Alpine 8" Amplified Subwoofer (PWE-S8) 120W Compact Powered 8" Car Subwoofer for Under or Behind The Seat

I have been a fan of Alpine car audio for a long time, and currently all the component speakers and my head unit came from Alpine. The Alpine 6x9's I have in the back do provide decent bass in their own right, but I was looking for something a little more well rounded. I listen to lots of hip-hop and EDM, so I was desperately needing an upgrade. I was considering doing a traditional amplifier and subwoofer box when I ran across this. I drive a Honda civic, so I was not in need of anything all that extreme to do the job. I am not in high school anymore, so waking the neighbors down the block was not a priority. I am useless when it comes to wiring, so I had my local Best Buy take care of the install. They had it done in about an hour. The great advantage of this device is its small and compact size, making it possible for you not to have to sacrifice cargo or people space to get rich sound. Even in my little Civic they were able to install the device under the seat, though the Best Buy guys informed me that they had to unscrew and raise the seat first to accomplish this. It's tucked neatly away and giving me maximum space and no wires sticking out anywhere. As to sound quality, unless you are a hardcore bass head I would suspect that you will be highly impressed with this little sub. It provides WAY more boom than I was anticipating given it's small size. Though also bear in mind that we are talking about a Civic here. If you rock a Suburban or some other Large SUV, this might not be enough for you. It comes with a separate gain adjustment knob that I had installed near the front center console for rapid adjustment. That said, if you have an Alpine radio that has built in subwoofer control in the audio settings, you can get much more precise control. I recommend setting the knob to about half way, and then adjusting on the radio itself if you have this setup. After you play around with it for awhile, you will get it exactly how you like it. A problem you will run into with this speaker is that turning the regular bass control down on the radio to give more power to the mids and highs of the component speakers, you will also effect the bass output from the sub slightly. To get around this, and to make sure you have balanced sound levels for lows, mids, and highs, I also had what Alpine calls a power pack installed: http://www.amazon.com/Alpine-KTP-445U-4-channel-Power-Amplifier/dp/B003VVYL46 This can be installed directly on the back of your Alpine radio (or most factory radios I am told) and will juice up the the highs and mids from your component speakers without effecting the sub. This was a good investment also. My car audio system sounds flat out amazing now, and sometimes I just get the urge to take a drive so I can jam out. Everyone that rides with me as a passenger is similarly impressed by the range of sound my little Civic is kicking out. I spent well over a grand on everything when you add it all up (head unit, amp, speakers, this device, etc.) but if you are a music aficionado like I am, it's all very well worth it.

As a 30 something with a car he'd like to keep for a long time, this was the missing piece to my sound system upgrade. I wanted something that I could live with on a daily basis. I wanted an increase in sound quality without blasting music down my block. I always wanted my system to fit in seamlessly with my stock interior. I also wanted something that was easy enough for me to install with no prior knowledge or experience installing car stereo equipment. If that sounds like you, then this is what you are looking for! I have a 2015 Jetta that had the very basic stereo set up with four speakers. I upgraded my head unit to a touch screen Android Auto unit an wanted to get more out of my music. I started by upgrading the door speakers. I have Alpine components in the front, with tweeters mounted in the upper door. The rears are Alpine coaxials. To power them, I had an Alpine powerpack installed that easily fit behind the head unit. Once I had that setup, I really liked the clear sound and mid-bass, but was missing the low end that the powerpack effectively filtered with a high pass filter in order to keep the sound quality clear on the door speakers. So I knew I needed some low end, but I did not want to install another amp and take up space in my trunk with a box. That's when I started looking for powered subwoofers that could fit under my driver's seat. This Alpine powered sub fit snugly but perfectly under my driver's. The install was also very straightforward. I did have to buy some more materials like an amp kit and some shrink wrap and t-taps to make the wire connections, along with an aux cable. After watching some install videos on youtube, I started my install. It took about half an hour, even with a bump in the install when I couldn't get the accessory power to work. I tapped into the 12v in the back and bam, the unit was powering on. I had to tune the low pass to match up with my system, and tune the gain to avoid overpowering the sound system and distortion. This powered sub will not shake your whole car, and if you've been reading up until now you'll be okay with that because it wasn't what you were looking for. If you are looking for that, you won't get very clear sound trying to get too much bump. If you tune it to complement your sound system, you get powerful, clear bass to fill in the -80 range of sound the door speakers won't play. I like having the remote level control to make minor adjustments based on the type of music playing. That allows this sub to work well with anything from punk to hip hop. Hell, it even sounds good with Mexican Banda music. I bought this through an Alpine approved vendor and paid under two hundred bucks. That made it a great value and, pun intended, bang for my buck.

2014 Posts: 83 Syracuse Ok, Phase III, subwoofer installation: I decided on the Alpine SWE-S8 powered sub to fill out the lower registers for my speakers, which roll off at 70 Hz. I decided to install it myself after seeing there were multiple existing grommets through the firewall to access to battery for power. I did a quick fit check to see if it would fit under the driver’s seat, and it did! Then I used the Pioneer factory wire harness for preamp level outputs for the line level Sub Out signal ...so, out comes the head unit again. The RCA cables I bought were not as tight as I liked, so I zip tied them to be safe. I also had to cut and resolder the Amp Turn-On line from the Maestro cable harness (Blue-White wire) for the sub (if you use line level inputs, this sub’s amp needs this 12V command line to turn on) I plugged in the Alpine remote level control as well I found the factory ground under the front passenger seat, decided to move the amp to the passenger seat, connected everything up for a power-on test to make sure everything works. PASS! Ok, now I need to find a way to get into the engine bay to reach the battery. I didn’t want to use the grommet behind the FL wheel, so I tried to find the unused one I keep hearing about “above the clutch master cylinder†. That took forever. To save everyone else time, it’s easily in the engine bay, driver’s side, behind the inter cooler. This firewall hole is NOT visible from inside the car. I popped the factory grommet from the engine bay out while trying to slice an “X†through it to pass the power cable, then used needle nice pliers to remove it entirely. Wet the entire grommet with water (or spit) and it pops back into place easily. It was much easier to pass the wire through that open hole in the firewall, then slide the grommet on after I shoved about 12†of wire in. You then have to reach all they way above the accelerator and brake, bend the grey factory noise deadening, and you can find the wad of wire you shove through. Now that the grommet is in place, you can pull the rest of the cable into the cabin. Then I routed the power cable front the positive terminal to the fender, along the top of the engine bay and into the firewall hole And with the zip ties trimmed: I routed it into the instrument panel behind the stereo and out the bottom I then removed the center console and trim panel around the shifter to pass the power cable through, along the driver’s side of the transmission hump. I passed the RCA cables, remote volume cable, and remote amp turn on cable along the passenger side of the transmission hump (to separate power and signal lines to avoid potential noise). Then, I crossed the power cable across the signal lines at a right angle at the rear of the transmission hump, and passed them under the carpeting and poked them out the existing square hole under the passenger seat. I soldered and shrink wrapped the power cable, ground cable, and remote turn-on wire and tucked excess cables under the carpeting (I didn’t want anything above the amp, out of fear that the passenger seat sliding back and forth could snag or cut a cable). I was able to fish the ground cable under the rug and over to the factory ground screw, then tighten it from the passenger seat footwell area the the larger cutout in the carpeting. I still need to find a way to secure it to the vehicle. It sits in the small “well†under the seat, but it’s going to slide around unless I secure it. I think I can use the 2 existing skinny bolts in the floor under the seat to strap it down, or come up with something to anchor it to the seat mounting bolts. I used the Velcro supplied with the amp to mount the remote level control in the instrument panel bin. I needed to relieve a small channel for the cable into the shifter trim panel. Flash used to show where I made a hole: As far as the sound, it’s great! It’s more than I need and totally completes the upgrade from the factory. The bass is very tight and controlled (at 50% of max). It probably only needs to set to 33% to really match the speakers (which are powered by the Pioneer head (22wpc max, and 14 wpc by the CTA standard). The front speakers sound much more clear now that they are high pass filtered to only what is above 63Hz. I’m not going to impress anyone with 12†+ subs in a box, but with the windows up, it’s more than I needed to make the car sound correct. The sub has a crossover frequency dial, which I should probably set at the highest frequency (150Hz), which should mean that no crossover is being used (less distortion). The Pioneer head has the ability to set crossover points for front, rear and subwoofer, and frequency roll-off sharpness. I initially set the stereo to roll off at 63Hz (the only setting between 50 and 80hz) for my door speakers, since the Alpine’s are only flat to 70 Hz. I then cross in the sub at the same frequency. I need to play with this more. I also need to re-run the Pioneer’s pink noise and SPL car calibration it does for its equalizer now that I have the sub

If you are looking for impressive quality bass in a ridiculously small sub, look no further. This is not the bomb dropping sub in your friend's SUV, but the quality of the bass will beat the competition handily. Let's break it down Build Quality and Design - 10/10 - A heavy magnet and amplifier, solid, sleek construction, and high quality controls make this sub feel like a luxury jet compared to other subs. Seriously impressed with the look and feel. Volume - 8/10 - This subwoofer is not designed to rattle your windows or make you heard down the block. Clipping sets in at a lower level than other subs I've heard, but remember this is a TINY sub, and for it's size it kicks ass. Bass Quality - 10/10 - AMAZING sound. High quality, silky bass that fills out the music without taking over. A little goes a long way. How Low Can You Go - 7/10 - Was expecting a little more on the low end of the spectrum, the crossover quickly drops after 50hz and the low notes on trap, rap, and other music that utilizes ultra low frequencies can sometimes sound shallow. Still, it's impressive that such a small sub can even get close. Features - 10/10 - Built in amp, remote gain knob, crossovers, several inputs, extra fuzes, and more, this sub has everything you need to plug and play. All the features work smoothly together. Price - 7/10 - A hefty price tag for such a small sub, but that's why it's expensive. You have to condense EVERYTHING into this little guy. OVERALL VALUE: 9/10 - A high price tag and some lacking volume and depth hardly make a difference when you consider how good this sub sounds in such a small package. HIGHLY RECOMMEND if you are looking at micro subs, this is THE BEST ON THE MARKET!!!

I intended to put this under my driver seat, where I think it would be great. I should have looked, because there's very little room under the seat, and hot air ducts that would have been a big pain to re-route... so it went in the trunk, under the spare tire. I removed a little of the foam there that made a cradle for the spare and snuck this little woofer in. The factory system has a "free air" woofer in the rear deck and sounds very thin. This little sub has given the system a better, rounder bottom end (and hey who doesn't like a rounder bottom end?). It plays down to the claimed 25hz especially with some corner reinforcement. It is agile and tuneful- plucked upright bass, articulate electric bass lines come through with great detail and no muddiness. It's an 8" after all, it should be agile. It is not a mirror rattling car boomer- BUT it will play rap, it will play bass heavy music with reasonable volume levels, and it does all this without sacrificing trunk. My old car I had a 12" amplified box in the trunk, which was louder and would really boom, but it wasn't fast enough for more detailed sublety. Yes 12s can do that, but you have to spend $$. This is a great value, it does most of what I wanted, and I have lost no trunk. If I can find a place to add a second one I might do that just for when I want to crank it up.

My 2000 Jeep Wrangler Sahara had a Sony MEX-BT3800U head unit that the previous owner installed. He had a custom dual sub-woofer in the back but removed it and left the wiring when I bought it in 2012. Recently the TJ has become my daily driver so I decided to upgrade the sound system. With a convertible option on the Jeep, I decided Marine Grade was called for. All 4 factory speakers are easily replaced without major surgery. I got Polk dB461's for the front and dB651's for the sound bar in the back. They were a direct retrofit installed in about an hour. Great sound from the Polks. Bright and clear speakers that I'm really happy with. With the loudness on, the 651's in particular had pretty good bass but it still needed that fullness only a sub-woofer could provide. I wanted to "feel" the lows. With the wiring already in place, I considered building my own sub-woofer with a matching Polk 8 or 10" sub driver. Researching cabinets and amps, I realized loss of storage space and potential theft were significant considerations. I also don't need to vibrate the license plate. Just fill the sound band. A compact self powered sub is all I really needed. The PWE-S8 rose to the top of the choices. As it turns out, it fits invisibly under the back seat. I'm still tuning it but so far, the TJ sound is amazing over a wide range of music. I can literally feel the low keys resonate from piano and bass guitar passages. With adjustment capability at the head unit, I am able to experiment to find the sweet spot between sub and mains. The bass source location from the Alpine invisible to the ear. It's is all over the car. Exactly what I was looking for. A special note on installation and Alpine Tech Support in particular-Make sure your electrical connections are done right. I made my own ground connection on the rear seat bracket with a solid self tapping screw. Sanded the surface down to bare metal. The guys at Best Buy helped me properly run the red hot wire directly from the battery along the passenger side to the back. (The head unit wires run along the driver side. This separation eliminated any chance of interference and noise.) Then we connected to the remote-on wire (blue/white) of the head unit, plugged in the RCA connections and voila...NOTHING! No power light. We fiddled with it for about a half hour before the BB guys determined it must be the PWE-S8. I got the exchange unit from Amazon the next day thinking it will be a plug and play swap. This one didn't work either! that's when I called Alpine support and they walked me through some tests with a multi-meter. The guy emphatically said it's got to be my connection. Even though I was getting 12 volts, it dropped to 9 when the amp was under load. I know the hot was good because I saw it installed. This lead me back to the ground connection. I removed the seat bracket (2 big torx screws) and found paint on paint at the mounting point there. I sanded that down to bare metal on both surfaces, bolted it all back together and now, for real, VOILA! It worked beautifully. Self inflicted pain made a pretty straightforward installation a frustrating experience but I got it done. The Alpine PWE-S8 was the finishing touch on a great upgrade. My 2-3 hours in the Jeep in commute traffic is a lot better now. Cheers!

Update #2 So Amazon took it right back and sent me another which was amazing! Unfortunately that one blew up after 3 days (I swear my set up is legit! It was done at an Alpine authorized installer.) I will now be shopping for an entirely different sub. Full refund given 5 stars to Amazon! Oh no! Update after a few months it seems the voice coil seems wasted. I did not overdrive this sub. I well try for a replacement or repair and update as needed. For now this 5 star review is now a 1 star review. Hoping to get at least a few years out of this for the money I spent :( So far a great little Sub that fits under my the driver seat of my Volvo XC70. A few things to consider, this does not come with the 8 g "hot" wire to your battery, BUY THIS ON AMAZON vs the installer $15 vs $40! Also the installer informed me that the wired remote takes up too much power and will hurt the bass performance and advised me not to install it (I can control everything it does from the deck (mostly). The installer (Stereo Warehouse in Seattle) told me that the warranty Alpine offers is void from buying it off Amazon. As you can see none of these issues have cost this sweet sub-woofer any stars. It was easy dial in the sound, it bumps without being annoying! This is not going to shake the block but it will fill your ride with very full bass. I will update this review as needed.

Exactly what I wanted. Enough thump for my ‘24 4Runner TRD ORP. For me it sounds better under the driver’s seat. If you have upgraded Alpine Speakers all around and using an Android head unit. (CarTrimHome T12v2) Use VLC player the EQ is a better alternative to CarPlay, this app really brings out your updated sound quality. I highly recommend it!