cobby
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2024
- Messages
- 172
- Likes
- 193
I bought two AIYIMA 800X subwoofers while they were on sale, mainly because I wanted to experiment with a small dual-subwoofer setup.
Have been testing them for a bit now, am still forming my final opinion, but there are already a few findings that may be useful to share.
The overall appearance of the subwoofer is quite nice, and the driver itself gives a reasonably good impression.
Enclosure, however, is fairly lightweight and certainly does not feel like one of the most rigid designs in this category, although its shape may help a little.
Overall, the build quality seems perfectly acceptable for the price, and I do not have any major complaints here.
It is also not very large, and because of the low weight it is easy to move around and handle.
The advertised power rating should be taken with some caution.
The included power supply is rated at only 24 V / 2 A, so the quoted 100 W isn´t that realistic.
For my own use, I cannot really complain about a lack of output. In fact, my problem is almost the opposite: I would like to be able to turn the subwoofer down further, but I will come back to that later.
I also did some simple near-field measurements with the LPF input selected, where the crossover appears to be fixed at its highest setting, around 250 Hz.
The measurements shown here are close-mic measurements of the driver, the port, and a rough combination of both, so they should not be interpreted as anechoic absolute SPL data.
Still, they give a useful impression of the tuning. The usable output is mainly in the 40–120 Hz region, with strong contribution around roughly 55–80 Hz. Below about 40 Hz the response falls very quickly, and I would not consider the advertised 30 Hz extension to be practically usable in this setup.
Speaker close:
Vent close:
Both:
Using the normal L/R line input with the low-pass set to its maximum position gave broadly similar results to the LFE/LPF input.
The low-pass control on the normal L/R line input does work as expected. I measured it at three positions: minimum, roughly middle, and maximum. The maximum setting appears to be around 250 Hz, the middle position roughly around 150–160 Hz, and the minimum setting around 60 Hz.
The main problem I have found is that the 800X needs a certain signal level before it behaves properly.
At low levels the subwoofer barely contributes, at medium levels it only partially comes in, and only at higher levels does the response look normal. This suggests some kind of internal threshold, auto-on, noise-gate, or DSP muting behaviour. Whatever the exact cause, it makes the subwoofer less predictable at low listening or measurement levels.
Blue low, Pink medium, Orange high, ca, 25,50,75% Volume.
Unfortunately, this cannot simply be worked around by feeding the subwoofer a hotter input signal and turning down the volume knob on the unit. In my tests, increasing the input level while reducing the subwoofer volume did not avoid the problem. The behaviour stayed essentially the same, as if the relevant signal detection or gate is happening after the volume control, or at least after some internal gain stage affected by it. In practice, this means that the subwoofer needs a certain actual operating/output level, not just a higher input voltage, before it behaves normally.
One more to show the problem (this corners shows always quite some bass boost, it´s extreme):
This level-dependent change in frequency response does not occur with my other subwoofers or with regular speakers measured in the same setup.
Old small DIY sub for comparsion, low volume 25%, and 75%, all ok.
So far, my impression is that the 800X is a useful little budget subwoofer, but with an important caveat.
It is compact, looks nice, has enough output for my needs, and the basic crossover functionality works.
However, it seems to need a certain operating level before it behaves properly.
At low levels the response changes significantly, which makes it unsuitable for very quiet listening or setups where predictable low-level behaviour is important.
Have been testing them for a bit now, am still forming my final opinion, but there are already a few findings that may be useful to share.
The overall appearance of the subwoofer is quite nice, and the driver itself gives a reasonably good impression.
Enclosure, however, is fairly lightweight and certainly does not feel like one of the most rigid designs in this category, although its shape may help a little.
Overall, the build quality seems perfectly acceptable for the price, and I do not have any major complaints here.
It is also not very large, and because of the low weight it is easy to move around and handle.
The advertised power rating should be taken with some caution.
The included power supply is rated at only 24 V / 2 A, so the quoted 100 W isn´t that realistic.
For my own use, I cannot really complain about a lack of output. In fact, my problem is almost the opposite: I would like to be able to turn the subwoofer down further, but I will come back to that later.
I also did some simple near-field measurements with the LPF input selected, where the crossover appears to be fixed at its highest setting, around 250 Hz.
The measurements shown here are close-mic measurements of the driver, the port, and a rough combination of both, so they should not be interpreted as anechoic absolute SPL data.
Still, they give a useful impression of the tuning. The usable output is mainly in the 40–120 Hz region, with strong contribution around roughly 55–80 Hz. Below about 40 Hz the response falls very quickly, and I would not consider the advertised 30 Hz extension to be practically usable in this setup.
Speaker close:
Vent close:
Both:
Using the normal L/R line input with the low-pass set to its maximum position gave broadly similar results to the LFE/LPF input.
The low-pass control on the normal L/R line input does work as expected. I measured it at three positions: minimum, roughly middle, and maximum. The maximum setting appears to be around 250 Hz, the middle position roughly around 150–160 Hz, and the minimum setting around 60 Hz.
The main problem I have found is that the 800X needs a certain signal level before it behaves properly.
At low levels the subwoofer barely contributes, at medium levels it only partially comes in, and only at higher levels does the response look normal. This suggests some kind of internal threshold, auto-on, noise-gate, or DSP muting behaviour. Whatever the exact cause, it makes the subwoofer less predictable at low listening or measurement levels.
Blue low, Pink medium, Orange high, ca, 25,50,75% Volume.
Unfortunately, this cannot simply be worked around by feeding the subwoofer a hotter input signal and turning down the volume knob on the unit. In my tests, increasing the input level while reducing the subwoofer volume did not avoid the problem. The behaviour stayed essentially the same, as if the relevant signal detection or gate is happening after the volume control, or at least after some internal gain stage affected by it. In practice, this means that the subwoofer needs a certain actual operating/output level, not just a higher input voltage, before it behaves normally.
One more to show the problem (this corners shows always quite some bass boost, it´s extreme):
This level-dependent change in frequency response does not occur with my other subwoofers or with regular speakers measured in the same setup.
Old small DIY sub for comparsion, low volume 25%, and 75%, all ok.
So far, my impression is that the 800X is a useful little budget subwoofer, but with an important caveat.
It is compact, looks nice, has enough output for my needs, and the basic crossover functionality works.
However, it seems to need a certain operating level before it behaves properly.
At low levels the response changes significantly, which makes it unsuitable for very quiet listening or setups where predictable low-level behaviour is important.
Last edited:
.
