BIC America PL-200II Acoustech PL-200 II Indoor 250-Watt-Continuous Powered Subwoofer, Black

TLDR: Buy it now. For a new home theater upgrade, I purchased this pair of Pioneer Elite bookshelf speakers, the Elite center, and this BIC Acoustech PL-200 II, paired with the Elite LX-501 receiver. I plan on upgrading to 5.1.2 or 7.1.2 in the future with some lower end in-wall speakers (check out these BIC America HT8W 8-Inch 3-Way Acoustech Series In-Wall Speakers, 1 Pair ). Overall, I highly recommend my setup to anyone building a new home theater. Once configured, the audio output is fantastic, giving the low rumbling bass to shake the house, fantastic mids with dedicated drivers, and very clean highs. If you want a great value audio system to demolish a similarly-priced setup (like the Sonos 5.1 setup, I've listened to it, it's bad for movies and only decent for music) for the price of just $1600 including receiver. Or, for a completely Atmos-ready surround sound setup, buy the in-wall rear speakers mentioned above, and get 5.1.2 for $1720 or 7.1.2 for $1840. I will link my other reviews soon at the bottom of this review. The pictures don't do this sub justice. It's piano gloss finish looks just amazing, and it uses real-feeling vinyl "wood" for the cabinet. The grille is black and matches the rest perfectly. The bass from this is almost too good to be real. Seriously. This thing rumbles the entire house at just 50% volume at 30Hz. 20Hz is less house-shaking but still rumbles, and 40 to 50Hz are super loud (might want to tune volume down for those frequencies in the receiver settings). It sounds amazing even at 150Hz. Considering that it has a sensitivity of 110dB, and that it has a 12 inch driver, AND that it is front ported meaning it is super loud next to a wall... just buy it. Not to mention that it costs just $300, while comparable subs are about $450. At volume of 70% and lower it's also super clean, great for music, but if you push anything to 100 decibels, clarity will die (and so will your eardrums).

I rarely give 5 stars. Even if a product is very good, is it noticeably better than its competitors or truly exceed my expectations? Comparing to competitors is difficult; in this case, how many of us have access to hearing (in person) many subs around the same price point in similar settings? I don't. But I have been an audio nut for a long time, and based on that experience, I am very impressed with the performance for under $300! Volume is more than adequate for my living room. And it has a good frequency response. Decent punch at the high end for music tracks, more than enough 'boom' in the middle, and a surprising amount of low end frequencies. As always, sub placement and orientation can play a big factor in sound quality. If you have the option, move it around to find the best position. Mine need to be in a fixed location, but I did try both phase settings and ended up rotating it 90 degrees physically for the best sound. Of course, you can better quality from a more expensive sub, but if you're on a strict budget (or maybe this is for a more casual listening area), I highly recommend checking this out. My biggest issues with the sound? I wish the high frequencies were tighter, had much punch. If I turn the volume up more to increase that, there's way too much boom. Which leads to my other critique, the middle frequencies are too pronounced. Turn the volume down to tame them, and too much punch is lost. So it's a compromise. And the middle frequencies are a bit muddy and can be too "one note" at times. But again, that's compared to my ideal sound and more expensive subs; I look forward to tv and movies as this sounds light years better than my old sub.

All I can say is wow! I purchased 2 Pl-200ii for my media room and I listened to them very carefully over several days, and I have to say they are very impressive for the price. They are well made subwoofers with the elegant gloss top. The subwoofer is quite compact for a 12" box compared to the new SVS PB-2000 Pro which is much larger in size and 22lbs heavier. Ive heard some people call this sub a "budget sub", but I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt this Pl-200ii is definitely not a budget sub. More like a good mid level sub because of the built and sound quality. I pushed this sub hard by testing my favorite movies and music with deep clean bass ( Godzilla king of the monsters). The subwoofer produced deep, clean bass with no distortion at the ports. I loved this sub so much I went ahead and purchase 4 more for my home theater room replacing 2 15" Premier Acoustic subs PA-150 (which sound great by the way) but I felt having 4 12" subs at 4 corners will sound even better and more immersive than having 2 15" subs. In short, this Pl-200ii will definitely give you deep clean bass in any high end home theater/media room setting.