drill a starter hole in the metal screen, then your screwdriver should push through, leaving the burrs and sharp edges facing inward...I bet a returns guy would 90% miss the enlarged grille holes above the screws if you were to send it back on warranty.
The recoil audio powered sub with 10 inch passive radiator is more power a better box and can be on sale for about same price. . it's definitely a better buy. Thank you for this awesome video it's good to know what these are about. And it's just fun .
Interesting enclosure design and solid value for the price. Crazy how the drivers are a part of the cast for the enclosure, I guess it was cheaper that way. As said would be a decent package to use for adding some of that higher bass response to a basic system lacking it. I would be curious to see how it performs in the Sequoia compared to the '37 Ford, given the different cabin peaks. Nicely done video and happy holidays Big D!
I am puzzled by the use of a class a/b amp in this sub. Unlike the JBL and others, this is clearly a well thought out design not aimed at the lowest cost. There were investments in the castings for the enclosure, the physical layout of the amp board, and the passive radiator vs a port. Are the components for a class a/b so much cheaper that its worth using them even in a custom amplifier like the one in this unit? Thanks for keeping it interesting Big D.
Being Rockville, it's probably something from a Chinese factory catalog that's marketed differently elsewhere. Rockville doesn't design or engineer anything, it's all off the shelf ready for a name to be slapped on it. With the advancements in technology of amplifiers in the past 20 years, they could have easily opted for a class D amplifier and actually had their first successful product. This is still decent for so many, and it will definitely work for its target market, but it could have been better.
Yeah I was thinking the same thing there was obviously some investment in engineering the passive and active drivers with the cabinet and then they take a custom circuit board and put crap components on it to power the active driver. For the crowd this type of product is aimed at I would guess they would be willing to pay a few more bucks for a legit 200 watts from a class D amp instead of this joker setup
Honestly Rockville is one of the best price to performance speakers out there! I have a Rockville bass tube, and it still works 6 years later! It's impressed me quite a bit!
@xdrm24 Agreed! I bought a rockville marine 8 channel marine amp with built in blue tooth, it sounds great with 6.5 and 6x9. However if you use the Bluetooth every time you power up it plays at max volume starting, wtf? And I blew every channel I hooked the sub to. Really weird. Rockville is cool because of the massive range of products but sad it couldn't hold up. I ended up buying a cadence bluetooth controller and now wish I'd just went with a skar without the Bluetooth in the first place. It's cool you live and learn.
I'm pretty impressed with the Rockville stuff for just cheap powered "extra bass" to toss into a stock headunit vehicle. I have an 8in spare tire mounted powered rockville sub in the wife's SUV and it sounds pretty good. I bought a 12in powered spare tire mounted sub for my car, and it really does well for it's cheap price and power level. It shakes the car and sounds decent enough. These units mount right inside the spare tire itself! I like the looks Rockville's compact truck under-seat mount subs too, and have been considering one for my dad's truck. Would I use Rockville for a higher end setup that I cared a bout? Nope. Am I really enjoying it for the cheap price, decent sound quality, and stealth zero space mounting options of the spare tire mounted subs? Absolutely!
@@jbstillman hey I threw 2x Rockville's 12" 1200 max active subs in'a 2020 charger with just the factory head unit and plugged um in high and they hit surprisingly hard!
Great review and testing. I bought this when it first came out due to its size and thought it was pretty good performance for size and price. Thanks for taking it apart to show the inside.
Interesting vid! One thing that occurs to me is that you could play with the tuning frequency by changing the weight on the passive radiator. Could possibly get more low frequency output
@@russellzauner You can, you just have to use a real woofer and use another amp to provide a load. ;-) The easiest way to lower the tuning frequency is to epoxy fender washers to the middle of the PR. Of course the box is pretty tiny, probably not going to matter much.
When using something this small, I'm not one to tune for max db, I shoot for a flat response to at least 35hz. In lieu of tuning the enclosure or PR in this case, adding power where the extension rolls off can be a blessing and a curse because, with each 3db rise in output, you have to double the output power delivered. I can't see this thing handling the power needed for it to create 120db at 35hz, not for long anyway.
love your stuff - your channel actually got me back into audio. I bought a Rockville RMW8P 8" narrow sub enclose (passive) for my small car that I use with an Earthquake Sound MiNi D1000.4 (Gen 2) and it sounds really good. I know Rockville isn't high-end but for price I am very happy with the performance in my small car.
Some kid got this for Christmas this morning then looked up TH-cam videos about how to install the thing and stumbled upon this video. I’m kinda blown away over how the whole thing is cast as one big chunk.
Rockville is pretty underrated. I’ve owned a few of their subs, and they’ve always put a smile on my face! My current setup is a single Rockville Destroyer 15D1, mated with a Krypton M5 mono amp. Best bang for the buck subwoofer and amp, with very impressive lows inverted inside a ported box. It was going to cost me around $300 more for a similar Skar setup, and way more for bigger brands.
I’ve got a 94 miata. It has absolutely zero bass. I think this would be perfect for the tiny trunk in it! Don’t trying to be like my Tahoe but would like more than just treble
I just got this thing installed in my Volvo xc90 and once I got it all set properly it sounds amazing. Very happy with it. I would recommend this sub to anyone.
This sub reminds me of the original Infinity Basslink from the late 2000s. The Basslink was pretty impressive for what it was. It too had a 10" woofer and passive radiator, but it had a composite enclosure and a "200 watt" class D amplifier. It would be a great product to do a video on if you can find one. I had one for while and was pretty impressed with it's output considering it's relatively small form factor. There was nothing else like it at the time.
Passive radiators are a interesting way of getting bass. To get the lower bass notes you need to put weights on the cone to lower but it does take away the upper bass. Its all about balance. Also a way of telling when the phase run out is run a hertz cycle, when the two drivers are working together the passive has done its job. When a passive is working, the woofer would look as if its not working and the passive is going hard. I've built a home theater system with passives and I can get 20 htz out of a single box. Does need at least 2 subs to make up for the loss from the woofers. Does sound super clear and true.
Imo the best rep I've seen from Rockville. Again it's Rockville, i didnt see 200 watts comin, Wires were wrapped, Had polyfill. Tuned way to hi for me but for the $? Not bad at all. Excellent video
I had thought it would be cool of you to test the sub with external amplification as soon as I saw that low power output from the internal amp. Thank you for thinking of every way to demo and explain a product.
Interesting enclosure with the driver built in, all shot in 2 castings, while not standard, in a product like this it's cool to see. Like those low profile speakers with the internal magnets that look like a passive radiator.
I have a challenge...A $100-200 10/12" Dayton home powered sub, run with an inverter, in a vehicle, would probably be better than most of these "budget" powered subs. Try it for science! Merry Christmas Big D!
Great content big D I been wishing for more "real world" tests on this type of equipment and you've given me a great Christmas gift thank you!! I would never consider buying a product like this but I do appreciate the engineering that was put into the casting of the drivers integral with the cabinet. I think that's cool I wonder if it's a knocked off design from a legit brand? A bit more airspace and a class D amp with double the RMS output and they'd have a winner here! I'd bet folks would have even been willing to pay a few bucks more for a product that gets approval from influencers like you. Manufacturures will eventually wise up and improve on products like this based on reviews from folks like you and the feedback here in the comments. Bass onnn my friend
Very interesting. I heard that most amps that Rockville makes are up to the spec in terms of wattage, and Rockville claims that they are CEA rated. I bought a Rockville DB11 sub amp a year ago for my 5.1 sound system because it was very cheap at that time and has a lot of watts. I'm using a 750W HP server power supply to power it indoors. The amp comes with a dyno sheet in the box that says 233 watts RMS at 4 Ohm and 1% THD+N and 391 watts RMS at 2 Ohm and 1% THD+N. Hopefully the dyno sheet is genuine and it does what it claims. It is able to flex a kicker CompR 8 inch sub hard at high volume and is able to make a cheap sub's coil smelly (and possibly blows it if I turn up the volume higher).
I bought some Rockville PA subs, 15 inch passive and I was shocked to see how nice the drivers were. Couple years kicking bass drums and bass guitar through them and no issues.
Great video! I suggest tagging or titling this video for people who are trying to research on this particular sub, I don’t think it’ll show up in search unless you tag it.
I think it is the passive radiator is not going to do right but without it will do greater. And yes that amp is TRASH THE JP8 MAKE THE DIFFERENCE BIG TIME nice review on this one
6:02 quite surprising the apparent build quality. I run a Rockville PA 12” and though the sound quality is a bit muddy, can’t beat the durability of it. This loaded box has a bit more qualities built in, with the amount of baffling
How about some tests of head units? They're rated at 200w (50w × 4 channels), but that's ~16a @ 12.5v, and since cars have frequently had 10 - 15a fuses for the radio… That can't be right!
Most heat units are 14w/ch as they use the same amp chip with the exception of some older Alpine and Pioneer and also Sony has a more powerful model that’s a true 50x4
Every head unit that I purchased including pioneer, Alpine, Kenwood, JVC. I never used the internal amplifiers to drive anything. That's just me, 99% of the time I used a two amplifier system. One monoblock driving either one or two subwoofers. Followed by a good quality 4 channel amplifier running my mids and highs. I've done many installs over the years. This is the way I do it, to each his own.
Some feedback: I like the tests and the multi faceted approach to this. I found that the tests for the spl levels seemed to drag on a little. I would suggest pulling the “bass incoming” delays each time. I would also like to see a sweep to find the resonant frequency and then a spl bump that that frequency. Maybe two more bumps at 32hz and 55 hz. Three tests at a max for spl per set up. I did like the external amp. That was cool. Overall this was great content and a great addition to your standard formula.
To really do this properly requires some form of RTA. If you look at the snapshot of each of the sine tones its clear that the sub is progressively distorting more and more below about 50 Hz from the wave no longer being sinusoidal. Further the microphones in the smartphone are not accurate and are significant sources of error in their own right. Finding anything meaningfully accurate about the tuning will be quite difficult. Personally I think sticking with what Dereck currently does but with maybe some more streamlining quite acceptable given the limitations of the current test and the audience mainly being concerned with SPL output. Trying to extract more information without going to a dedicated setup for measuring SPLs with some form of calibrated microphone and instrumentation isn't going to be very meaningful due to how much error there can be. Yeah we could invest in an inexpensive measurement microphone and go to something like REW or a similar package but that might complicate things beyond what they need to be.
And this doesn't even include the consideration that the SPLs here are likely due to the fact that the amplifier is probably close to flat-topping and this means it can generate substantially higher SPLs than it could if we had a 1% THD limit for its power output when determining SPLs. Run like this its basically a class-D amplifier that only plays square-waves. It will be quite loud, but with distortion in place of the music. The test would need to take this into account so we don't measure the wrong thing.
dude, most of us want it to sound good at all frequencies, not just the only one the speaker can handle. why do you think these rip off artists test at 1khz?!
@@XX-121 Most internal sub amps are not designed to play at 1 kHz. There's no reason to make it full range, and extending its bandwidth needlessly just creates more problems and solves none since its not needed. Technically this is a class-AB so it may be able to play full-range depending on how its set up, but any real measurements (THD, noise, etc.) would not extend past 250 Hz.
Hey big D have you ever tested or heard of wondom class d amplifier boards been thinking of getting one but I think you you are the most credible amp tester on TH-cam
Cool design but pretty much throw away if the driver ever gets damaged. I guess it’s cheap enough but still… I just bought the Cerwin Vega UPAS12 for my single cab truck. Was looking at the Kicker 46hs10 but found the CV on Amazon for $200 which was about $100 cheaper. Sounds good enough for me paired with an old Alpine cassette deck and some Hertz component speakers “probably” overkill and the Kenwood marine mini amp powering them. It’s in my old F250 snow plow truck so keeps me rockin while I’m pushing snow lol Merry Christmas everyone!
I have a Fosgate P300-10 powered sub. I like it since it fits behind the seat in my regular cab truck, is 300w rms (I’m apt to believe it’s legit since it’s a RF), and has tight bass thanks to the sealed box. Works really well with my simple setup. Wouldn’t mind seeing you test it.
Those things are monsters. I'm debating on buying another one and running Two of them or building a custom box. Don't have a ton of extra space but needs the bass
Love that D4S jp8. Cant wait until I get it with that awesome remote knob. These amps remind me of the US AMPS. I was at the 93 IASCA Finals in Tulsa and US AMPS were demonstrating that they could light pencils on fire and cut soda pop cans in half. Rating that these amps could run at a "dead short". Impressive. Yeah boi👍 The sub here is an entry level on a budget speaker, plain and simple.
Big "D" that was a great review. I've noticed every time you give a thumbs up the item goes up in price. It's to be expected. I appreciate your science bud.
Thanks for that. Interesting. I spend a descent amount on my Car and home audio...and sometimes the cheap stuff is better. I say that because of deminishing returns on your money has a stopping point. Twice the money but 5% better sound and or less noise or whatever your subjective ears are hearing. Case in point for a few instances Ive had. Bought a Sennheiser Ambeo soundbar which has tons of bass for standalone bar and super $$$.Then I bought a cheap Elac 10 sub for $130. Then tried a Polk 10 sub $350. Guess what? Took the Polk back. Elac has just as much bass as Polk, smaller, hits super low,but more tjan 3x price. Only down side to Elac is gain noise which can be tuned out almost all the way or I just unplug it when its not used. Great vid👍
Seems like a fair setup for the price. Would be nice if the box was wood. Plastic boxes sound weird to me. Sub looks great without the grill over it. Nice test and vid as always. 😎👍👍
I'm looking at adding this subwoofer to a Rockford fosgate pmx-1 stage 2 system to a Polaris ranger can you really hear or feel the bass from this sub?
Put a pair of Rockville RW10CA 10" active subs under each front seats of my Ford Explorer Sport. It came with the Sony system, and factory subwoofer. I didn't want to replace the factory system, but wanted a bit more low end. I can't complain about the results, more low end, and they have been working for over 5 years now.
Most Rockville branded stuff I've come across performs "OK" for the price point. I've used their distributed sound system (ceiling speakers) and amp for piping music to an office.
I like how you rip things apart for "science". This JBL is what it is...for the price. I am not a fan of powered speakers...never know what voodoo Chinese magic fairy dust was installed. However, I do own a Klipsch SPL-120 (12" home audio powered sub) that does really well and hits deep (Klipsch did a helluva job tuning this sub!).
I was waiting for him to pull the Rockville box out of the Rockville box, just to find another Rockville box, lol. Then I wanted to see it catch on fire.
It would probably sound better if the passive was tuned lower. (More weight) looks like that 93hz was a third order tone and there was a strong 62hz 2nd order tone too. It would be great to do a test with the passive tuned lower, to see it hit low. I bet it would. 😮
I have a Rockville DB 45 for over a year never went into protect mode but it does get warm. It does better than my mtx 75.4 which stayed in and out of protection
I've had one running old school square kickers hard for 6 years, love that amp. They get a lot of hate, I guess they've gone down in quality last few years
Seems to be on most of the low dollar powered subs, it’s the power amp is not enough power. But it is good enough to give some bass to a vehicle that has no bass at all. Especially a lease or work car.
Great vid Big D. EXO had exposed Rockville and cheap Subs a while back I'm sure they've gotten a little better on some of there products. I personally say push it to the max let's see what it can really handle?😁
Rockville is one of the better budget brands. I ran a RVA-M3 for a while and it did great for the money. Felt solid and seemed to hit their "cea rated" numbers. I know they had some issues in the past, but I would take them over a lot of the low budget brands
You should get a Dayton WT3 for when you test these woofers. Then we will know if they are in the appropriate box. Based off the curve, I see a high qts driver in too small of a box. Add another ft3 and then see what it does 👌
I was thinking the same thing...test the sub in an optimum enclosure. Then I read some of the other comments and realized that the sub and radiator baskets, are cast into the encloser. Which, is a super weird manufacturing decision. 😒
Great video. Thank you for the technical testing as well. This is the only sub box I have seen with 2 subwoofers. Why are they both not powered? Is there some benefits to that setup? Thanks.
From the halls of Monta-zoom-er.........maybe this enclosure would sound better under a bucket. Seriously though, this could certainly add depth to a factory stereo. For the money, it's a winner! These powered enclosure tests are very interesting, Big D! 👍
Kind of looks like a home theater subwoofer. Rockville does also sell home audio, so it wouldn't be too out of the question for them to use a home theater sub as a base and modify it for car audio. Was hopping to hear the "do it bump doe" segment with the built in amplifier but definitely looks like it's been used with an external. Rockville's slim wedge style powered sub seems to be the most common, and people usually say it sounds decent enough with the integrated amp. I was curious if the included powered would be enough to consider the whole thing satisfactory, especially when you consider the amount of space it takes up.
*SHOP*
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Car Audio Subwoofers Playlist: bit.ly/3HNdn3b
*VIDEO INDEX*
0:00 Intro
0:47 Unboxing
1:47 Features and Specs
2:37 SPL Tests
4:44 What's Inside?
6:29 Amp Dyno Tests
8:49 Adding External Amp?
9:24 SPL Tests Part 2
10:45 Do it BUMP Doe?
11:29 Pros and Cons
12:16 Final Thoughts
12:42 Extras!
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_DISCLAIMER: This video and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase from one of the product links, I may receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases_
Merry Christmas to you and your family Big D! Thank for the video you're the best!
drill a starter hole in the metal screen, then your screwdriver should push through, leaving the burrs and sharp edges facing inward...I bet a returns guy would 90% miss the enlarged grille holes above the screws if you were to send it back on warranty.
Rockville is not bad for price but its not great.i bought a punisher 10” and blew it,and made it a 15” and my friend at work jams it everyday.
The recoil audio powered sub with 10 inch passive radiator is more power a better box and can be on sale for about same price. . it's definitely a better buy. Thank you for this awesome video it's good to know what these are about. And it's just fun .
Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@wal Merry Christmas and great fun video to watch . The custom power mod was awesome
That would be interesting to see
I really like recoil audios 9 wire. It's beefier than the name brands!
Interesting enclosure design and solid value for the price. Crazy how the drivers are a part of the cast for the enclosure, I guess it was cheaper that way. As said would be a decent package to use for adding some of that higher bass response to a basic system lacking it. I would be curious to see how it performs in the Sequoia compared to the '37 Ford, given the different cabin peaks. Nicely done video and happy holidays Big D!
These are fun and cheap content for you to create, I've never stopped looking at and wondering about all the
I am puzzled by the use of a class a/b amp in this sub. Unlike the JBL and others, this is clearly a well thought out design not aimed at the lowest cost. There were investments in the castings for the enclosure, the physical layout of the amp board, and the passive radiator vs a port. Are the components for a class a/b so much cheaper that its worth using them even in a custom amplifier like the one in this unit?
Thanks for keeping it interesting Big D.
The cheap A/B amps are like $10 cost. Like I said we usually praise AB amps for SQ but the cheapo ones are an exception
Just Cockville getting whatever they can for cheap to sell a product. That's what they do.
The super cheap designs its cheaper to use class A/B its just the chinese factory using old leftover obsolete parts.
Being Rockville, it's probably something from a Chinese factory catalog that's marketed differently elsewhere. Rockville doesn't design or engineer anything, it's all off the shelf ready for a name to be slapped on it. With the advancements in technology of amplifiers in the past 20 years, they could have easily opted for a class D amplifier and actually had their first successful product. This is still decent for so many, and it will definitely work for its target market, but it could have been better.
Yeah I was thinking the same thing there was obviously some investment in engineering the passive and active drivers with the cabinet and then they take a custom circuit board and put crap components on it to power the active driver. For the crowd this type of product is aimed at I would guess they would be willing to pay a few more bucks for a legit 200 watts from a class D amp instead of this joker setup
Honestly Rockville is one of the best price to performance speakers out there! I have a Rockville bass tube, and it still works 6 years later! It's impressed me quite a bit!
These are for people who are looking for a clean sounding "factory" subwoofer, where it doesn't distort the factory speakers when the bass hits.
Rockville is okay. Skar is a much better bang for your buck! I bought an 18inch with a box for like $280
@xdrm24 Agreed! I bought a rockville marine 8 channel marine amp with built in blue tooth, it sounds great with 6.5 and 6x9. However if you use the Bluetooth every time you power up it plays at max volume starting, wtf? And I blew every channel I hooked the sub to. Really weird. Rockville is cool because of the massive range of products but sad it couldn't hold up. I ended up buying a cadence bluetooth controller and now wish I'd just went with a skar without the Bluetooth in the first place. It's cool you live and learn.
Rockville is probably one of the worst car audio companies with the lowest quality right next to Pyle
@@suckanegg6691 Agreed. They have had some SERIOUS problems with their products.
I'm pretty impressed with the Rockville stuff for just cheap powered "extra bass" to toss into a stock headunit vehicle. I have an 8in spare tire mounted powered rockville sub in the wife's SUV and it sounds pretty good. I bought a 12in powered spare tire mounted sub for my car, and it really does well for it's cheap price and power level. It shakes the car and sounds decent enough. These units mount right inside the spare tire itself! I like the looks Rockville's compact truck under-seat mount subs too, and have been considering one for my dad's truck. Would I use Rockville for a higher end setup that I cared a bout? Nope. Am I really enjoying it for the cheap price, decent sound quality, and stealth zero space mounting options of the spare tire mounted subs? Absolutely!
@@jbstillman hey I threw 2x Rockville's 12" 1200 max active subs in'a 2020 charger with just the factory head unit and plugged um in high and they hit surprisingly hard!
Great review and testing. I bought this when it first came out due to its size and thought it was pretty good performance for size and price. Thanks for taking it apart to show the inside.
Interesting vid! One thing that occurs to me is that you could play with the tuning frequency by changing the weight on the passive radiator. Could possibly get more low frequency output
too bad I can't tune the mass while stimulus is being applied...
@@91CavGT5 for sure, I love seeing how much improvement, or loss, of sound happens when "tuning" ..
@@russellzauner You can, you just have to use a real woofer and use another amp to provide a load. ;-)
The easiest way to lower the tuning frequency is to epoxy fender washers to the middle of the PR. Of course the box is pretty tiny, probably not going to matter much.
When using something this small, I'm not one to tune for max db, I shoot for a flat response to at least 35hz. In lieu of tuning the enclosure or PR in this case, adding power where the extension rolls off can be a blessing and a curse because, with each 3db rise in output, you have to double the output power delivered.
I can't see this thing handling the power needed for it to create 120db at 35hz, not for long anyway.
@@PoXFreak I don't disagree that's the likely outcome. I just think it would be an interesting wrinkle, since this is a tear-down and test situation.
love your stuff - your channel actually got me back into audio. I bought a Rockville RMW8P 8" narrow sub enclose (passive) for my small car that I use with an Earthquake Sound MiNi D1000.4 (Gen 2) and it sounds really good. I know Rockville isn't high-end but for price I am very happy with the performance in my small car.
Hows it going so far? I hear they break fast
@@ok-eh7zm been using it for a few months now with no issue.
Some kid got this for Christmas this morning then looked up TH-cam videos about how to install the thing and stumbled upon this video.
I’m kinda blown away over how the whole thing is cast as one big chunk.
Rockville is pretty underrated. I’ve owned a few of their subs, and they’ve always put a smile on my face! My current setup is a single Rockville Destroyer 15D1, mated with a Krypton M5 mono amp. Best bang for the buck subwoofer and amp, with very impressive lows inverted inside a ported box. It was going to cost me around $300 more for a similar Skar setup, and way more for bigger brands.
please keep reviewing these! i want to get that doesn't suck! thank you love your channel! Also, shallow powered subs and shallow 12 in subs!
I’ve got a 94 miata. It has absolutely zero bass. I think this would be perfect for the tiny trunk in it! Don’t trying to be like my Tahoe but would like more than just treble
THE Rockville RW10CA is fantastic. I have one in my GMC Sierra. It’s awesome. The bass is just tremendous. $159 on Amazon
Cast alum enclosure with integral basket is cool, wouldn't be out of place on a high end design. Looks really well built and designed actually.
I just got this thing installed in my Volvo xc90 and once I got it all set properly it sounds amazing. Very happy with it. I would recommend this sub to anyone.
This sub reminds me of the original Infinity Basslink from the late 2000s. The Basslink was pretty impressive for what it was. It too had a 10" woofer and passive radiator, but it had a composite enclosure and a "200 watt" class D amplifier. It would be a great product to do a video on if you can find one. I had one for while and was pretty impressed with it's output considering it's relatively small form factor. There was nothing else like it at the time.
Exactly what I was thinking and should’ve shown a photo comparison
I wish other manufacturers would make more options for fuller range higher sensitivity subwoofers like Infinity
@@wal ...but at half the price of the Infinity
I still have an infinity bass link, 8 years and still going. I just ordered a jbl bass prohub for my other car ( fingers crossed)
@@johnthomasmoulton8934 … I suspect that Rockville will not be around in 8 years
Passive radiators are a interesting way of getting bass. To get the lower bass notes you need to put weights on the cone to lower but it does take away the upper bass. Its all about balance. Also a way of telling when the phase run out is run a hertz cycle, when the two drivers are working together the passive has done its job. When a passive is working, the woofer would look as if its not working and the passive is going hard. I've built a home theater system with passives and I can get 20 htz out of a single box. Does need at least 2 subs to make up for the loss from the woofers. Does sound super clear and true.
Imo the best rep I've seen from Rockville. Again it's Rockville, i didnt see 200 watts comin, Wires were wrapped, Had polyfill. Tuned way to hi for me but for the $? Not bad at all. Excellent video
Thanks for watching and commenting!
I do like, that Recoil uses a class D on most of their all in one setups
Really liking the new content and how your mixing tings up. Keep up the good work Big D!
Sir thanks a lot for respectfully opening the box, we really appreciate people treating valuables neatly👍🏻
I had thought it would be cool of you to test the sub with external amplification as soon as I saw that low power output from the internal amp. Thank you for thinking of every way to demo and explain a product.
That intro beat timed with the woofer excursion is epic.
Interesting enclosure with the driver built in, all shot in 2 castings, while not standard, in a product like this it's cool to see. Like those low profile speakers with the internal magnets that look like a passive radiator.
I have a challenge...A $100-200 10/12" Dayton home powered sub, run with an inverter, in a vehicle, would probably be better than most of these "budget" powered subs. Try it for science!
Merry Christmas Big D!
Great content big D I been wishing for more "real world" tests on this type of equipment and you've given me a great Christmas gift thank you!! I would never consider buying a product like this but I do appreciate the engineering that was put into the casting of the drivers integral with the cabinet. I think that's cool I wonder if it's a knocked off design from a legit brand? A bit more airspace and a class D amp with double the RMS output and they'd have a winner here! I'd bet folks would have even been willing to pay a few bucks more for a product that gets approval from influencers like you. Manufacturures will eventually wise up and improve on products like this based on reviews from folks like you and the feedback here in the comments. Bass onnn my friend
Very interesting. I heard that most amps that Rockville makes are up to the spec in terms of wattage, and Rockville claims that they are CEA rated. I bought a Rockville DB11 sub amp a year ago for my 5.1 sound system because it was very cheap at that time and has a lot of watts. I'm using a 750W HP server power supply to power it indoors. The amp comes with a dyno sheet in the box that says 233 watts RMS at 4 Ohm and 1% THD+N and 391 watts RMS at 2 Ohm and 1% THD+N. Hopefully the dyno sheet is genuine and it does what it claims. It is able to flex a kicker CompR 8 inch sub hard at high volume and is able to make a cheap sub's coil smelly (and possibly blows it if I turn up the volume higher).
I bought some Rockville PA subs, 15 inch passive and I was shocked to see how nice the drivers were. Couple years kicking bass drums and bass guitar through them and no issues.
We have this in our 2011 Kia sportage and it’s great for what you hear it’s not going to rock the neighborhood but we love it
Great video! I suggest tagging or titling this video for people who are trying to research on this particular sub, I don’t think it’ll show up in search unless you tag it.
I think it is the passive radiator is not going to do right but without it will do greater. And yes that amp is TRASH THE JP8 MAKE THE DIFFERENCE BIG TIME nice review on this one
Excellent test. Love the way you added the banana plugs for the external amp test. Keep'em coming Big Dee.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
6:02 quite surprising the apparent build quality.
I run a Rockville PA 12” and though the sound quality is a bit muddy, can’t beat the durability of it.
This loaded box has a bit more qualities built in, with the amount of baffling
I’d love to see you add some weight to the radiator and see if it drops the tuning!
👌😬👍
Completely agree. But only interesting with the modded add on amp. Stock would be a bore fest sadly....
How about some tests of head units?
They're rated at 200w (50w × 4 channels), but that's ~16a @ 12.5v, and since cars have frequently had 10 - 15a fuses for the radio…
That can't be right!
Most heat units are 14w/ch as they use the same amp chip with the exception of some older Alpine and Pioneer and also Sony has a more powerful model that’s a true 50x4
Every head unit that I purchased including pioneer, Alpine, Kenwood, JVC. I never used the internal amplifiers to drive anything. That's just me, 99% of the time I used a two amplifier system. One monoblock driving either one or two subwoofers. Followed by a good quality 4 channel amplifier running my mids and highs. I've done many installs over the years. This is the way I do it, to each his own.
I'm using only a head unit to save weight, and while most are the same, it would be nice to know which aren't, & the real numbers.
Some feedback: I like the tests and the multi faceted approach to this. I found that the tests for the spl levels seemed to drag on a little. I would suggest pulling the “bass incoming” delays each time. I would also like to see a sweep to find the resonant frequency and then a spl bump that that frequency. Maybe two more bumps at 32hz and 55 hz. Three tests at a max for spl per set up. I did like the external amp. That was cool.
Overall this was great content and a great addition to your standard formula.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
To really do this properly requires some form of RTA. If you look at the snapshot of each of the sine tones its clear that the sub is progressively distorting more and more below about 50 Hz from the wave no longer being sinusoidal. Further the microphones in the smartphone are not accurate and are significant sources of error in their own right. Finding anything meaningfully accurate about the tuning will be quite difficult. Personally I think sticking with what Dereck currently does but with maybe some more streamlining quite acceptable given the limitations of the current test and the audience mainly being concerned with SPL output. Trying to extract more information without going to a dedicated setup for measuring SPLs with some form of calibrated microphone and instrumentation isn't going to be very meaningful due to how much error there can be. Yeah we could invest in an inexpensive measurement microphone and go to something like REW or a similar package but that might complicate things beyond what they need to be.
And this doesn't even include the consideration that the SPLs here are likely due to the fact that the amplifier is probably close to flat-topping and this means it can generate substantially higher SPLs than it could if we had a 1% THD limit for its power output when determining SPLs. Run like this its basically a class-D amplifier that only plays square-waves. It will be quite loud, but with distortion in place of the music. The test would need to take this into account so we don't measure the wrong thing.
dude, most of us want it to sound good at all frequencies, not just the only one the speaker can handle. why do you think these rip off artists test at 1khz?!
@@XX-121 Most internal sub amps are not designed to play at 1 kHz. There's no reason to make it full range, and extending its bandwidth needlessly just creates more problems and solves none since its not needed. Technically this is a class-AB so it may be able to play full-range depending on how its set up, but any real measurements (THD, noise, etc.) would not extend past 250 Hz.
Hey big D have you ever tested or heard of wondom class d amplifier boards been thinking of getting one but I think you you are the most credible amp tester on TH-cam
Cool design but pretty much throw away if the driver ever gets damaged. I guess it’s cheap enough but still…
I just bought the Cerwin Vega UPAS12 for my single cab truck. Was looking at the Kicker 46hs10 but found the CV on Amazon for $200 which was about $100 cheaper. Sounds good enough for me paired with an old Alpine cassette deck and some Hertz component speakers “probably” overkill and the Kenwood marine mini amp powering them. It’s in my old F250 snow plow truck so keeps me rockin while I’m pushing snow lol Merry Christmas everyone!
Excellent!!
I have a Fosgate P300-10 powered sub. I like it since it fits behind the seat in my regular cab truck, is 300w rms (I’m apt to believe it’s legit since it’s a RF), and has tight bass thanks to the sealed box. Works really well with my simple setup. Wouldn’t mind seeing you test it.
Those things are monsters. I'm debating on buying another one and running Two of them or building a custom box. Don't have a ton of extra space but needs the bass
Love that D4S jp8. Cant wait until I get it with that awesome remote knob. These amps remind me of the US AMPS. I was at the 93 IASCA Finals in Tulsa and US AMPS were demonstrating that they could light pencils on fire and cut soda pop cans in half. Rating that these amps could run at a "dead short". Impressive. Yeah boi👍 The sub here is an entry level on a budget speaker, plain and simple.
Shout out to Rockville they are a great company I have purchased a few of their items and I enjoy their products
Tip moving forward... instead of ripping off grill, try drilling a hole. Grill might crack but no elbow grease needed to reach screws.
Big "D" that was a great review. I've noticed every time you give a thumbs up the item goes up in price. It's to be expected. I appreciate your science bud.
Really cool video. In my experience a cheap sub in a decent box with a cheap amp will out do these every time.
Agreed
Such a great channel. The A/B kills it for me, sad to see an underoptimized sub.
Wilson PLEASE PLEASE do a demo with say 4 of these Rockville subs..
Cool video man. I like the old clip at the end with the sound wave.
Thanks for that. Interesting. I spend a descent amount on my Car and home audio...and sometimes the cheap stuff is better. I say that because of deminishing returns on your money has a stopping point. Twice the money but 5% better sound and or less noise or whatever your subjective ears are hearing. Case in point for a few instances Ive had. Bought a Sennheiser Ambeo soundbar which has tons of bass for standalone bar and super $$$.Then I bought a cheap Elac 10 sub for $130. Then tried a Polk 10 sub $350. Guess what? Took the Polk back. Elac has just as much bass as Polk, smaller, hits super low,but more tjan 3x price. Only down side to Elac is gain noise which can be tuned out almost all the way or I just unplug it when its not used. Great vid👍
Great video, ive been eyeballing these. Think ill wait for something a little better
Thanks for the video bro on Christmas a lot of us are by ourselves
Merry Christmas brother!
Yup...that'd be me as well
Really curious to see how the rockford fosgate p-series powered subs perform
I recently got a fosgate 10 built in amp in a box for a pickup single cab tucks pretty good behind the seat and it jams
Rockville is excellent.I have a home stereo Receiver by rockville never had a problem with it sounds excellent
Sir, what app was being used in the spl test?
Seems like a fair setup for the price. Would be nice if the box was wood. Plastic boxes sound weird to me. Sub looks great without the grill over it.
Nice test and vid as always. 😎👍👍
It’s cast aluminum
@@wal oh wow. That's different. 😎👍👍
Installed these in a couple UTVs they are great sounding, and so far have held up great to off road abuse.
I'm looking at adding this subwoofer to a Rockford fosgate pmx-1 stage 2 system to a Polaris ranger can you really hear or feel the bass from this sub?
haha, the weightlifting facial expressions! Merry Christmas dude
I like your enthusiasm for bass , i also try and get the best from equipment by alterations if i have to
Put a pair of Rockville RW10CA 10" active subs under each front seats of my Ford Explorer Sport. It came with the Sony system, and factory subwoofer. I didn't want to replace the factory system, but wanted a bit more low end. I can't complain about the results, more low end, and they have been working for over 5 years now.
Most Rockville branded stuff I've come across performs "OK" for the price point. I've used their distributed sound system (ceiling speakers) and amp for piping music to an office.
I like how you rip things apart for "science". This JBL is what it is...for the price. I am not a fan of powered speakers...never know what voodoo Chinese magic fairy dust was installed. However, I do own a Klipsch SPL-120 (12" home audio powered sub) that does really well and hits deep (Klipsch did a helluva job tuning this sub!).
Huge difference between what you have and this garbage.
Agreed, also the 10” Polk Audio subwoofer I reviewed (home audio) at the time was only $99 and it sounds great. I’m still using it in my living room 👍
Merry Christmas, big D .
I was waiting for him to pull the Rockville box out of the Rockville box, just to find another Rockville box, lol. Then I wanted to see it catch on fire.
It would probably sound better if the passive was tuned lower. (More weight) looks like that 93hz was a third order tone and there was a strong 62hz 2nd order tone too. It would be great to do a test with the passive tuned lower, to see it hit low. I bet it would. 😮
So would adding weight to the radiator in some form accomplish this?
Nice video as always👍
You should try to put some more weight on that passive radiator, then it would play nicer and lower.
Props for using Gomer Pyle!
I really enjoyed this video. I usually prefer the amp tests, but this was a nice change.
First visiting a channel like a style will be checking out the rest of your stuff good review Thanks
The recoil version is actually great and a great deal
My Rockville amp is still working after 3 years.
I have a Rockville DB 45 for over a year never went into protect mode but it does get warm. It does better than my mtx 75.4 which stayed in and out of protection
👌😬👍
I've had one running old school square kickers hard for 6 years, love that amp. They get a lot of hate, I guess they've gone down in quality last few years
could use more weights on the passive radiator to hit lower notes, but it looks pretty alright for its price point. happy holidays!
Seems to be on most of the low dollar powered subs, it’s the power amp is not enough power. But it is good enough to give some bass to a vehicle that has no bass at all. Especially a lease or work car.
I love all of your testings!
Could you rate a pioneer TSWX300A powered subwoofer? It's around 150$ I think.
Keep up the good work!
Great vid Big D. EXO had exposed Rockville and cheap Subs a while back I'm sure they've gotten a little better on some of there products. I personally say push it to the max let's see what it can really handle?😁
I bet that isobaric radiator in a metal enclosure sounds pretty unique.
I'd have to hear it in person to know if it was a "good" sound signature.
Big D. You should try out one of the skar bass tubes. I bought the 8-inch one N although it wasn't as loud as a custom box it wasn't too shabby.
Thanks for the suggestion
I loved my Rockville self powered sub. Unfortunately the built-in amp last about a year before it took a dump.
Rockville is one of the better budget brands. I ran a RVA-M3 for a while and it did great for the money. Felt solid and seemed to hit their "cea rated" numbers. I know they had some issues in the past, but I would take them over a lot of the low budget brands
4:30 Also, look at the shape of the "sine wave."
😆😅😂🤣
You should get a Dayton WT3 for when you test these woofers. Then we will know if they are in the appropriate box. Based off the curve, I see a high qts driver in too small of a box. Add another ft3 and then see what it does 👌
Thanks for the suggestion
Would take a lot of work and destroy the cabinet on this as the baskets are cast as part of the box.
I was thinking the same thing...test the sub in an optimum enclosure. Then I read some of the other comments and realized that the sub and radiator baskets, are cast into the encloser. Which, is a super weird manufacturing decision. 😒
Merry Xmas!!! Stay safe and warm!!!
Great video. Thank you for the technical testing as well. This is the only sub box I have seen with 2 subwoofers. Why are they both not powered? Is there some benefits to that setup? Thanks.
i mentioned it on the jbl vid, please review the Kicker PT250, i want your opinion on it.
Thanks for the suggestion
Nice breakdown....
The specs on Rockville site say it's a 2ohm speaker....can it be hooked up to a stock 4ohm system without problems?
That’s pretty cool thank you for doing this detail work on this speaker plus amp in a box kit. Have you mess with any of the DS 18 stuff yet?
From the halls of Monta-zoom-er.........maybe this enclosure would sound better under a bucket. Seriously though, this could certainly add depth to a factory stereo. For the money, it's a winner! These powered enclosure tests are very interesting, Big D! 👍
Can you please do a wattage test on the Rockville RBG18FA PA subwoofer, I want to buy one and I wanted your opinion
Thank you BIG D please do more of these products 😉
Very cool experiment..The older I get the more I go by the "Spend a few extra bucks and get the good stuff" rule. 😂
So true
Great stuff I thoroughly enjoyed 💪🏾
Awesome vid as always 👍🏽
I bought a box with two pioneer TSw306c and an SD800.4 evo, I can't wait to install and do the booommm
Merry Christmas 🎅 🎄 🌲!
I would love to see you review the Rockford Fosgate P300-12 Punch all in one system.
Glad I got some of my Big D fix 😂 awesome video
You're seeing both the advantage of a passive radiator and the downside of it. You can play low, but it's going to be less efficient than a port.
Kind of looks like a home theater subwoofer. Rockville does also sell home audio, so it wouldn't be too out of the question for them to use a home theater sub as a base and modify it for car audio.
Was hopping to hear the "do it bump doe" segment with the built in amplifier but definitely looks like it's been used with an external. Rockville's slim wedge style powered sub seems to be the most common, and people usually say it sounds decent enough with the integrated amp. I was curious if the included powered would be enough to consider the whole thing satisfactory, especially when you consider the amount of space it takes up.
Ive had a rockville 15 for 5 years and been beating the hell out of it everyday and it was worth every penny and its pretty loud as well
Would be interesting to see some underseat sub testing