hi I'm relatively new to home av and just thought id add a bit of info on some of my recent purchases, mainly because I was surprised at the shear cost of speaker sets etc. when I say shear cost, I say this because I come from car audio custom installs (my day job) and when it comes to sub-woofers I was amassed at how much the home audio scene costs compared to what I'm used to in the car audio scene. And yes I know there will probably be people commenting on "car audio is designed for a small space" ill nip that one in the butt, I build custom installs on a day to day basis, and nearly all of these setups/systems will pump out over 140db. So to say they are designed for small spaces is really a rather silly thing to say
. The larger majority of installs I do are for customers who want to be louder than their mates.
So, with that in mind when it comes to home speakers I was unsure on what manufacturers to trust to give me a big bang for my buck. so when I come across the vibe range I felt almost obliged to give them a try (what with their efforts in car audio)
space is an issue at the moment so I decided to pick up a Vibe Alpha1 though I would have gone for the Alpha2 if I had more space.... boy am I glad I didn't because when the Alpha1 arrived it was a little bigger than I expected.... well my actual thoughts were "how the f*** am I going to explain this one to the misses" lol
.
Build quality is in my opinion fantastic, very sturdy, and pretty heavy too, no marks or blemishes with smooth black surfaces and there is a nice logo on the side that is discreet enough to not be able to see it unless you're up close. I also like the front grille, feels well made and when pushed into place you get a nice click. My worst criticism on build quality is the rubber sticky feet that come with it are a hell-of-a-lot smaller than I would have liked, the carpet spikes are pretty good though. It has a 10" sub at the front (forward firing) and a slot port at the back along with the amp. The slot port at the back does pass a huge amount of air so be careful what you put behind the sub, also it has a 2rca input as well as hi level speaker inputs/outputs. There are two adjustment knobs, one for volume control and the other for the crossover frequency control; the adjustment knobs are not situated in the best place on the amp... just underneath the rca input, which can make quick adjustments difficult.
The moment I turned it on I was impressed, for what it cost I am over the moon with it. This really does add allot of weight to the system, it pounds WAY harder than I was expecting, and the amount of air it moves is almost unbelievable at this price point. If I was to close my eyes id think I was listening to a £500 competition sub.
Though I do feel that an auto on/off would have been nice and some rca outputs to daisy chain a few of them but for the money I paid I was prepared to make a few sacrifices... now for the best bit... I paid £119.99 for it brand new with free delivery from Thompsons on eBay the rrp is advertised at £399... WAW... though I will be honest after using it I can see why the rrp is so high, because this is easily as good if not better than all the subs I heard down at richer sounds but for far less cash.
I'm assuming that Vibe are able to keep the cost down and still retain fantastic quality because the stuff they use is brought over from car audio where vibe have allot of experience with and where there is a far greater demand, and we all know that the more they make the less it costs them per unit.
With everything taken into consideration id give the Vibe Alpha1 a solid 9 out of 10
I do apologise for the length of this review, I just sort of got carried away, lol. I hope it's been worth a read and as a reward I have uploaded a few videos of the sub in action.
Below is the links to the vids I uploaded to YouTube earlier
YouTube - Vibe Alpha1 vid2
YouTube - Vibe Alpha1 vid1
YouTube - Vibe Alpha1 vid3
vid of apearance;
YouTube - Vibe Alpha1 vid 4
edit
just an update on this, it seems to have an auto standby mode, after about 10 mins (ish, wasnt really counting, lol) of no signal it makes a sound and the green light on the amp at the back turns red, then when signal is put through it it coms back to life and the light turns green again....... big surprise to me as i was under the impression that it had no auto off..... evan more happy with it now, lol
So, with that in mind when it comes to home speakers I was unsure on what manufacturers to trust to give me a big bang for my buck. so when I come across the vibe range I felt almost obliged to give them a try (what with their efforts in car audio)
space is an issue at the moment so I decided to pick up a Vibe Alpha1 though I would have gone for the Alpha2 if I had more space.... boy am I glad I didn't because when the Alpha1 arrived it was a little bigger than I expected.... well my actual thoughts were "how the f*** am I going to explain this one to the misses" lol
Build quality is in my opinion fantastic, very sturdy, and pretty heavy too, no marks or blemishes with smooth black surfaces and there is a nice logo on the side that is discreet enough to not be able to see it unless you're up close. I also like the front grille, feels well made and when pushed into place you get a nice click. My worst criticism on build quality is the rubber sticky feet that come with it are a hell-of-a-lot smaller than I would have liked, the carpet spikes are pretty good though. It has a 10" sub at the front (forward firing) and a slot port at the back along with the amp. The slot port at the back does pass a huge amount of air so be careful what you put behind the sub, also it has a 2rca input as well as hi level speaker inputs/outputs. There are two adjustment knobs, one for volume control and the other for the crossover frequency control; the adjustment knobs are not situated in the best place on the amp... just underneath the rca input, which can make quick adjustments difficult.
The moment I turned it on I was impressed, for what it cost I am over the moon with it. This really does add allot of weight to the system, it pounds WAY harder than I was expecting, and the amount of air it moves is almost unbelievable at this price point. If I was to close my eyes id think I was listening to a £500 competition sub.
Though I do feel that an auto on/off would have been nice and some rca outputs to daisy chain a few of them but for the money I paid I was prepared to make a few sacrifices... now for the best bit... I paid £119.99 for it brand new with free delivery from Thompsons on eBay the rrp is advertised at £399... WAW... though I will be honest after using it I can see why the rrp is so high, because this is easily as good if not better than all the subs I heard down at richer sounds but for far less cash.
I'm assuming that Vibe are able to keep the cost down and still retain fantastic quality because the stuff they use is brought over from car audio where vibe have allot of experience with and where there is a far greater demand, and we all know that the more they make the less it costs them per unit.
With everything taken into consideration id give the Vibe Alpha1 a solid 9 out of 10
I do apologise for the length of this review, I just sort of got carried away, lol. I hope it's been worth a read and as a reward I have uploaded a few videos of the sub in action.
Below is the links to the vids I uploaded to YouTube earlier
YouTube - Vibe Alpha1 vid2
YouTube - Vibe Alpha1 vid1
YouTube - Vibe Alpha1 vid3
vid of apearance;
YouTube - Vibe Alpha1 vid 4
edit
just an update on this, it seems to have an auto standby mode, after about 10 mins (ish, wasnt really counting, lol) of no signal it makes a sound and the green light on the amp at the back turns red, then when signal is put through it it coms back to life and the light turns green again....... big surprise to me as i was under the impression that it had no auto off..... evan more happy with it now, lol
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