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Sonique Thunderbox 1200
Active single bow subwoofer
Recommended retail price: $995
(inc. GST)
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Reviewer: Richard Morgan
Sonique is an Adelaide based speaker manufacturer who, in a short space of time, has quietly gained a rep for designing excellent speakers that are often the envy of the industry. The Thunderbox 1200 is the latest subwoofer from the company, which is creating a lot of interest in home theatre circles models.
 The Thunderbox can be considered a large product, but not as unsightly or unwieldy as many subwoofers. Its appearance is plain but impressive.
When you remove the grille you see a 305mm woofer and even when the grille is in place large twin reflex ports tell you that there's the possibility of some real low end grunt. The rear panel has a metal panel housing a plethora of connection facilities and volume level and crossover point controls.
There are RCA line level inputs and outputs for let and right channels and a bunch of gold plated five way binding posts that cater for hi-level inputs and outputs. You'll likely use the live levels for driving in home theatre system and the 5-ways if you're using the unit on a sub-satellite music system.
The level control does what it says it does and the crossover adjusts the connection point between the sub and the rest of the system and is adjusted according to the type of input source (movie, music) and the type of speakers used and overall effect desired. Both controls work as advertised.
There's also an on/off switch with a position labelled auto which engages and auto power-on mode, where the unit switches power through to itself when it senses that a movie or music signal is being sent to it. I know people like this feature, but I tend to switch subs on and off manually as I need them.
The driver is about as bullet proof as they come. It uses a fibre impregnated paper cone, has a vented pile piece and aluminium voice coil former and a rear bump plate to prevent over excursion. It's power by a robust 128 watt power amplifier and has a no-loss protection system built in.
For the audition the unit was married to Sonique front, centre and rear speakers from the SAV range. It works brilliantly with the Sonique system in a reasonably large room and is versatile enough to be used in any other-brand system.
This subwoofer produces good amounts of low bass but it isn't marred by a hump in the upper or a one-note dominance effect. The Thunderbox 1200's response is smooth, flat and extended. What's more it's quite excellent in allowing low end dynamic interplay (the stuff that gives subwoofers a musical character and which is so often missing).
The Thunderbox 1200 goes loud and hard. It's capable of good levels of slam and recovery from transient activity yet is smooth and accurate enough for hi-fi music.
Like many Sonique products, the Thunderbox 1200 can be bought in a special Edition version which features a balanced timber veneered cabinet with a special window bracing system, extra anti-resonant treatment, lead lining, floor spikes, and components pick for even closer tolerance performance and operation.
If your budget will stretch you should opt for the Special Edition option. You get a better looking, better performing version of an already superbly engineered and performing sub.
This is a particularly versatile sub ranking among the very best I have heard. You will definitely appreciate its honesty and dynamic capability in the long term.
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