' on these type amps and integrate the speaker using the volume and frequency dials and that has worked well for me over the years.
Even though this plat amp is a cheapy, it sounds rather good which surprised the heck out of me. I was not expecting the distortion free power that this plate amp produces. It is very clean and very powerful and could probably blow the subwoofer if cranked loud enough but then if it was cranked that far it would probably sound like crap as there would be no headroom left.
The amp has the typical L/R low level input RCA jacks along with cheap spring loaded high level speaker in/output terminals. I use a 'Y' jack on the low level RCA jacks. This plate amp also has something I am unfamiliar with and that is it also has low level RCA output jacks. For 99% of all applications today I see this as about worthless and have not and will not utilize this feature.
Now up to this point in the review the materials (subwoofer & plate amp) are rather high quality in my opinion for the price point. I honestly have no plausable complaints. But the sound just wasn't what I thought it should/could be even keeping in perspective what the Dayton Sub 120 costs.
The cabinet is this subwoofers downfall. While my RS12 is solid 3/4" MDF construction with a flared bottom port with real wood venere, the Dayton 120 Sub is...get this...nothing more than pressed cardboard!!! I knew this would not be built with 3/4" MDF materials but I thought at the very least it would still be made with wood...Nope, not the case. It is pressed cardboard with a textured black contact paper covering. Once I discovered this I knew right then and there why the sound was not what it should/could be. The 2 rear ports are nothing but cardboard tubes capped with a short plastic port opening to complete the appearence. Has nothing to do with the sound.
The port tubes are about 1 1/2" from the front of the cabinet and does not allow enough room in my opinion for proper air flow out of the enclosure. I was pretty disappointed with this finding but happy it answered all the questions I had regarding the final sound quality.
The inside of the cabinet has a thin layer of sound insulationon the sides and top but nothing on the floor or bottom. Again I was rather disappointed with this discovery as my RS12 has thick insulation enveloping the entire inside surface.
The Dayton Sub 120 cabinet comes with 4 isolation cone feet which was a nice thought but being hollow I feel is only for cosmetic purposes. My RS12 has solid isolation cone type feet. As far as the actual effectiveness to isolation cones I am still debating as I for one have not found any real effectiveness over normal 'feet'.
Now remember I bought this budget sub as a temporary replacement for my Infinity RS12 that didn't survive a power surge very well. I loved this sub as it was the finest home sub I have ever heard for both movies & music. It integrated well with all speaker choices and received wide approval from all tat heard it.
Well after all my discoveries with the Dayton 120 Sub I decided to use all the electronic components from the Dayton sub and fit them to the RS12 cabinet. First I replaced the subwoofer itself because the RS12 was a Servo Subwoofer and I was told had a different motor structure than a non servo type speaker. Though nobody could tell me for sure if using a servo motored speaker with a non servo amplifier would damage the non servo amp, I decided it would be best to just replace the whole kit & kaboodle. Besides, The foam surround had torn in a couple of places over the years and had been repaired with rubber silicone as the IMG injected speaker had long since been discontiued and a refoamed speaker (at least the ones I have heard) never sounded quite right to my ear.
The first thing I encountered was a different mounting hole pattern in the stamped basket for the new Dayton sub. That was easily remedied by just drilling new (additinal) mounting holes in the RS12's cabinet. Although I could not use the original trim ring from the IMG injected speaker, it still looks pretty good and I keep the grill on it anyway so no harm, no foul in that department.
The plate amp was another issue however as it was a couple of millimeters too big for the original cutout in the RS12. A little persuasion got the Dayton plate amp installed tightly & securely however, though the Dayton amp sticks out about 1/2" further than the original RS12 amp did. Really no problem since it is in the rear, is not noticeable whatsoever, and does not affect the performance one iota.
The sound from this modification I can honestly say sounds absolutely superb with deep hard hitting bass when called for with no hissing, rumbling, boomy, humming noises. It is the quality of the RS12 cabinet itself that brought out the full potential of the Dayton parts that were installed. I honestly could not be more pleased with the results and am really surprised at the overall quality of the inexpensive sub & plate amp. While still noticeably NOT as high quality as the infinity sounded mit is VERY acceptable and not shabby at all. I can confidently recommend Dayton speakers and plate amps for any DIY'r out there. Lots of bang for the buck! The true test will be longevity and I think these parts will last for quite a few years if not abused.
I cannot wait to order what I want from Parts Express and get the Dayton subwoofer/plate amp combo that I couldn't afford this time around. When I install those components in my RS12 cabinet, based on my experience with the lesser components, I truely should be set for many, many years to come.
Now, when all is said and done, I do recommend the Dayton Sub 120 from Parts Express as an entry level subwoofer. It does have lots of power albeit a boomy sound. For the money it really can't be beat as I spent about the same amount of money at Best Buy on an 8" 60watt Aiwa sub a few years ago that was really poor when you consider you can get computer speaker/sub systems for less that sound better. So bang for the buck, I rate the Dayton Sub 120 a 9 out of 10. The price I paid for the Dayton Sub 120 was $148.88 w/free shipping which really sweetened the deal.
) and could not find 1 decent review of this subwoofer offered at Parts Express, so I thought I would write my findings in the hopes of helping others in making a purchasing decision. The following was first published at HDTVoice.com and I thought it belonged here as well. First is a link to the sub itself, followed by my review...Parts Express Dayton SUB-120 12" 150 Watt Powered Subwoofer
Got the sub just before dinner. After dinner the wife went out and it was time to play!!! Unpackaged the sub (it is 8lbs lighter than the Infinity it was replacing) and it was not as wide as the Infinity (all comparisons are to my beloved Infinity RS12 Servo sub), a hair shorter (not as tall) but approximately the same length.
The Dayon sub description states that there are 2 rear ports...My RS12 has a bottom flared port. When initially played these 2 rear ports made for a boomy appearence during playback of movies and music. I did NOT attempt to plug either port as I feel if that should need to have only 1 port, it would have been designed that way. So I was not thrilled with this but all in all it sounded acceptable for the most part.
The subwoofer itself is a treated paper cone with foam surround. A far cry from the IMG injected cone on the RS12. But again we are speaking about a $150 sub vs. $1000 sub (when new). The sub has excellent extension, maybe a few millimeters less than the IMG sub but the treated paper cone has a noticeably larger voice coil than the IMG sub. I attribute the excellent power handling capabilities to that motor structure.
The 150watt plate amp is made in China and does not have a removable power cord. It has a 3 way power switch, ON/Automatic ON/OFF which I like having the option of having the sub continuously on for those extended periods during a movie that has little or no bass. So far I have not noticed any off/on action when leaving the amp set to 'Auto' so no 'popping' from suddenly powering up can be heard.
The plate amp also has a phase reversal switch, a frequency cutover dial, and of course a volume dial. I always leave the phase reversal switch to 'norm' on these type amps and integrate the speaker using the volume and frequency dials and that has worked well for me over the years.
Even though this plat amp is a cheapy, it sounds rather good which surprised the heck out of me. I was not expecting the distortion free power that this plate amp produces. It is very clean and very powerful and could probably blow the subwoofer if cranked loud enough but then if it was cranked that far it would probably sound like crap as there would be no headroom left.
The amp has the typical L/R low level input RCA jacks along with cheap spring loaded high level speaker in/output terminals. I use a 'Y' jack on the low level RCA jacks. This plate amp also has something I am unfamiliar with and that is it also has low level RCA output jacks. For 99% of all applications today I see this as about worthless and have not and will not utilize this feature.
Now up to this point in the review the materials (subwoofer & plate amp) are rather high quality in my opinion for the price point. I honestly have no plausable complaints. But the sound just wasn't what I thought it should/could be even keeping in perspective what the Dayton Sub 120 costs.
The cabinet is this subwoofers downfall. While my RS12 is solid 3/4" MDF construction with a flared bottom port with real wood venere, the Dayton 120 Sub is...get this...nothing more than pressed cardboard!!! I knew this would not be built with 3/4" MDF materials but I thought at the very least it would still be made with wood...Nope, not the case. It is pressed cardboard with a textured black contact paper covering. Once I discovered this I knew right then and there why the sound was not what it should/could be. The 2 rear ports are nothing but cardboard tubes capped with a short plastic port opening to complete the appearence. Has nothing to do with the sound.
The port tubes are about 1 1/2" from the front of the cabinet and does not allow enough room in my opinion for proper air flow out of the enclosure. I was pretty disappointed with this finding but happy it answered all the questions I had regarding the final sound quality.
The inside of the cabinet has a thin layer of sound insulationon the sides and top but nothing on the floor or bottom. Again I was rather disappointed with this discovery as my RS12 has thick insulation enveloping the entire inside surface.
The Dayton Sub 120 cabinet comes with 4 isolation cone feet which was a nice thought but being hollow I feel is only for cosmetic purposes. My RS12 has solid isolation cone type feet. As far as the actual effectiveness to isolation cones I am still debating as I for one have not found any real effectiveness over normal 'feet'.
Now remember I bought this budget sub as a temporary replacement for my Infinity RS12 that didn't survive a power surge very well. I loved this sub as it was the finest home sub I have ever heard for both movies & music. It integrated well with all speaker choices and received wide approval from all tat heard it.
Well after all my discoveries with the Dayton 120 Sub I decided to use all the electronic components from the Dayton sub and fit them to the RS12 cabinet. First I replaced the subwoofer itself because the RS12 was a Servo Subwoofer and I was told had a different motor structure than a non servo type speaker. Though nobody could tell me for sure if using a servo motored speaker with a non servo amplifier would damage the non servo amp, I decided it would be best to just replace the whole kit & kaboodle. Besides, The foam surround had torn in a couple of places over the years and had been repaired with rubber silicone as the IMG injected speaker had long since been discontiued and a refoamed speaker (at least the ones I have heard) never sounded quite right to my ear.
The first thing I encountered was a different mounting hole pattern in the stamped basket for the new Dayton sub. That was easily remedied by just drilling new (additinal) mounting holes in the RS12's cabinet. Although I could not use the original trim ring from the IMG injected speaker, it still looks pretty good and I keep the grill on it anyway so no harm, no foul in that department.
The plate amp was another issue however as it was a couple of millimeters too big for the original cutout in the RS12. A little persuasion got the Dayton plate amp installed tightly & securely however, though the Dayton amp sticks out about 1/2" further than the original RS12 amp did. Really no problem since it is in the rear, is not noticeable whatsoever, and does not affect the performance one iota.
The sound from this modification I can honestly say sounds absolutely superb with deep hard hitting bass when called for with no hissing, rumbling, boomy, humming noises. It is the quality of the RS12 cabinet itself that brought out the full potential of the Dayton parts that were installed. I honestly could not be more pleased with the results and am really surprised at the overall quality of the inexpensive sub & plate amp. While still noticeably NOT as high quality as the infinity sounded mit is VERY acceptable and not shabby at all. I can confidently recommend Dayton speakers and plate amps for any DIY'r out there. Lots of bang for the buck! The true test will be longevity and I think these parts will last for quite a few years if not abused.
I cannot wait to order what I want from Parts Express and get the Dayton subwoofer/plate amp combo that I couldn't afford this time around. When I install those components in my RS12 cabinet, based on my experience with the lesser components, I truely should be set for many, many years to come.
Now, when all is said and done, I do recommend the Dayton Sub 120 from Parts Express as an entry level subwoofer. It does have lots of power albeit a boomy sound. For the money it really can't be beat as I spent about the same amount of money at Best Buy on an 8" 60watt Aiwa sub a few years ago that was really poor when you consider you can get computer speaker/sub systems for less that sound better. So bang for the buck, I rate the Dayton Sub 120 a 9 out of 10. The price I paid for the Dayton Sub 120 was $148.88 w/free shipping which really sweetened the deal.
