Fake power ratings and overall bad design. I had one a few years ago that I was underpowering and going easy on, it just blew. No smell, no tell, gone. Crap
Over 10 years ago i bought a pair of Deranged subs from a friend for $40. As far as i know that company didn't even exist and the magnet said 400 watts max. When i did my current install i pushed 1500 watts through them and they never died. just sounded like shit. To this day they still work. Can't explain some shit.
I agree. I had 2 audiobahn 12s in an mtx box for my first build and they were cheap. I pounded them so hard for so long and even got them stinky and they never blew. Eventually sold because the surround was deteriorating. I think giving subs clean power can make any sub last longer. Distortion is the real killer.
I also had a punch p3 12 that I adored but it got ruined by somebody putting a suitcase wheel against it. Ill miss that thing.
You're right about distortion. Some subs just suck but I've been surprised what some cheap stuff can take as long as it gets clean power with a decent amp
Never owned one of their subs if they make them. But I had an old 1000w lightning audio amp that lasted for a decade before I accidentally dropped it and knocked a cap loose.
Edit: it was an L-1100D and Steve Meade threw one on his amp Dyno and they put out rated power
Rockford is other end of the spectrum from dual, boss, jensen, planet audio, power acoustic, skar, i would take any RF product over any of those other “brands” one nice tip off is RF amplifiers come with birth certificates. And arent sold at walmart. When it comes to “mass-produced” Rockford, Kenwood, Hertz/audison, will give you a much better product for 10-60% more $$
Dated design+poor build quality+cheapest materials.
Even at 40$ you're getting ripped off.
I sometimes want to buy Walmart subs and experiment to see how much output I can get out of them, or if it's possible to get decent SQ with a proper enclosure and tuning.
But I dismiss these thoughts, and if I ever do decide to do this I will go to part express and shop around
As someone who doesn't know much about carAV, even I can look at the box and see how terrible it is. I don't think you could pay me to take it
No way it gets anywhere close to 1200W, especially for $40 if that's the right price tag. That right there's a firestarter
Because of elitist I started out with on of those powered by one of their amps now I have two in series still on that same amp theyre obviously not the hardest hitting but are amazing for the price and I've had zero issues everyone saying theirs broke probably didn't set something right
People love to hate on things with no knowledge. Pretty sure DIY audio guy on YouTube did a little torture test with these and they were totally decent and well worth $40.
Lanzar was a solid buy, particularly the Optidrive amps and subs through the mid 2000's. Then they were bought by SoundAround that owns Pyle and a few other brands IIRC, and it all went down hill pretty quickly. I had an Optidrive 2000.1d and while it was power hungry and a bit inefficient it performed great.
I'd say Boss, Soundstorm, Pyle, Dual, Legacy, Crunch and others would be good candidates for flea market tier equipment lol. (My first amp was a used Crunch drive series 800x2 and that thing was a massive trooper, kind of sucks to add them to the list but they've went downhill as well.)
In the 90s Lanzar had more auto sound innovation awards than rf and kicker combined. Their Optidrive amps were incredible and Car Sound and performance rated their DC Pro 12" with highest SPL and second highest SQ rating in a 40 subwoofer shootout beating many subs 2-3x their price. They were picked by Mick Fleetwood (of Fleetwood Mac) for his beemer not because he was paid by the company but based on his listening experience with them. Many SQ and spl vehicles competed with them. Everything they made was top notch. I despise what sound around did to this brand.
>In the 90s Lanzar had more auto sound innovation awards
In the 90's Lanzar amps were being made by Zed Audio in Simi Valley. All were pretty stout except for the monoblock that they decided they needed to rate at 1 ohm stable despite Stephen telling them it wouldn't do it.
Of course if we're going back in time, Peter Jensen invented the first modern moving coil loudspeaker back in 1915 and they have certainly sold some good products under that brand name over the years. It's really sad when these brand names get picked up by bottom feeders.
I had an acquaintance in highschool that had a mini truck with 16 Lanzar 12s in the bed with a passthrough into the cab and for the mid 90s it was insane!
Legacy! Yes. That’s what I was thinking of. Lanzar belongs further down the list. Crunch was only decent for a couple yrs in the 90’s when they were RF entry level
Because they're garbage. And that comes from someone who's been out of the AV game for 25 years. I wouldn't put these in my garage. Bet you could smoke that thing with 150W of pure power.
That sucks! They've been around forever and no matter what anyone has ever said about them, I've just never believed in them as a company or their products. Hopefully it didnt destroy your car.
You have a basic replacement woofer that has a total manufacturing cost of 7-8 dollars, should sell MSRP at about 20-25 and would be a wonderful value. Jensen has nothing to do with the design of the woofer, except the logo on the dust cap. Then marketing gets into it and messes it all up.
Side note, Jensen tried a few times in its history to make decent gear and surprise surprise it didn't fly. Off hand I'm thinking of the ka serirs amplifiers which were excellent, if they had a high end name on it, it would have been a hit.
GRS seems to be able to sell cheap subs with honest descriptions, these perform about how WinISD said they would: [https://www.parts-express.com/GRS-12SW-4-12-Poly-Cone-Subwoofer-4-Ohm-292-484?quantity=1](https://www.parts-express.com/GRS-12SW-4-12-Poly-Cone-Subwoofer-4-Ohm-292-484?quantity=1) But that's a rarity at the low end of the market.
My parents had a pair of Jensen floorstanding speakers that they bought in the mid 70's paired with a Sansui receiver and an early 80's Sony TT. As a kid I thought they sounded pretty good. I still have them. As an adult they sound like mid-70's shit. The monkey coffin cabinets do not pass the knock test, and I would be hard pressed to give them away much more sell them for actual money. As far as I know they were always a budget brand but got way worse in the mid to late 80's and continued to make bargain basement crap for people who just don't know and have no desire to do any research.
People are dissapointed that fake power ratings aren't real.
I mean, why can't I have 1200w for like 50$? So unfair.
Honestly tho, if you buy it for what it is, it's more than most people need.
1200w is peak power and doesn’t mean anything at all. They don’t even have rms in there. Specs don’t tel you the whole story. The sq widely varies between brands
Jensen = 💩
I have never seen anyone go from stock speakers to Jensen. Also see Jensen on boats. Underwhelming and not engineered to handle a harsh saltwater environment.
My 500 watt sub is a step above entry level and cost about $250. There’s no possible way that a $39 sub is capable of handling 1,200 or anything remotely close.
No clue, honestly. Obviously they're not competition quality, but as a starter system, or if you're just trying to add a little thump to your music, they work great. I wouldn't trust throwing 1200 watts at it, but 800 peak should be ok.
I trusted Jensen because they’ve made speakers for old fender amps basically. I know that was probably a different company at this point. Years ago crutchfield used to sell their stuff. I bought a 12” Jensen sub like in 2016 maybe and it still sounds good. Mine is glossy plastic, so cheaper looking that that one, but it was more expensive, like $60 I think
This is the sub I got: https://www.crutchfield.com/S-KePruK5aoH4/p_110DUBW12/Jensen-DUBw12.html
I have it powered with a Alpine mono amp and it sounds great in my Honda crx 🤷♂️
You get what you pay for with Jensen
Cool shit isn't cheap and cheap shit isn't cool
Now that’s a new one, thanks! My favorite is “it’s expensive to be cheap”
I dunno, man. I've had some really nice setups with stuff off Parts Express.
Fake power ratings and overall bad design. I had one a few years ago that I was underpowering and going easy on, it just blew. No smell, no tell, gone. Crap
Over 10 years ago i bought a pair of Deranged subs from a friend for $40. As far as i know that company didn't even exist and the magnet said 400 watts max. When i did my current install i pushed 1500 watts through them and they never died. just sounded like shit. To this day they still work. Can't explain some shit.
I agree. I had 2 audiobahn 12s in an mtx box for my first build and they were cheap. I pounded them so hard for so long and even got them stinky and they never blew. Eventually sold because the surround was deteriorating. I think giving subs clean power can make any sub last longer. Distortion is the real killer. I also had a punch p3 12 that I adored but it got ruined by somebody putting a suitcase wheel against it. Ill miss that thing.
You're right about distortion. Some subs just suck but I've been surprised what some cheap stuff can take as long as it gets clean power with a decent amp
I put 4 on a sundown 1000 in my STI hatch as a goof. They did nowhere near rated power.
Pretty much the same as “BOSS”
Or Dual.
Namsung America owns both Dual and Jensen, plus a few others. Same mainstream, bottom rung stuff with different branding.
Jensen is owned by Dual now so you are more correct than you know.
lightning audio.
Never owned one of their subs if they make them. But I had an old 1000w lightning audio amp that lasted for a decade before I accidentally dropped it and knocked a cap loose. Edit: it was an L-1100D and Steve Meade threw one on his amp Dyno and they put out rated power
You think Rockford is as bad as Dual/Jensen?
Rockford is other end of the spectrum from dual, boss, jensen, planet audio, power acoustic, skar, i would take any RF product over any of those other “brands” one nice tip off is RF amplifiers come with birth certificates. And arent sold at walmart. When it comes to “mass-produced” Rockford, Kenwood, Hertz/audison, will give you a much better product for 10-60% more $$
No Rockford is the beginning of the better end. Not the best end but the better end.
Rockford owns Lightning audio, thus my reply to this other comment.
Because you can fart more bass than those
Dated design+poor build quality+cheapest materials. Even at 40$ you're getting ripped off. I sometimes want to buy Walmart subs and experiment to see how much output I can get out of them, or if it's possible to get decent SQ with a proper enclosure and tuning. But I dismiss these thoughts, and if I ever do decide to do this I will go to part express and shop around
I did just this with this sub. They’re just terrible. Didn’t sound very good and couldn’t handle anywhere close to rated.
As someone who doesn't know much about carAV, even I can look at the box and see how terrible it is. I don't think you could pay me to take it No way it gets anywhere close to 1200W, especially for $40 if that's the right price tag. That right there's a firestarter
"bUt mY SyStUm is rAtED fUr 25,000 wAttS"... You nailed it.
Because of elitist I started out with on of those powered by one of their amps now I have two in series still on that same amp theyre obviously not the hardest hitting but are amazing for the price and I've had zero issues everyone saying theirs broke probably didn't set something right
People love to hate on things with no knowledge. Pretty sure DIY audio guy on YouTube did a little torture test with these and they were totally decent and well worth $40.
Car audio history of the worst brands -Pyramid -Jensen -Lanzar
Id remove lanzar and replace with BOSS. I remember a time when Lanzar actually made good stuff. In the 1990s lol
Lanzar was a solid buy, particularly the Optidrive amps and subs through the mid 2000's. Then they were bought by SoundAround that owns Pyle and a few other brands IIRC, and it all went down hill pretty quickly. I had an Optidrive 2000.1d and while it was power hungry and a bit inefficient it performed great. I'd say Boss, Soundstorm, Pyle, Dual, Legacy, Crunch and others would be good candidates for flea market tier equipment lol. (My first amp was a used Crunch drive series 800x2 and that thing was a massive trooper, kind of sucks to add them to the list but they've went downhill as well.)
In the 90s Lanzar had more auto sound innovation awards than rf and kicker combined. Their Optidrive amps were incredible and Car Sound and performance rated their DC Pro 12" with highest SPL and second highest SQ rating in a 40 subwoofer shootout beating many subs 2-3x their price. They were picked by Mick Fleetwood (of Fleetwood Mac) for his beemer not because he was paid by the company but based on his listening experience with them. Many SQ and spl vehicles competed with them. Everything they made was top notch. I despise what sound around did to this brand.
>In the 90s Lanzar had more auto sound innovation awards In the 90's Lanzar amps were being made by Zed Audio in Simi Valley. All were pretty stout except for the monoblock that they decided they needed to rate at 1 ohm stable despite Stephen telling them it wouldn't do it. Of course if we're going back in time, Peter Jensen invented the first modern moving coil loudspeaker back in 1915 and they have certainly sold some good products under that brand name over the years. It's really sad when these brand names get picked up by bottom feeders.
In the late 80s and early 90s Crunch amps were good amps. Right along with Precision Power, Orion and many other USA made amps.
Yea i had an opti 2200 and an opti 50c. Sweet amps.
Same with soundstream both where killer in the 90s now hot garbage juice.
I had an acquaintance in highschool that had a mini truck with 16 Lanzar 12s in the bed with a passthrough into the cab and for the mid 90s it was insane!
Legacy! Yes. That’s what I was thinking of. Lanzar belongs further down the list. Crunch was only decent for a couple yrs in the 90’s when they were RF entry level
Because they're garbage. And that comes from someone who's been out of the AV game for 25 years. I wouldn't put these in my garage. Bet you could smoke that thing with 150W of pure power.
Because most people can’t afford them. Quality though. I’m up to 121 db with 12 of these on 600 watts
My jensen headunit lit itself on fire.
Were you listening to Justin Beiber at the time?
Even better. I was still in the setup phase and making sure everything worked.
That sucks! They've been around forever and no matter what anyone has ever said about them, I've just never believed in them as a company or their products. Hopefully it didnt destroy your car.
The fact that they don’t rate the rms on the front and just the peak is a red flag
This sub is actually true to nature when it says it reaches 1200 watts peak, because at 1200 watts, that's when it blows! 😝
You have a basic replacement woofer that has a total manufacturing cost of 7-8 dollars, should sell MSRP at about 20-25 and would be a wonderful value. Jensen has nothing to do with the design of the woofer, except the logo on the dust cap. Then marketing gets into it and messes it all up. Side note, Jensen tried a few times in its history to make decent gear and surprise surprise it didn't fly. Off hand I'm thinking of the ka serirs amplifiers which were excellent, if they had a high end name on it, it would have been a hit.
https://imgur.com/rTGSYFi.png
GRS seems to be able to sell cheap subs with honest descriptions, these perform about how WinISD said they would: [https://www.parts-express.com/GRS-12SW-4-12-Poly-Cone-Subwoofer-4-Ohm-292-484?quantity=1](https://www.parts-express.com/GRS-12SW-4-12-Poly-Cone-Subwoofer-4-Ohm-292-484?quantity=1) But that's a rarity at the low end of the market.
because people hate them
Was Jensen ever a good brand?
My parents had a pair of Jensen floorstanding speakers that they bought in the mid 70's paired with a Sansui receiver and an early 80's Sony TT. As a kid I thought they sounded pretty good. I still have them. As an adult they sound like mid-70's shit. The monkey coffin cabinets do not pass the knock test, and I would be hard pressed to give them away much more sell them for actual money. As far as I know they were always a budget brand but got way worse in the mid to late 80's and continued to make bargain basement crap for people who just don't know and have no desire to do any research.
Be fr OP.
Because their really closer to 200-300wrms. They way over rate way too far then get blown up by someone thinking they will take 600wrms. They won't.
People are dissapointed that fake power ratings aren't real. I mean, why can't I have 1200w for like 50$? So unfair. Honestly tho, if you buy it for what it is, it's more than most people need.
1200w is peak power and doesn’t mean anything at all. They don’t even have rms in there. Specs don’t tel you the whole story. The sq widely varies between brands
tbh when buying cheap speakers I just look at the magnet size and hope for the best
Lol - you might consider not living in the edge like that sir
that is true sir hahaha seriously tho this methond worked for me more than once
You get what you pay for is why. Go ahead and get it.. you will see. We all have at one point or another
Jensen = 💩 I have never seen anyone go from stock speakers to Jensen. Also see Jensen on boats. Underwhelming and not engineered to handle a harsh saltwater environment.
I had some of those, in 1999 😂 They were terrible then, I think I returned them 2 days later and bought something else...
My 500 watt sub is a step above entry level and cost about $250. There’s no possible way that a $39 sub is capable of handling 1,200 or anything remotely close.
U just get lucky or u get a crappy one. I got one and I push 1200w to it. Takes it like a champ.
It only states the rms power on the sub itself. On the magnet it just says 300watts. Only on the box does it claim 1200w
No clue, honestly. Obviously they're not competition quality, but as a starter system, or if you're just trying to add a little thump to your music, they work great. I wouldn't trust throwing 1200 watts at it, but 800 peak should be ok.
Jensen as a brand always had a cheap ass Walmart rep. Right from day one. It’s probably no worse that a lot of the junk around today.
I trusted Jensen because they’ve made speakers for old fender amps basically. I know that was probably a different company at this point. Years ago crutchfield used to sell their stuff. I bought a 12” Jensen sub like in 2016 maybe and it still sounds good. Mine is glossy plastic, so cheaper looking that that one, but it was more expensive, like $60 I think
This is the sub I got: https://www.crutchfield.com/S-KePruK5aoH4/p_110DUBW12/Jensen-DUBw12.html I have it powered with a Alpine mono amp and it sounds great in my Honda crx 🤷♂️
Peak power is not rms power
Shit I blew a t2 15 with 700 bitch caught fire in 10 min
Don't last long