Alpine SWD 1600 > Reviews > Pounding bass for your pound

Author's product rating:   

How is the overall Sound Quality?	Excellent
Bass Quality	Good
Treble Quality	Very Poor
Midrange Quality	Very Poor
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Great Bass, Very Compact, only £100
Disadvantages:	None that I have found so far

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Alpine have always held a high position of regard for in car entertainment since I first installed a complete 1250w sound system back in 1990.

I own a Peugeot 206cc and have installed an Alpine DVD head unit and although more than impressed with the standard speakers (which I hope to upgrade at some stage with a set of JBL's) when the roof is down it hard for any standard set of speakers to provide the bass required.

There is also a severe limitation to available space, I had seen an installation wich would have completely filled my boot but I was after a more practical solution. Enter the Alpine SWD 1600's, although only 6.5" this 150w active sub on paper at least met my requirements.

Alpine market the Subwoofer as a Fill in for the main cabin of a car in a big installation (where the subs are usually located in the boot) or to provide bass in a small installation)

The Sub fits easily under the seat (in my case the passenger seat) ad provides a more than adequate bass ranging from 60hz to 160hz with a easy to use gain control. The fitting instructions are easy enough (however a single power cable connected direct to the positive on the main battery is recommended do to the 25amps the sub can draw)

The Sub can be run from a standard Sub out, normal 5v output (as the Sub has built in crossover control) or from a powered speaker output dependant on the head unit you are connecting it to.

As I have said earlier the Sub is designed to fit in the main cabin if your car and easily fits under the seats, its is a great shame with today's society that you have to hide your valuables in you car as the build and look of this sub woofer get a 5 stars with me, a very heavy and incredibly nice looking piece of equipment, simply a shame it has to be hidden.

The sound quality for such a small speaker is amazing, with the roof down (i.e. a typical 2+2 Coupe) the bass is incredible, with the roof down there is still enough to make the car shake (and by the vibrations coming through the passenger seat should put a smile on my next female passengers face). This is near going to replace the pure pounding of a twin 10" sub with 400w per channel, but for a small instillation where space is a premium I think this speaker would be hard to beat. A true 5 star speaker from Alpine.

If you would like more information regarding this speaker please ask and I will endeavor to answer your questions, as always if I have any changes of opinion due to reliability etc I will update this review.