JBL - Stage 220P 12-Inch Powered Subwoofer - Espresso

The JBL Stage 220P is part of the Stage 2 set of speakers from JBL. This series is budget friendly, but up-market in looks, with nice veneer, magnetic detachable grilles, and premium overall feel make these a contender in many homes. Is the 220P worth the cash in the mid low-end sub market though? Both units I purchased were open box models, but BestBuy appeared to ship me new units. Neither had been removed from the box and were still factory sealed. Inside the box is pretty basic stuff, including documentation, metal pegs for carpet installation, and the unit itself and grille. My application is paring 2 of these Stage 220p subwoofers with 260F floor standing speakers and a 245c center channel for the front portion of my 7.2.4 Atmos setup. These are placed next to the 260F speakers under my projector screen. The room is an a shape with sloped vaulted ceilings that meet for about 8ft of flat ceiling in the middle. These subwoofers align in the center to help produce even bass in the room. With only one subwoofer, I found large dead spots (not a fault of the 220p, but of the room design). The Stage 220p is easy to work with in most home theater installations. It supports RCA subwoofer level input, which is pretty standard these days. There is a separate volume control, cross over adjust, power mode (On or Auto), Phase (normal or reverse), and a switch for the power supply mode (120v or 220v, which comes locked to 120v unless you remove some screws). Most modern receivers will allow you to adjust the crossover for the subwoofer channel, but it's nice that this unit has an adjustable crossover if you want to tune it w/ a sound bar, or other non-home theater receiver. Installation was a breeze. My Marantz receiver has dual subwoofer outputs, so I'm able to tune individual volumes at the receiver, however each subwoofer has its own volume control. I pushed both of these to about 80% volume on the subwoofers themselves, and my Audeseey calibration put them at -12db. This felt a bit anemic after watching a few scenes and I wonder if it was characteristics of the room that caused this calibration issue (or maybe I just like boomy bass). After calibration, and further 'tweaking' in which I moved the subwoofers to -2db, I set out with some scene watching/calibrations. These speakers may not be high end $1k units, but the dual port design and large 12" driver coupled with a powerful 250w amp make them a force to be reckoned with. I found 25hz just audible, but these subwoofers can produce non-audible frequencies that you want in a home theater. I didn't find them overly boomy, unless I cranked the volume higher. These subwoofers are a dual ported design, and thus can be a bit sloppier than a sealed design. The tradeoff is great volume, and decent frequency response. The 12" drivers are definitely capable. Again, I found them quite responsive and complementary to the rest of the Stage 2 equipment I've purchased. They sound quite nice, and I found them excellent for both music and movies (with a definite lean towards movies). I'm certainly no audiophile, but I felt like for the price these definitely filled my room with the bass I crave for a home theater. I have a dedicated room for media watching, so their size is no problem for me. The fact they match the Stage 2 260F speakers so well means ascetically they match quite well. The espresso color with black grilles matches the rest of the room's vibe quite well. I received my floor standing Stage 2 260F speakers as part of a promotion/review program, but the 245c and both 220p's I purchased out of pocket. Overall while some reviewers have panned this series, properly powered, and calibrated I've been quite happy. They offer a lot more power and volume of sound compared to my old speakers. Overall I won't say they're five stars. I feel like these compete with a lot of other budget units, and while they have some more control, and a bit higher quality than some competitors in this range, they're also quite a bit more expensive. These are mid-way to a higher end sub - which for my budget theater application are perfect. I need loud, responsive, big boom speakers, and two of these completely cover my movie listening area with ease.

Plenty of bass for my smallish livingroom, I will be adding a second subwoofer to the system.

The Stage 200P was easy to unbox and set up. If you don't already know, the 10" refers to the actual woofer and the cabinet is almost 14" square. It took up a little more space than I anticipated. It paired easily and offered the full range on auto-calibration. A real quality device for the price point.

Not crazy bass but clean bass. Just what I wanted.

At under $400, the subwoofer has a nice boom and punchy feel in the seat. Not so much in love with the front cover not the fabric one but the actual subwoofer lip.