I recently treated myself to a 2010 Cadillac
SRX. Like the 2008 CTS I owned before it,
The vehicle had a very bland Bose 10-speaker
premium sound system.
You know the old saying, "If it has no highs
or lows it must be Bose."
Well, this system sounded completely bland.
I needed to do something to add more "oomph"
to the overall sonic quality.
It was recommended in the SRX Cadillac forum
that I purchase an Infinity Basslink II subwoofer.
This a 250-watt self-powered subwoofer system.
Despite the many negative reviews about this
subwoofer not lasting a week in most cases, I
decided to take the risk and purchase it based
upon the positive reviews I had read.
Sure enough, after a few days, the subwoofer
was rattling like a snake. Back to Amazon it goes.
Decided to do some research and spend more
money for something that wasn't a toy.
So, today was the big day. I had that god-awful Infinity
Basslink II taken out of my vehicle and replaced with a
JL W3V3v 12" enclosed subwoofer with a 500 watt
Alpine MRP-M500 amp.
What I was surprised about was how little room the enclosure actually took up.
If I pull the rear seat down I can access the Alpine amp which has been drilled to
the enclosure.
The installers and I decided to be a little reserved with the bass settings.
Though the JL system was twice as powerful as the Infinity Basslink, we
didn't want to drive the sub too hard too quickly. Presently in addition to
the pictured tone control levels, the amp settings are as follows:
Gain: 75% Boost 75% LPF 50Hz (which is a bit high but that was a
recommendation from another audio forum).
Huge difference in performance here. The JL sub sounds much cleaner
overall. Happy to have invested a little more money and gotten these
kind of results.
The only problem I find with the subwoofer is within the music itself.
I have 6k+ songs on my iPod ripped mostly off CDs in lossless format
so the quality is fantastic in all cases. However, bass response varies
greatly from song to song. As you would guess, a lot of songs from the
'50s garner little to no bass response. Have quite a few Motown songs
from the '60s that have nice, balanced bass (such as "My Girl" by The
Temptations). Then you have modern rock and rap which have overpowering
bass to the point where I have to keep the levels much lower.
Definitely, the addition of a subwoofer makes all the difference in the
world for this SRX system. Bass lines are filled with resounding thumps
that aren't set to overpower the audio but enhance it. The music I listen
to now has much better texture to it. I am enjoying the audio in my vehicle
more than I ever had previously. In fact, the vehicle has become more about
listening to music than actually driving it.
The installer wired everything directly from the sub amp while disconnecting
the stock Bose subwoofer. If you really enjoy listening to music in your
vehicle I would highly recommend adding this sub.
