"…the SubSonic sounds plenty deep, pumping out an incredibly big sound for such a tiny box "

"Its response was articulate and quite nimble, a very musical sub."

By Brian Hodge, excerpted from CE Tips, August

Pinnacle Speakers SubSonic

Since its emergence in 1976, Pinnacle Speakers has earned a reputation for quality and innovation, and the SubSonic exemplifies both. Its size/sound ratio is almost unreal. Minus its speaker grilles, the sturdy brass isolation cones it perches on, and the heat radiating fins on the control panel, the SubSonic is a compact cube measuring just 7.88 inches per side. Yet it weights a cinder block-like 22 pounds.

Instead of using a single large woofer, the SubSonic employs a bipole design, its sealed enclosure housing two 6.5-inch heavyweight fibercone woofers that fire from opposite sides. Although it definitely heads to the basement, because of its size it doesn't dig for bedrock: From a high of 150 Hz, the frequency response bottoms at 28 Hz, with a crossover range of 50 Hz to 150 Hz.

Even so, the SubSonic sounds plenty deep, pumping out an incredibly big sound for such a tiny box. Its 350 Watts leave ample headroom, as well. In setting an optimal volume blend, we usually had the level well below maximum. Its response was articulate and quite nimble, a very musical sub.

Further pluses: This sub has pass-through outputs for the main speakers. Like the inputs, they're clips, rather then binding posts, but we're impressed that they found room for them. When using the line-level connection, you'll need to activate a dedicated crossover bypass switch (presuming your receiver already has a low pass filter). The control panel isolates the volume control knob near the top with the phase switch slightly below it.

With Pinnacle's SubSonic, you can still get big, bold bass even if your free floor space is almost nonexistent!