Subjective
To be honest, I usually procrastinate like mad when it comes time to test a small woofer in a tuned enclosure. They tend to be the biggest offenders in the tonal accuracy department and don’t generally win any awards for transient performance either. This system, however, was a pleasant surprise. When properly matched to the system in our test car, the result is much like several dB of bass boost around 50 or 60 Hz.

Round, fat, and loud would be the best words to describe the sound of this subwoofer. We’ll have to wait for the objective section to be sure, but I’d be willing to bet that this is one of the louder 10-inch subs that we’ve seen. After auditioning a couple of 12-inch sealed subs, the signal driving the sub amp had to be lowered substantially to bring the RFP 2210s output into balance with the rest of the system. Transient response seemed better than average for a tuned enclosure, although still a bit short of our reference sub. After checking out a few tunes, it’s quite obvious that the RFP 2210 does love hip-hop and boom tracks. If your musical selection tends to also be round, fat, and loud, then check this one out. It could be the ghetto-blasting asphalt-pounder that you’ve been looking for.

Objective
Impedance measurements for this system show a maximum of 14 ohms at 56 Hz, and a minimum of 2.4 ohms at 35 Hz. Average impedance measures 5.5 ohms. Out-of-car response shows a substantial peak of about 7.5 dB around 65 Hz, followed by a steep roll-off below 30 Hz. With the exception of the node in our test vehicle at 72 Hz, in-car response is relatively smooth. However, response below about 35 Hz does roll off quickly. In-car sensitivity averages 97 dB between 20 Hz and 50 Hz. At 300 watts, the subwoofer exhibits about 3.5 dB of power compression around its tuning frequency of 35 Hz, and maximum SPL measured 123.3 dB at 50 Hz.