A sub for those who need more subtle bass handling.

The SA-100 is a 10-inch, 4-ohm subwoofer that was delivered for testing in a small sealed enclosure with an internal volume of about 0.75 cubic feet. Features include an injection-molded cone with oversized rubber surround, a stamped basket with gold plated 5-way binding posts, and a bumped and vented pole piece.

Subjective
Under the right circumstances, the SA-100 is a surprisingly good-sounding woofer. With the exception of the pipe organ, everything that I threw at it came back sounding right-on, as long as playback levels remained reasonably moderate. Both transient and tonal response were quite good compared to our reference woofer, providing relatively uncolored reproduction throughout the typical subwoofer range.

Once the playback level surpasses reasonably moderate though, things get a little out of shape, especially at lower frequencies. As you drive the SA-100 harder with bass-intensive music, the bottom end seems to compress. It’s enough to cause a change in the sub’s overall tonal response, causing the system to sound a bit boxy at higher playback levels.

Perhaps it’s not the best pick for a bass junkie, but I have come into contact with a fair number of
people who could be very into car audio sans boom. Take the average country music fan for instance.

These people usually wouldn’t consider a subwoofer because they associate them with those booming systems that annoy them at stoplights. They don’t realize that a sub such as the SA-100 could drastically improve their mobile reproduction of the Dixie Chicks and Garth Brooks, without the risk of offending their sensibilities.

The addition of a sub would also partially mask the boom from the kids at stoplights, beating them at their own game to a certain degree. The moral of this story is that there’s a subwoofer for every mobile application boys and girls, and everyone should have a mobile subwoofer, especially at a price point like $74.99.

Objective
Impedance measurements on the SA-100 show a maximum of 37 ohms at 62 Hz and a minimum of 4.2 ohms at 20 Hz. Average impedance measured 10 ohms. Out-of-car measurements show a response that begins to roll off immediately below 100 Hz, continuing on a 12 dB-per-octave slope below system resonance. In-car measurements at one watt show a sensitivity that averages 94 dB between 10 Hz and 50 Hz, and an overall response window of about 5 dB. In-car power response sweeps show about 4 dB of power compression at the lowest frequencies on the 100-watt sweep, followed by about 7 dB of compression at 300 watts. Maximum SPL at 300 watts measured 118.7 dB at 58 Hz.

Price & Contact: $74.99; 213-749-1447, www.emersonmobile.com.