Lanzar VCTBS8 Vector 8-Inch Super-Slim 600-Watt Active High-Power Subwoofer Enclosure

I purchased this subwoofer for my truck. I had limited space, and I did not want to spend a lot of money. This subwoofer is well made, easy to install and sounds great. You really can't beat it for the price. I have already bought another one for one of my other vehicles.

This sub has a pretty good kick to it. The sub seems to favor the low end of the audio. Sometimes, you can feel the kick from the sub (mounted behind my seat) more than you can actually hear it. After making adjustments with it's settings I was able to get desirable sound after turning up the low pass filter all the way. The volume control is very handy when you don't want to hear lots of bass when listening to talk radio.

UPDATE: After 15 months of regular use, I am pleased to say that I have not had any issues with this product. The sub and it's control control knob work the same as they did when I first installed it.

Back in the 90's, Lanzar was introduced as a premium car audio brand and had a great reputation. I had several Lanzar speakers and had friends with Lanzar amps, all of which performed flawlessly over the years.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago. My wife and I bought a '93 Jeep Wrangler as a toy with no stereo at all. I installed a very capable Sony head unit and some custom speaker enclosures housing 6.5" component drivers that I mounted on the Jeep's roll bars. Where's the bass? With interior space and $ a concern, I went on the hunt for a compact subwoofer to compliment the component speakers. When I found the VCTBS8 Vector for this crazy-low price, I was a little skeptical, but the brand name carried a lot of weight with me and after reading the reviews I decided to purchase. I removed the driver's seat and mounted the Vector to the bottom of the seat, firing downward. I can still spray out the interior of the vehicle with water and not worry about getting the sub wet. Also, considering the vehicle does not lock, it's completely invisible to would-be thieves.

It does more than I had hoped -- the frequency response is excellent for such a compact unit, and the little volume knob that comes with it is very handy when listening to different types of music. I have gotten nothing but compliments from passengers in the vehicle. Bonus - when camping, I used to take a crate full of large/heavy weather-proof battery powered speakers to hook up to my Ipod, now I don't need to - this thing puts out enough bass that we can just use the Jeep as the campsite sound system. Also, the REAL RMS power output of this unit is 95 watts.

Summary: Great for COMPLEMENTING the bass output of other speakers. Amazingly compact unit, great for limited-space installs. Great brand, great price on Amazon. Great flexibility. Low power consumption (it can be run for several hours on a good car battery). So far my opinion is that I could not have made a better decision.

11/21/11 Review Update -- It's been several months now and the sub is still alive and kicking. It's survived a beating and is still great. Sounds great, no issues whatsoever. Love it. Still recommend!

12/28/11 Review Update -- Well, shortly after my last update on this product, I went camping with some buddies. We were jamming out one night and the bass started cutting out every few seconds, then would come back on for a few seconds before cutting out again. I don't know how long this had been happening before I noticed and went to inspect the unit though. Could have been immediately, could have been 30 minutes. Anyway, the unit was cool to the touch and the green "all-ok" light was staying green. Thought maybe my vehicle battery was running low but nope, voltage was fine. Head unit was fine too. I powered the Lanzar down and left it off for the rest of the trip. A few days later when I went to test it at home, it green lights with power up, but no sound output at all. Wiring & head unit are not the culprit. I think the line level inputs are shot from maybe being over driven by the head unit's high voltage line outs. I'm sad as I expected more from this brand, but I did abuse the unit, so maybe it's my fault it failed. I'll leave the rating and still recommend the product, but the abuse (ocassional water over spray, tons of dust and dirt, excessive summer heat) is maybe not recommended, and maybe don't max out your head unit's sub-output if it has a separate gain control for that....

Thanks,

Scott