Subwoofers — JBL SUB80P

The SUB80P is a compact powered subwoofer from JBL, the Harman brand, introduced in January 2022 at a US retail price of USD 599. It was designed to add low bass to existing stereo speakers or to form part of a multi-channel home theatre, and it ships with a 2.4 GHz wireless transmitter so the subwoofer can stand anywhere in the room without a long signal lead back to the electronics. The cabinet comes in a high-gloss black painted finish.

Key specs that matter

A single 8 inch (200 mm) fibre-composite cone woofer fires downward from a sealed enclosure. The built-in Class D amplifier is rated at 200 W continuous and 400 W peak. Frequency response is 45 Hz to 200 Hz at the -6 dB points. Wired connections on the rear panel are an LFE input and left and right line-level inputs, all on RCA jacks, plus a 3.5 mm 12 V trigger input that accepts 3 to 30 V AC or DC. Controls cover volume, phase, bass boost and a crossover bypass switch, and the power mode can be set to auto, on or trigger. Power draw is below 0.5 W on standby and up to 243 W at 120 V or 261 W at 230 V. The cabinet measures 353 mm high, 267 mm wide and 267 mm deep and weighs 9 kg.

Engineering and use context

A sealed box has no port, so the woofer is loaded by the air trapped inside it, and the design stays small for its driver size. Pointing the cone at the floor hides it from view and couples its output to the floor surface. The transmitter has left and right RCA inputs of its own and sits near the source or behind a television. It works between 2403 and 2478 MHz at a maximum transmitting power of 1 dBm, and its line-of-sight range is 10 to 25 m. It measures 35 x 127 x 89 mm, weighs 117 g and draws less than 0.5 W from its own mains adapter, which accepts 100-240 V. The crossover bypass switch hands the low-pass filtering to a receiver that already sends a bass-managed LFE signal, so the signal is not filtered twice. With the trigger input, the subwoofer switches on and off together with an amplifier or processor that has a trigger output, while auto mode wakes it when a signal arrives. The rated operating temperature range for the transmitter is 0 to 50 degrees C.

Pairing

Stereo amplifiers without a subwoofer output can feed the line-level inputs, and AV receivers connect through the LFE jack. The supplied cables cover both the RCA LFE link and the trigger link.

Alternatives

The JBL Studio 650P is a 10 inch powered subwoofer with a ported cabinet and a 250 W RMS amplifier.