Bazooka Whoa! Car & Boat Audio

I used to have proper systems in my old cars. Now I’m told I’m too old for that… :frowning:
I had been missing the low frequencies in my music, so I bought the 50w 8" kit awhile back because it was cheap and could be removed easily if we needed the trunk space. I knew going into it that it wouldn’t be like my old systems, but I got what I expected.
A plus is that it hooks up to your existing car stereo without any modifications. It comes with these splicer things that tap into the existing speakers wires behind your head unit as well as the power, ground, and ignition wires. You’ll still need to attach a ground wire to the car’s body somewhere in the trunk. I was able to do this under the back seat. Since it’s only 50w, you don’t have to run a power wire to the car’s battery. The only place you can see the wire in my car is coming up from behind the back seat to the tube.
The tube is sturdy, but you may have some trouble getting it to stay put. I used a combination of velcro and a small bungie cord to keep it from rolling around. If you’re ok with drilling holes in the floor of your trunk, you won’t need a bungie cord as the mounting bracket is designed for this and the tube itself can still be removed easily even with the mounting base secured. (I was going for the least amount of modification as possible)
The bass is definitely more audible in my car, but it’s not Earth rumbling or anything. I mean, the rear-view mirror will vibrate a bit, but that’s about it. It doesn’t handle a very wide range of frequencies very well and can sound distorted at high volumes. This distortion (papery sound) is less noticeable when it’s in the trunk and the back seat is up. Some songs sound great and others not-so-much depending on the frequency.
Basically, only buy this if you’re looking for a cheap means of enhancing the lower frequencies in your ride. For $99 you’re getting the speaker, enclosure, amp, wiring kit, and mounting bracket. A pretty good deal if you’re not expecting the world.

Edit: seems the 8" powered kit is sold-out. tough luck…move along…

Damn Woot! I paid $169 for the 100W 10" tube last time around. I wish I could have got the 250W one for the same price. If I would have known that you would be selling these all the time I wouldn’t have jumped on the sale.
Anyways, these are a great product. The 10" has a pretty good punch.

This is strictly a “First Impressions” review-

I ordered the 10" not long ago.

I took the device out of the box when it arrived and thought I heard some rattling around coming from inside it. Sure enough, there was clearly something inside. I figured I’d open it up to see if something was broke or had just come loose. So I unscrewed the amp from one end and had a look. Sure enough, 2 screws were completely loose and bouncing around inside. I guess that’s good news because at least nothing appeared to be broke. But I was also completely underwhelmed at just how small and light the AMP is ( I went with the 250w version). I’ve seen low-rated amps come in at twice the size and weight. It doesn’t bode well for its quality and lifespan.

Beyond that, I really didn’t care for the finish of the tube. It’s got this speckled/splattered black on black look…which makes it look like maybe you just spilled a cola on it a minutes ago. It just looks and feels cheap to me.

The amount of cable included is guaranteed to mean you’ll be buying additional cable to complete the install.

Aside from all that, the tube is overall larger than I had guessed. I was hoping to stuff it down in the foot-area of my rear seat, but it’s going to be too large for that. That’s not a flaw on Bazookas part, it’s my fault for not really reading the dimensions.

Based on those first impressions I would not buy again, nor would I recommend. However, I’m still waiting for a warmer day to get this thing installed and hoping that the sound will convince me that not returning it was the right choice.

Paid $209 for the 250W last time around, and still haven’t installed it. This sucks.

thanks for refunding the difference WOOT, you rock

some people say woot refunds them the difference if they paid more from a prior sale. is this correct? if they do it for some they should do it for everyone.

Stay way! Horrible sound and quality.
I got the 10" passive model (the more expensive of the 2) to replace my heavy 12" Kenwood pancake sub about 3 months ago here, on Woot.
There is just no comparison between Kenwood and this, with Kenwood beating this plastic POS in every way imaginable.
There is plastic-bucket ringing constantly coming from the sub. And rightfully so, its cheap, hard plastic shell is going to do that - no way around it. Lows are non-existent.
This sub (paid $115 for new):

In a $25 wooden truck box, it fits rather neatly in the back of a 2-door coupe.
The only reason I wanted the Bazooka is for weight savings. I give it that - it is substantially lighter. However, loss of sound quality makes it a terrible choice. I would rather haul extra 15lbs around than listen to this cr@ppy sub.

P.S. I can’t even imagine how bad the sound must be when you pair this failure of a sub with, no doubt, a sub-par Bazooka amp in the active model.
BTW, I’m running a 250W Rockford Prime amp that only cost about $100, so I’m no car audio snob.

Thanks for the post. I guess you’ve saved me a $100 disappointment. I have a big ass wood box sub that’s too big for the back seat of my crewcab to fold down over. I wanted to replace it with something cheap that fits better. I always thought these were popular and highly regarded, but had my doubts. Maybe I’ll checkout the Kenwood. In any case, thanks for the candid and straight forward personal experience post.

No wonder why Bazooka is listed at the number one position here in bass tubes for car.