By Anthony B. Barthel, Mobile Beat

In the heart of East LA I was touring the B-52 Pro-Audio factory, watching speakers of all sorts get manufactured. One of B52’s principals, Avi, was telling me about their quality control, their warranty, their new manufacturing processes. Nifty. Then, on the conclusion of the tour, he showed me the B-52 ACT-18 subwoofer amplifier and, finally, the finished product. Then he issued a challenge.

“Take it out, beat it up and see if you can destroy ‘em.” Huh? That sounds like a challenge!

In reviewing products for Mobile Beat people say all kinds of things. They talk about how wonderful their products are, go over features but a personal challenge like this, well, you’ve got a deal.

B-52 has two new lines of powered subwoofers – the SP-18 and the ACT-18. Both utilize a brand new digital power amplifier that one can pick up with two fingers. This lightweight amplifier system acts as both the amplifier and crossover so one doesn’t need any outboard circuitry to incorporate the B-52 sub into a system.

The 800 / 1200 watt amplifier can also be used to drive an outboard speaker such as another passive subwoofer. This pushes the amplifier from 800 watts to 1200 watts.

We were able to coerce B-52 out of an ACT-18 wedge-shaped powered subwoofer and their ACT-18S passive wedge-shaped powered subwoofer.

Judging this book by its cover can be a mistake. While the spec sheet says 800 watts for a single powered sub and you go on that factory tour and lift that lightweight amplifier up and one’s first thought is, ‘this isn’t going to be much’. Sure, the company folks are all excited about their new product but, well, the perception is deceiving.

Since the challenge was to beat the subwoofers up to the point of explosion (my interpretation) I chose the only logical path to destruction – a 300-person middle school dance. Outdoors.

Hooking up these speakers couldn’t be easier. From the mixer one sends a full-range XLR connections to the left and right input XLR connection of the subwoofer. From there several options exist. One could connect a passive subwoofer to the powered Neutric output, which I did. In addition there are full-range passive XLR outs or high-pass XLR outs. One could connect an amplifier from these outs or connect powered speakers, which I did.

After four hours of the most current music at ear-piercing volume levels the subwoofers continued to do their duty without so much as a hiccup. The quantity and quality of sound from these speakers is outstanding. What’s more, the amplifier is extremely efficient so even with four powered main speakers and two subwoofers (one powered and one passive) I was still able to run the whole thing on one electrical circuit without any problems.

There was absolutely no detectable hum or signal noise from the subs at all but once the music comes on, there is no doubt that B-52 knows how to produce a thumpin’ subwoofer. You could say B-52 ‘drops da bass bomb on the party’.
With a trapezoidal shape and that light-weigh amplifier built right in, these speakers are very portable. To help matters, there are wheels on the back and handles on the side and top. It was possible for one person to lift the 113-pound cabinet into a truck without too much difficulty.

Combining features, pricing, warranty and functionality B-52’s new ACT 18 subwoofers are an excellent choice. They’re electrically efficient, they sound fantastic and even hundreds of middle schooler’s thumpin’ songs couldn’t destroy them. In fact, kids dancing on top of the subs was an added attraction. The subs also went to several weddings, a corporate party and a high school gymnasium dance in their stay with me and they performed admirably the whole time. This is an excellent package.

While I’ve tested several other powered subwoofers in the past, these were convincing enough to prompt my asking B-52 if I could buy them. And, yes, I know where they’ve been!