The sound for the price is good. I have the volume set to 50% and the cutoff at 110dB. At these settings the sub is not "booming". The room fills with deep lows but unless you know where i placed the unit you would be hard pressed to locate it by sound. The only reason for 4 stars is that the auto feature does not work. The sub shuts off after about two minutes if the auto switch is selected to the auto position or doesn't come on at all even with low input passages being played at the source. This happens even when the sub is playing. It may be a problem on my end or the subs of that lot have bad boards on them (someday I may open it up and check/fix the board). I returned the first one for the same reason but I am going to keep this one and just power it off manually with an external foot switch. Subs with the same specs are twice the price of this unit. When this unit fails I will may go with my original choice of Outlaw Audios sub. Even at the considerable price bump. For now however, the unit in the on position does the job perfectly. The return of the original unit went flawlessly and had the replacement in about a week or so. I still like Monoprice and their products for the price are unmatched and would still recommend them. I am just simply letting you know of what you might expect with this model sub. P.S. old subs that I own work fine in auto mode on the same audio source.

This thing is a beast, and I don't think you can find a 12-inch subwoofer in this category for under $250 anywhere on the market. Purchased strictly for music, and it excels in that area, I usually keep the volume dial just below the halfway mark, and it shakes the house. My only grip is that the output is pretty low when connected via the speaker line level input compared to the RCA input. Overall, I'm enjoying my purchase. By the way, if you're placing it on a hard surface/floor, place dampening material between the subwoofer's feet and the surface to reduce vibration.

I bought 2 to replace a pair of older 8" subs, Wow what a difference in lows. I love these things.

This sub is a big step down from Monolith line. Which makes sense because of the price. The reason for low rating is because there are much better alternatives in this price range. The sub does work though just doesn't sound that great. I'm using in a spare room so not that big of a deal but I should've just spent a little more for a competitor.

When I first decided to purchase a subwoofer, some 6 months prior to the purchase. I realized the unfortunate fact that my options of visiting an actual brick & mortar store to hear the sub were limited. So, after many hours in front of a screen reviewing the hundreds of choices I had, I did infact decide on the Monoprice SW12 400 watt model # 41498. Thank God. I have been thrilled w/my selection. It has the power to shake the floor on my movies and the tightness to bring my music to life. The appearance fit with my other components well and the size was not as bad as I was lead to believe. I will point out the reviews from Wirecutter among others are what pushed me over the fence. Count me in as a big fan of the Monoprice SW12 400 watt slice of heaven. Just wish I would have decided earlier. Phil

Great room shaking sound at a super price!!!

Clean punchy solid bass you feel! Adds impactful low end to movies and music. Great Price! Great Sub! Stop thinking, get it!! Will make you smile...again and again.

This was recommended by the NY Times. I'd not heard of Monoprice before. I bought the SW-12 to upgrade an older stereo 2.0 Bose system that had a non-powered subwoofer.
As my Sony amplifier had only "speakers out" (no dedicated sub or audio out), I tried that first. The SW-12 manual indicated that choice was the least desirable, and it was correct: performance of the SW-12 was mediocre. But I subtracted 1 star for that.
So I then got a new Onyko amp with dedicated subwoofer output. A huge difference! Really deep, feel-it-in-the-chair bass. But bass distribution throughout this large room was not uniform. I needed to move it about 20' to the back corner.
But hardwiring was a problem. So I got the DYNASTY WSA-5TR bluetooth for subwoofer device. Wow it's very good with no perceptible latency. So now I have the original Bose non-powered sub in the front of the room, the SW-12 in the back, and uniform bass throughout the room.
Now if only all my music was equally balanced!

I purchased two SW-12. If I compare them with my old subwoofer (a Sony), I can very confidently say that SW-12 is a superior sub. No distortion, very clear and powerful. It does not go down to 10 Hz (I do not care, and it is unnecessary), but above 25 Hz, it is excellent. I connected them to Pioneer Andrew Jones floor speakers. Pure joy.... Also, the shipment was fast, plus, when you call monoprice, you talk to a real person :-)

Larger than I expected but I found a place for it. Not the easiest to set up with a new receiver/tuner but once my son got it set up the sound has been great and what I expected.