I just bought a Toyota Tacoma 4 door p'up. First modification was replacing the stock head unit with an iPod/USB compatible unit. I was lucky getting the truck without the more expensive (200) 6-CD changer OR the JBL audio system (a $2,000 upgrade I had in a Sienna years ago and found lacking in many regards).
Okay. Short of ripping out the storage paneling behind the rear seats which I didn't want to do and putting in a mondo amp, 12+ inch subwoofers and sound box for hundreds of dollars, all I wanted was more bottom in my audio.
Over at the forum I found the Boss system discussed, pros and cons laid out fairly clearly, and after looking at several other (more expensive) options, I bought the Boss Bass1200 unit (not, unfortunately, on sale, but $110 was a good price in retrospect).
Getting the unit under the passenger seat (I keep a personal protection device under the driver's seat, it's 2010) was a little time-consuming, but there is definitely room there with about 1 CM clearance from the top edges.
I was blown away by the first song I played (I recommend just about anything Chris Squire plays his '65 Ric on). I'm still playing around with settings. No it's NOT a 12 or 14 inch subwoofer box with an 1800 watt amp behind it, but it's more than adequate. I've got several years' experience running high-power PA systems for rock bands (hobby and roadie jobs over the decades) and again, this isn't an earschplittenloudenboomer rock the car next to you a stoplights box, but you WILL feel the low notes in your back and butt. Kind of makes you tingly all over. My ears ring already, I don't need LOUD, I just needed to feel the bass. Drums are equally impressive.
How good is the bass output really? It makes my wife (a long-time Simon and Garfunkle, Josh Groban fan) nauseus. There is a remote output/volume control which is handy when she's in the car, just as easy to crank up and rock out when she's not or when I'm out with my 16 yr old (musician) son.
I gave it five stars. For what it is, which is substantial, it's a great deal and probably the best of the options available.
Buy one. And buy the wiring kit too, unless you already have the components lying around, you'll spend twice as much and much time tracking down the parts.
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THAT was THEN, THIS IS NOW
March 29th, still playing email/phone tag with service trying to get a return authorization.
DO NOT BUY ONE OF THESE. Unless you like gambling. Do your online homework. Just about as many people are having problems with these units as are happy with them. I thought it was great, for the reasons mentioned. Then it died. About ten days after installation. Tech dept is VERY hard to reach by phone. Would NOT just issue an RMA. Insisted I return the amp to AMazon, who wouldn't take it without all original packaging (tossed w/ Christmas stuff, mistakenly). Did try a SECOND amp. Even stupider, it died in 3 days. New truck, new audio head unit. BOSS wants $15 to return the unit after repair. Which is fine. I'll try this once. $109 plus $30 (round trip) for a gamble that may or may not pay off. Might be good money after bad, just a fluke, I don't know.
I've done worse. But this is just stupid.
DON"T BUY ONE.
May 3d, 2010.
Sent unit out April 15th what took so long was email/voicemail and delays from BOSS and trying to decide whether to use it as a doorstop or give it to a tech friend of mine to play with. I sent it back, with all hardware/cables.
Just got the unit back from BOSS. No notes, invoice, just a sticker on the bottom of the unit with several lines of print of things that could be wrong with the unit, highlighted in yellow is "Power supply."
Chomping at the bit to put it back in my car, I couldn't help noticing what wasn't in the box. The audio control cable I'd sent back with the unit.
Sent an email to customer service, phone wait times are long and more often than not I've only gotten voice mailboxes.
I'll keep you posted.
Definitely throwing good money after bad. Do not buy, do not buy, do not buy.
June 5, 2010. Got it back, got around to reinstalling, never did work. At all. No volume from box. Started out with all settings on minimum, tinkered around for about an hour. Three days later, little blue light on remote is dead.
Unit was installed with a Boss installation kit, and while I'm not a "professional" I know my way around electrons, grounds, gain, etc. I've done this before, folks, have rebuilt several guitar/bass amplifiers, do home wiring, wired a homebuilt airplane, this unit is crap. I'm tempted, tempted now, to just gut it, add a subwoofer amp and use the speaker alone. Tempted even more to contact my credit card company and ask them to refund my money, I have the emails, and other information to submit.
Don't buy this, or any boss product. Customer service is the pits, you can spend days playing phone tag, they charge you to return a unit THEY should be paying YOU to return (what is this with so many units dying? In the 7 months since I bought this, I have searched the web a half dozen times for problems with this amp, this company, and the list is getting longer.
Good luck.
August 13, 2010. Emails sent to company July 8 replied to with " call customer service at" I did. Left messages. Called again. Left messages. ONE GUY can make the decision, any decision, regarding this box. I don't want to pay shipping, again. Did that once. They didn't fix it. Hooked in, lights went on, no sound. fiddled with settings on amp and head unit for a week, lights went out. Lights came on a few weeks later, I noticed because there was all kinds of radio static/interference. But the amp doesn't work, at all.
Customer service is virtually non-existent.
IF YOU REALLY WANT TO BUY ONE OF THESE, GOOGLE BOSS AUDIO PRODUCTS FIRST. 4 out of 5 stars isn't good enough.
Sept 20. Sent this back three weeks ago. FINALLY got through to the one company rep who could send me a UPS call tag for THEM to pay. MAN they are slow answering email. I finally sent the rep a message saying "Dude, if you're going to blow me off at LEAST man-up and do it personally through email or a phone call." I got an answer the next day. Box went out two days later. That was around the 30th.
Still waiting.
Unit finally came back several weeks later. By then I'd gotten used to not having it around so it sat in the box for months. You know, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, you must be a Boss electronic sales person...
So I was driving down to Nashville in February for an annual business trip and decided to throw the amp back in. Followed the instructions to the letter regarding settings, it only took about ten minutes to pop it back in under the seat (use
the velcro) and it's now July and you know what? It still works. Still interferes with the AM radio (there's an annoying squeal that goes up and down the scale from about 100 Hz to 2500 Hz, pauses, restarts) but when it's REALLY annoying I just pop a fuse from the subwoofer. Amp isn't as loud as it was before. I've played with the settings a LOT and played songs with a LOT of bass from several decades' collection through the thing and it just doesn't have the "thump" it had when it
was new. Maybe it WAS broken when new. But it still sounds/feels (however marginally) better with the subwoofer ON than off.
What I would recommend is just better speakers for the doors and a high-output in-dash radio and live with it, unless you want to replace the rear seats with a larger subwoofer.
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I have a Forester with aftermarket speakers and radio. I did not want to give up space in my cargo area but was interested in supplementing the low-end audio. After trimming my underseat vents, I was able to install this fairly easily. (Be prepared to remove a seat to mount this unit properly, though.)
Afterwards, I was pleased with the flexibility and output of this unit. Even with reggae and other bass-heavy music, this unit works well. Let me be clear though--it won't knock your socks off. It will faithfully reproduce the bass and mid-bass but its output does not resonate much outside the vehicle. If it is your intention to impress others outside the car--this is not the unit for you. For those with space limitations though, including those with convertibles, you probably can't do much better, in terms of rated frequency response. This Boss Audio unit is reasonably priced at Amazon and is more than capable, especially compared with other powered ultra-compact subwoofers such as those from Kenwood or Blaupunkt.
UPDATE
My unit failed too. I tried a very similar unit from PYLE which did not fail, but I found annoying because it's thermal protection was invoked frequently. tried Kicker's attempt and that just sounded terrible-I have since given up on the under-seat combo units.
Best Deals for Boss BASS1200 10-Inch Low Profile Amplified Subwoofer with Remote
I have owned and installed numerous stereo systems.
The good...
Size size size. this thing is small and I needed it to fit under the back seat in my pickup truck. It does that and it does add the sub bass I wanted. the install was easy and the remote gain level is a nice touch. It appears very durable and well built. Nothing flimsy on this unit.
the bad...
the sound quality does NOT compare with a box or bazooka. It just doesnt. If you have the space to put in a small box, do it. I put in a $50 Dual from walmart that sounds FAR better than this in my wifes Suburban. BUT, there is not that kind of room in my truck. Thats the tradeoff.
forget the outlandish power rating. This thing is 50 watts usable at most. Not sure on what planet they came up with the power rating.
The light on the remote gain is blindingly bright at night. Also, only the first 2-3 clicks on the gain seems to matter. After that, it is wide open. Still, it works and is MUCH easier than going through a touchscreen menu each time you want to turn the bass up or down.
verdict... for $100, it is a good compromise for a small cab where space is tight and you otherwise would not have a sub. The sound quality is mediocre. the remote gain is a nice feature. Overall, I would purchase again... but 4 stars is as overated as the power rating. I give it a 2 on sound, 4 on value, and 5 on size and ease of installation. Ordered the BOSS 8 ga install kit on Amazon to install this unit and it was easy. Would definately go that route again.
Honest reviews on Boss BASS1200 10-Inch Low Profile Amplified Subwoofer with Remote
Great bass from such a small box. The unit easily fit under my 2005 Nissan Frontier's driver seat. Plenty of high quality bass. This really addded some punch to my stock radio. I highly recommend this subwoofer/amp combo.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Boss BASS1200 10-Inch Low Profile Amplified Subwoofer with Remote
Please keep in mind that most reviews here are written right after the items are purchased.
I've had my BASS1200 for a little over a year. For what it is -a low-profile subwoofer meant to fit in very tight spaces -I would consider the performance satisfactory; when it works correctly, that is. I found the unit to sound a bit boomy at around 90 to 120 Hz, but I'm not sure if that had to do with the interior volume of my car, a Mazda 3 sedan. It fit perfectly beneath the passenger seat.
Right around the 13th month, my unit began to produce crackling/popping noises, which persisted even after I unplugged the input line. In addition to the weird noises, I noticed that the quality of the bass became less punchy, and the frequency response became extremely uneven. From that, I gathered that the fault lied within the driver circuit instead of the actual subwoofer (i.e. speaker portion). I promptly returned the unit to Boss Audio for warranty repair, which cost me $15 plus another $15 to ship it out to them. About a week and a half later, I received the unit back with a sticker indicating that no problems were found. Arghhh!! How about a phone call or email to ask me about the exact symptoms?! So now I'm out $30 for NOTHING.
With all that said, I try to keep in perspective the original purchase price and slim profile. If you're lacking space in your car; want something to last you about a year (maybe more); and are not an audiophile, then it might make sense to plop down $100 for one of these. Otherwise, I'd look for a better long-term investment, though it might require more space. I will never buy -nor recommend -a Boss product again. The lack of customer service killed the deal for me. My plan now is to tear the sucker apart myself, as I'm quite savvy with electrical/electronics stuff. I hope you have a better experience.
