CERWIN-VEGA! Vega Series 12" Spare Tire Powered Subwoofer VPAS12ST

The technology on this thing is impressive. I’m still wondering how a subwoofer with a hole in the center can be so loud. It gives a nice bass accent and sometimes a big punch, especially in hip hop music. I use it in mid gain, almost zero boost and the whole car rattles. I installed the Cerwin Vega in the spare tire of a 2019 Toyota Yaris sedan. Installation was simple once I got the power and signal cables into the trunk. I had difficulties bringing the (recommended) gauge 8 oxygen-free copper (OCF) power cable because the only spot I found feasible to cross the firewall from the car battery was through the rubber grommet behind the battery and the ECU. I had to (suffering) poke a hole in the thick rubber being careful to avoid damage to the other massive amount of angel hair cables. It was a big pain… Getting the signal from the radio was the easiest part. I used the PAC AOEM-MAZ2 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001715RQS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) to avoid cutting cables. This thing is incredible, just plug and play. It provides decent low signal for the subwoofer’s internal amplifier. The Cerwin Vega also can be used with high signal from the car speakers, but I prefer the low signal. Also getting the low signal would be easier. Installation of the subwoofer took a bit more time than expected. The threaded rod that came with the subwoofer is very long. So, with the help of a Dremel I cut it to perfectly fit the Yaris. Nonetheless, once the speaker is in place, it remains an inch above the surrounding trunk floor (see picture). Then, if you care about the bump in the cover mat, you have to install sort of spacers below the mat. In regards the sound, I had a hard time trying to balance or equalize the bass. It has happened that, when I asked the subwoofer for power what I get was a trashy sound. Getting upset about that I noticed that the peculiar distorted sound was like metal-to-metal vibration. A few rags between the spare tire and the car’s metal and the spare tire and the subwoofer solved the problem. After that the bass was clearer and more sound, incredible by the way. Is this product similar or better than a traditional subwoofer mounted on a sealed, ported or bandpass enclosure with an external amplifier? I would say no, but it is not far of being. I found the enclosure-mounted subwoofer has a deeper and cleaner sound, and more punchy. However, this doesn’t mean the Cerwin Vega VPAS12ST is bad, on the contrary, this is the best product to satisfy performance and convenience at the same time. It is really outstanding. Would I recommend this product? The answer is definitely yes, if you are looking for an upgrade to your factory installed sound system, and also want the convenience of keeping the same cargo space. Hope this would be helpful mostly for Yaris owners. I'm not being compensated for this honest review.

Love this sub. I’ve had JL 12’s, 10’s, Bazooka subs, a cerwin vega 15”, and I think this might actually be my favorite so far. I can’t give enough points for the fact this is completely invisible. As an adult now with kids, my trunk room is invaluable. This is the best of both worlds... a powerful hard hitting 12” that takes up 0 room. Spare tire can be pulled with no issue whatsoever, by unplugging one harness. To be honest, you probably don’t even need to unplug to pull out the spare. Extra points for the remote, absolutely awesome. You can adjust the gain, boost and frequency crossover on the fly by song, along with the phase. That was the biggest downfall of my precious systems, the amp was calibrated one way, so although it sounded amazing playing hip hop or electronic, sounded less than stellar switching to other types of music. This puts it all in the palm of your hand. Install was much easier than traditional since didn’t have to really tune the amp which is self contained. All you need to do is run power, ground, remote wire and RCAs. Simple. I recommend to anyone wanting to round out their system with variable bass that can hit much harder than a stock sub, while completely maintaining their trunk space and not causing anyone to look inside and potentially break in based on the big box and amps sitting in the rear of your SUV. Only issue I had was that I had to do a very slight modification to the length of the post that anchors it down. Used a Dremel to cut off about 1/2” so it would not touch the rear trunk floor. Installed in a 2015 Mazda CX-5 with no other issues.

After a few months of bass from this unit, I am ready to give my honest review. I am older now, but still love my music with strong bass. However, I don't want my trunk filled with amps and a big ol' subwoofer box anymore, I prefer to have my trunk space. Co worker had this in his car. I sat inside and listened. Nice decent bass. Went to the trunk expecting to see a trunk full of equipment, I was really shocked to see a empty trunk minus a sweater and hat. He lifted up the mat and in the spare tire well sits this thing. Really impressed me with the bass output. Keep in mind, it gives you bass, but not like a full system bass output where people can hear you blocks away. So I went ahead and ordered one. Had this installed professionally, and boy does it make the listening experience that much better. I drive a 07 Yaris S sedan daily. It fits in the spare tire well perfectly. Subwoofer is connect to an after market Pioneer head unit and RockFord Fosgate speakers front and rear. Inside of the vehicle, with the volume up, bass is really good. Outside of the vehicle, no loud obnoxious bass can be heard outside. Really stealthy, folks that don't know wouldn't even know I have a 12" hidden in there. Tricked some friends and told them the 6X9's in the back are pumping that bass out and after inspecting the trunk, they believed me. But once I told them there is a 12" in the spare tire well, they were shocked just like I was when I first heard of this unit. Overall, I like it. It's perfect for the Yaris. This car is my commuter so I don't need a 5 thousand dollar system in this thing. Perfect for my listening needs, enough bass to get by, way better than stock. I love it, wish I knew of this product earlier, because factory stereo sound is garbage. Remember, this is not to impress folks with loud bass outside of the vehicle, in fact you won't feel or hear much of the bass outside, but gives "you" the listener enough bass inside the vehicle to enjoy your music with enhanced bass sound effect. Hope this helps with your decision.

This is the best $$350 all in one subwoofer I’ve ever had. It absolutely slams. Plenty of power, actually needs to be turned down a little bit. I’m no stranger to car audio systems… I’ve had all kinds of systems from JL audio to diamond audio to Memphis audio. While they sounded absolutely phenomenal they cost a ton. So relative to price this subwoofer is a bargain. And install is a breeze at least in an Audi the battery is right there. My only issue with it isn’t even really an issue that’s going to stop me from using it. It sits a little higher out of my tire well in my Audi SQ5 than I would like. Not a dealbreaker.

Going to describe it as briefly, but clearly as possible. It sounds like how you would expect a super premium OEM subwoofer setup to sound. Setup was easy (the harness makes like easy). Remote has no word backlighting, but does has lights (you just cant see what you are adjusting). Can go low, will shake car for sure, but dont expect a show winning amount of bass. Its VERY VERY good at being like a premium OEM subwoofer thats easy to conceal. I only get 5 stars on amazon to rate, but I give it a 7.75 out of 10. I needed something concealable/sounds great, and it works great. Be sure to tune it with the remote before casting any judgement.

I'd read numerous reviews claiming this to be a good product and I'm happy with it so far. I wasn't looking for something to blow out the windows & I wasn't willing to sacrifice cargo space or my spare tire, I just wanted to extend the lower range of my sound system and this works on all accounts. I have a RAV4 so I can't speak to how well it will do closed off in the trunk of a car but I can't imagine it would suffer too much as powerful as it is. I was a bit skeptical how well this would work with the lack of enclosure and the wattage being on the low side for a sub but with this running at 2ohms, you're getting more output than you might think. This sub plays down to some low frequencies and hits surprisingly hard. It's pretty amazing how far technology has come. I've only had it installed for around 24 hours so I can't speak to its longevity/reliability but I don't anticipate any issues. Cerwin Vega has been around for a while and seems to have a good reputation. One thing I'll suggest to potentially save some people time, make sure you have the appropriate butt-end connectors for the power and ground wires. You'll have 10ga coming from the sub and 8ga coming from the battery and ground source. These aren't as common connectors as 12ga and smaller (at least in typical local stores). I was so used to hooking up power / ground cables to an amp terminal, I forgot I needed butt-end connectors for this setup. As well and very importantly, use oxygen free copper wire as opposed to copper clad aluminum for your power and ground sources. OFC has less resistance compared to CCA; offering you more power for the same gauge wire & resulting in the amp & wires running cooler. The manual for the sub even states you should use OFC or you may damage the amp and it will void any warranty claims. Spend more for quality cables now to save more money in the long run. Also, why not get the most out of your sub? I hope these tips will save you some time and headache. Again, I'm really enjoying this sub. It's such a good sounding and discretely hidden sub that it's well worth the price point.

So here is the deal, for what it is, and the space that it saves...it's brilliant. I would buy again, for someone in my specific situation. I have a Focus ST, it's a wonderful car, but as will most Fords, the stereo is absolute hot garbage. I'm grown up. I'm not gonna roll through my suburb with a pair of 15 inch solo-barics dimming my headlights every time the beat drops. I just wanted my music to sound decent, and this helps a lot. It is quite loud, and will shake the mirrors a bit, but it rolls over somewhere around 40-50hz. Meaning it just doesn't hit the lows like a proper boxed subwoofer would. I suspect it is in the nature of the design. It's really a free-air subwoofer that uses the spare tire/spare tire well to "make itself a box". As with most free-air subs, it just doesn't hit low. Nature of the beast. Again, great product. There aren't any other subwoofer setups that can do better without going standard box and losing trunk space. Also, this works way better than any of the "slim", "shallow mount", "under seat" setups...those suck way worse. This is probably as good as it gets without giving up some trunk space and getting a proper setup.

APRIL '22 UPDATE: Amp is NOT repairable. So the only option is to rewire the sub so that it bypasses the dead amp. Then use an external amp to power it, essentially making it a "passive sub". ______________________________________________________________ SUB IS NOT 12 INCHES! IT'S ONLY 10 INCHES! (look at my photo) AND Amp died after 3 months, after maybe 50 hours of runtime. Bought on Amazon and CerwinVega refuses to repair it after 3 months of ownership. This dinosaur of a company would rather take a hit to their reputation and lose sales than take care of their customers. Amp probably costs $50 to them? But instead of replacing it, they'd rather piss off their customers. This "smart" move used to work before the days of the internet, but not anymore. Obviously they're banking on their name, but how long will that last? So ask yourself, do you really want to buy a product from a company like this? In the meantime, I called up Amazon and told them what happened, and how CerwinVega refused to repair it, and they refunded me in full. I don't even need to return the sub to them! That's great customer service! Dinosaur companies like CerwinVega need to learn a thing or two from Amazon. Or they just need to die off like other dinosaurs. Even if you buy the sub at an "authorized dealer", think long and hard first, because if you initiate a warranty return from dinosaur CerwinVega, and IF they approve the return, you have to pay for the shipping! And that's going to cost you at least $60! Take a look at my photo. CerwinVega has lied. The sub is not 12". It's only 10"! Total false advertising! And if you really do your research, it's manufactured by a white label firm out of China. All CerwinVega does is slap their label on it (and so does JBL for that matter). Sonically it sounds pretty good. Frequency response tests show it dies at around 30Hz. It's pretty accurate, but a little sluggish and muddy. It fits inside my 2016 X5M spare after taking out the trunk floor strut, and using a custom threaded rod that's longer than the stock rod. Luckily I live near a top audio electronics repair shop. I'm going to take apart the sub housing and take the amp out and get it repaired. They probably used cr*ppy amp components, so I'll get them swapped out. Maybe doing that will improve the sound as well.

It has enough punch to shack my hatchback

Suena increíble, la instale en una tiguan y 10 de 10

The best option to have the quality bass punch you need while saving all your trunk space.

Me encantó el bajo, aunque llevo dos días usándolo les comento, lo instale en un auto Honda City 2019 con estereo de agencia. Use los dos cables de bocinas traseras del auto para no meterme con el desmontaje del estereo. La instalación fue muy sencilla y lo que me gustó es que la corriente se corta cuando el estereo deja de mandar señal a las bocinas, esto es genial porque no tiene que conectarse al switch de encendido del auto. Su potencia es muy buena, hasta tengo que limitalo un poco con el control porque vibra demasiado la cajuela. Les recomiendo adquirirlo con el kit de cables de instalación que contiene lo necesario, aunque no son cables de la mejor categoría, si son funcionales. Seguiré disfrutando

Tenía mis dudas , por el embalaje, se veían detalles en la estructura de la bocina leves pero se veían y te hicieron dudar de que fuera nuevo, me tarde en la instalación ya que lo quería hacer yo y fue de lujo …