Onyx Audio 12-S7

Twelve inch pressed steel chassis subwoofer with two 2 Ohm voice coils. It has been built to take high power for its given price point and has a bumped and vented back plate to its magnet structure and crucially two bottom spiders. This provides greater linearity and greater excursion, which are high performance features and unusual on a woofer this inexpensive. It was driven on the test rig by a Sony XM-1S at 290w RMS which it played happily. One major feature is the use of the top roll surround. Instead of a normal surround fixing to the frame at the edge, an oversized cone and top roll are used that occlude or overlap the fixing holes. Where each of the eight fixing holes appear on the subwoofers’ chassis’ circumference, a portion of the specially-moulded foam suspension is shaped to allow the bolt-hole to be accommodated. It means great cone area and is in emulation of a technology developed by Infinity that they jokily called their ‘plus one’ technology. It just means getting a bigger piston in the same hole by reducing the suspensions greed for space. Two sets of chromed squeeze terminals are used to connect the wires and they bite well.
– Frequency response: 28Hz to 950Hz
– Power Handling: 360w RMS (720 max)
– One piece concave polymer dish cone
– Pressed steel chassis
– Sticky back foam gasket supplied
– Dual 4 Ohm voice coils with four layers
– Voice Coil Diameter: 2 inch (50mm) black aluminium
– Dual sets of chrome plated 4mm squeeze post terminals
– Dual Conex cotton progressive bottom spider suspensions
– 40 Oz Strontium magnet
– Efficiency: 86dB 1w/1M
– Fms: 33Hz (CRF)
Review by Adam Rayner
An attractive woofer, the Onyx Audio 12S-7 is well made and quite belies it’s price both in looks and performance. It was hooked into a small monoblock amplifier off the Sony MEX-DV1000 SACD/multi format disc player and after a brief while of playing old hippy SACD stuff by Pink Floyd, I flung a serious set of bass tunes into the deck and tried to spank its arse.
Frankly, it ate all the Sony XM-1S could fling at it and more. What did surprise me was how well the XM-1S performed itself, as it really looks like a ‘me too’ type of product which it most definitely ain’t, dropping large fatness into the series connected coils of the woofer. I wanted to drive it hard but the JBL bass amp I have is rated so high in power it could merely clear its throat and empty the Onyx’s voice coil gap forever sending cone on one way trip. Mind you, it is rated to a higher power than most subs in its price range.
It tracked the bass line well, with only a slight drop in level as it went for tough super low tones, some of which were below it’s relatively medium 28Hz low end cut off as per the specs. It went in and out a long way on the dual bottom spider suspensions and the larger scallop-edged top roll, so it made a nice 3D effect of the Onyx logo on the simple inverted dish one-piece plastic cone.
I was impressed by how musical it managed to be in the sealed Acoustic Wood test enclosure and it did the track six test from the silliest Bass CD I have, More Bass, More Boom, More Bottom by ‘Power Supply’. It has drops so deep the track starts with a warning about ‘Due to ongoing legal battles, HipRock records issue the following information’. All about how they will not be responsible for your equipment failing or your blowing out your ears.
It didn’t like some of the more stupidly deep tones but it never ever bottomed out and merely played a bit more quietly than when up better into its comfort zone. However, it really shifts some air and is a proper bassheads’ product and makes really large phat tones and does it for less than you’d have to pay to get as good a result with many other brands.
Onyx is a brand new product and as such benefits from the very latest technology in moulded top suspensions and also what you can order for your wedge, making it very good value for money indeed. Onyx gives you access to real boom for less. Not weapons grade, not SQ delicacy, just gobs and gobs of fat and satisfying bass to piss off the bloke in the car next to you with his two tens or lesser-potency single twelve.
And you know what? They are cheap enough to be able to use ’em eight at a time – now that I WOULD love to hear!
Sound Quality 7.0
Build Quality 8.0
Power Handling 9.0
Efficiency 6.0
Value For Money 10.0
Overall rating 8.0