Pioneer TSW-121SPL Review
Pioneer is probably, along with Alpine and Rockford Fosgate, one of the most instantly recognizable brands in Car Audio. Known for putting out good quality products at prices that wont break the bank, Pioneer have largely focused on the consumer market, and stayed away from high end or competition level gear. However, that all changed with the introduction of their TSW-5000SPL subwoofers, a 2000wrms beast that broke all of Pioneer’s previous trends and entered them into the higher end subwoofer market. As their first entry into the heavily populated world of competition woofers, the 5000SPL does reasonably well, with a smattering of records here and there. But the $2500 price tag is more than most consumers can justify, so Pioneer released a baby brother to the 5000SPL, the TSW121SPL.
Retailing at $799 and therefore much more within the average consumer’s budget, the 121SPL borrows a lot of its technology from its big brother. Cast aluminium framing that completely encases the magnet and motor structure, glass and aramid (the non trademark name for Kevlar) fibers woven into the cone, and aramid fibers woven into the surround give this sub a first impression of being solidly built.
Looking at the top of the woofer, my first thought was how small the cone area is. Unlike the 5000SPL which uses an overhung surround that leaves maximum cone area available, the 121SPL is built like a normal sub with the surround starting on the inside of the gasket. With the very wide surround needed for the amount of travel an SPL woofer has, the 121SPL has a surprisingly small area of actual cone, a good half of the sub is taken up with surround. In practice however, this didn’t make as much of an impact into the sound level as I first suspected.
Looking at the other end of the unit, the bottom certainly looks unique. Since Pioneer has essentially cast a frame and then fitted the sub workings to the INSIDE of it, the motor structure is secured directly to the frame with a few rather prominent safety bolts. A nice touch on Pioneers part, perhaps almost necessary to maintain the overall strength of the woofer, and it also looks fairly snazzy. This design effectively transforms the entire cast basket into one giant heat sink, and can only help to keep the unit cool.
Looking at the side is where things get interesting. First of all, Pioneer has used screw terminals instead of push terminals. Now people have their own opinions here, but I personally love the security and fullness of contact a good set of screw terminals provide. The terminals mount directly onto an outcropping of the cast aluminium frame, and have a nice indestructible feel about them. The voice coil is plainly visible between the spiders and the front plate via the cooling vents on the side. The voice coil is 3” in diameter, and has four layers. The tinsel leads are free air style, and to prevent any noisy contact, foam pieces have been attached to the cone to buffer the leads incase they contact it during long excursion.
In actual testing, the 121SPL holds up quite well, especially for the price… the sound level is quite high, approximately the same as a Rockford Punch HX2, but it has none of the out of control boominess present in the Punch’s. The sub is not sold or marketed as an SQ sub, yet it does surprisingly well in that regard. Fast transient bass was played quickly and sharply without boominess or bass leftovers, not entirely perfectly but certainly as well as any subwoofer I have heard that sells for about the same kind of money. The linear extension of this sub is quite impressive, at a little under 1” it is certainly a lot of fun to watch while it’s in full swing.
The sub is rated at 750wrms, and certainly handles that with no issues due to its extensive cooling methods built in. It is rated at a maximum of 2000w, and unlike many max power ratings, one gets the impression that this sub could realistically handle this amount of power for short bursts without too many worries.
All in all, the TSW-121SPL is a very capable subwoofer that handles itself well and certainly is a good value woofer for the price. There are other subwoofers on the market that do better for either SQ or SPL applications for the same money, but the 121SPL has a nice blend of both. It was nice, clean and tight, yet still found some rattles in the car I hadn’t noticed before. And superficial as it may be, the old ‘pile of 50c coins on the boot’ test passed with flying, even impressive, colours.
At $799 the 121SPL is a very competitive woofer, a very solid piece of equipment, and a worthy upgrade for any Pioneer lover wanting to upgrade to something a little cleaner and a little louder. If you hunt around you should be able to find the 121SPL for somewhere between the $599-$649 market, and for that money you are getting a lot of very solidly built and solidly sounding woofer.
NZ ICE Magazine Rating
(0 = Awful, 5 = Quite Good, 10 = Unsurpassed)
Build Quality: 8
Sound Quality: 6
SPL Performance: 7
Value For Money: 7
