P300-8P

Reviewing the Rockford Punch P300 8P, ported enclosure. This is absolutely a great little sub for its size. It is not a Focal 13" or a JL 15" with 1000W amp and giant box that will produce a back massaging clean and pristine ultra low bass. It is not a tight, massively punchy Soundstream 8" at 500 watts in 1.5 cubic foot box that will punch your chest with mid-bass. What it is, is a carefully designed balance- fairly deep bass, slightly punchy, moderate to high power for an 8", not ultra clean but not sloppy either, all in tiny package that will upgrade most stock systems very nicely on a budget and without taking up much space or time to install. It will easily best any stock 8" sub and produces a surprising amount of low bass for its size. It is definitely worth the money, it is no slouch for what it is, and I've owned waaay nicer subs to have comparison. To get 1.5-3 times the performance and quality, you will spend 5-10 times the price and use a ton of car space and your time to install all that. This is perfect for a basic upgrade where cost and space reduction matter, and it is one of the best I've found after years installing various systems in my vehicles from near competition level systems to simple stock sub upgrades. I had the Rockford 12" non ported sub in the same series in my vehicle, and while it gets a bit lower and cleaner, it is not as good all round and can be boomy. It also wasted a ton of space, so I decided to try this 8". I am quite happy with the sound and really happy with the space savings. I was also very surprised how close this comes to the deep bass of the 12" box in the same series when both are played at reasonable volume and gain. This little 8", due to the amp, box volume, and port can really produce some admirable low bass and volume. It looks like I will barely notice the slightly lower and cleaner extension of the 12", will gain lots of room in the cargo area, and the 8" is actually a bit better of a general performer where the 12 was great for low bass and boomy for higher bass like rock music. This 8" can also be boomy, but is easier to tune not to be by leaving the gain and remote low. If I was you out there shopping for a small powered sub upgrade for your car, I wouldn't waste time swapping out the factory sub in many cases, as its amp and box were designed for it. For powered boxes, I wouldn't go any smaller than this solution, as those tiny underseat powered boxes will all struggle against physics to play deep and stay cool. Small enclosures without ports cannot play deep, and they overheat the built in amp easier. This ported enclosure is right sized and you can expect it to play lower and stay cooler than smaller solutions. For an 8", as mentioned before it gets pretty deep, but it also has at least a little of that tight bass you want from an 8". The port tuning does make the box play lower bass than a larger sealed box would, but it is a bit less clean than a larger sealed enclosure. The port also reduces the speaker's ability for really tight crisp bass, but that is the typical trade off to get lower and louder bass from a small speaker. In this case, the trade off is worth it to get an all around decent, but not excellent, bass quality and volume from a tiny little box. Ergonomics and install options of the box itself are excellent. It is rectangular with no slanted edges, which are often a pain and waste more space than they are worth unless custom built for your car. It is about the size of two standard sheets of paper placed side by side, and less than 6 inches thick. (11.4" x 17.6" x 5.6")- think of a large briefcase or small carryon bag. The speaker driver is centered nicely on one large side. The port, amplifier, and all controls are built into one of the small sides in a well organized arrangement. Install is simple with any amp install kit. Some suggestions for people not well experienced with installs or tuning speakers: -Buy GOOD cables. Not this aluminum clad copper garbage or cheap Boss or other kits with fake thin wire that is not true to gauge. -Install the right size fuse, not something way over the fuses on the amp. -Make a good ground connection by scraping down to bare metal and using a good washer and screw or bolt on the terminal. -Pass through all wire with proper grommets and protect cables with looming where needed. Don't be lazy! -Group all the cables near the speaker with quality electric tape every few inches for a foot or two, and then bind the power and ground together for several inches right at the disconnect as a strain relief. This makes all connections move together and easier to manage, and looks clean. Cover the whole bundle in black looming for a couple feat by the speaker to protect the wires, make it look clean, keep them together, and help hide the wires. -Once a few feet away from the speaker, route power and separate from the RCA or speaker level to reduce chance for noise coupling on long runs. -If you have a proper speaker tap, you DO NOT need an LOC. Most stock head units have low voltage if they have RCA at all, so a speaker tap may be better or a pre-amp. Putting an LOC from speaker level back to RCA low level is a useless middle step that creates noise, hassle and mess- don't make that mistake. These all in one units do best with a good speaker tap for hi level input. Use low level input if you have a dedicated RCA output from a quality head unit or pre-amp that actually produces a reasonable voltage. -DO NOT CRANK the bass boost and gain, or the remote. Set the crossover at half or lower, maybe even leave it at 50Hz- you want low bass fill unless your car has NO bass from door speakers, and the higher you set that frequency the more frequencies the amp has to play, and more resonances in the box and port that may or may not be desired. -Be subtle on all knobs or leave them minimum except for small adjustments on the remote. All the people complaining about port noise or bad sound quality are the typical crank it types who may not have taken time to understand electronics or sound. They are over driving the spear from its best operating point to an excessive, boomy one. Ported enclosures especially are vulnerable to become uncontrolled and sloppy if pushed too hard. I tested this with higher settings and if the signal to it is strong, it will sound poor and the port will be noisy. The box can be removed rapidly by unplugging 3 connectors. However, it is so small, you probably won't need to. While it won't fit under many newer seats like the ultra compact subs, it still fits just about anywhere. If you need to take it out or shove it aside, takes a few seconds. About the only negative I've found, is the cheap assembly of the port. It is cheap wood and plastic that is not perfectly smooth and rounded / sanded edges. There are seams, etc. This is why the port has a propensity to make that flapping noise when the speaker is driven hard, but frankly most driving it that hard are setting the speaker up to sound terrible anyway. The port noise is not audible unless you are cranking this speaker too much. Some sanding and rounding would probably help reduce port noise. Enough said. This thing is an excellent balance, maybe the best in the Rockford powered sub line. It's tiny. It is plenty loud and low for most cars. People who need massive bass shouldn't be looking for 8" subs, but this little beast will surprise you without killing your wallet or filling your trunk. Recommended.

Update 6/9/21: On the powered unit with amp gain and "bass boost" knobs at ZERO (none), and remote gain knob at 1/3 up front mounted under steering column, the sub struggles and cant take the power load or it just isn't good enough, it clearly cant. Any more gain or boost past that point and the bass turns to shit. I cant even listen. When its dialed in at regular listening volume, it does sound VERY clean and crisp like Rockfords should, but not at loud volumes and does not hit hard. The gain knobs (3 in all) are all pointless. I was very happy with it at first because I havent had a woofer system since about 2007, but just not happy anymore after 2 weeks because I cant crank it to super loud and experience the same sound quality compared to what you get at lower regular volumes. I'm left wanting a system at least 3x as powerful. You do get what you pay for. This 8 inch powered sub is barely entry level, even for Fosgate. I am now wanting (2) 12s, Kicker or JL, maybe even the Rockfords again, 600RMS each. But it will cost me, but I also know I'll be satisfied. Maybe its the ported box that makes this sub worthless at high volumes. You definitely hear the air movement , even at Zero gain as stated before, and 1/3 remote gain knob. I cant really tell if its the sub or the box that is the culprit. ______________________________________________________________________ For $270, you cant get better bass for the money. Prove me wrong. A box, sub and amp for $270?! I was veeery skeptical but I know Rockford Fosgate's brand and performance from many years past. So I pulled the trigger and thought well if its cheap but its Rockford Fosgate, it HAS to be at least decent, and I do not want to shell out 1000+ for a full dual sub and amp system. You do get what you pay for, but this little 8 incher is an insane value. I rocked 1100 watt dual 12s in high school and college and grew out of crazy bass. It had been a decade and finally got a really nice new truck, and decided to get a 'lil bass system added. I am beyond pleased with this Rockford unit. It doesn't hit hard and it doesn't go super loud, but its crisp clean *Rockford Fosgate* bass at reasonable volumes. Once you get settings dialed in where you like it, you'll fall in love with it. Installation was a breeze. Just have to know your vehicles speaker wiring colors. Con - You *can* hear the air moving through the port at louder volumes/gain settings (or maybe that's just the sub struggling) and that's just at 30-50% settings on amp gain/amp bass boost knobs/remote gain knob. I know that if I went to 75+% on all three settings it would be sound horrendous and probably blow the speaker. But I don't even want to go that loud. I'm 37 and don't want bumpin' that can be heard from blocks away. If you want solid sounding bass that YOU will enjoy inside YOUR vehicle and don't want to be heard down the street and disturb neighbors or wake up your baby, this is definitely for you. I might actually get a second one and add in a switch so I can use just one of the subs or both.

Best bang for $300+. Better than similarly priced powered amps and amp+sub box combos. 10" P-300 and "8 P-300 both pound/overpower stock @1/3 level, rounds out tunes with bass knob very nicely. Set output to high, knobs to middle (preference), and 0* (not 180) on switches. I'm not sponsored by RF but fully recommend these for price, quality and quantity of bass from both P-10" and P-8". P-10" is more refined and subtle, P-8" hits harder and aggressive. Run P-8" because smaller and louder.

Three reasons to love this subwoofer 1. It sounds great and adds so much to the depth of the music 2. It's thin and easily fits behind seats and in tight spots 3. It was easy to install, and the online instructions and videos were helpful

Overall I'm happy with this little sub. It went into my BMW Z4 so there wasn't a whole lot of room to begin with and I wanted to leave enough space for a piece of luggage and some coats. I was able to pull that off. The velcro bottom is super strong. I recommend if you're attaching it to a piece of carpet (which it will do just fine) to mark where it will go, take the carpet out of your trunk and sew the matching piece of velcro to the carpet (I'd do the fuzzy one, not the hook one). Whenever you have to move or pull out the sub (which hopefully isn't often) the velcro is strong enough to pull a lot of the carpet fuzz away. Just a tip, not a detractor from the sub. Audio performance: Installation - I had to install it to the speaker outs from the car's built in amp because the input to the amp is a digital fiber optic signal and the only analog signal is the amplified speaker out line. This limits my ability to tune "down" the volume of the sub. Wish it started a little less on a speaker line input, but I'd give this a 4/5 for inputs. Bass - I was impressed with the "umpf" you get out of this little puppy. It can hit nicely (I did sound treat my car so that helped a ton). And it goes lower than I expected too. 5/5 for bass at this size. Sound Quality - the port is crappy to put it bluntly. The plastic edges don't line up with the box edges and they're super sharp. A bit of sanding would help here nicely. At certain frequencies it tends to "slap" and is annoying. It also sounds weird at higher frequencies (150-200hz) so I've turned the crossover down to 80hz or so. 3/5 for sound quality. Let me know if you have any questions you'd like answered. As I said overall I'm happy and give this a 4/5 given the constraints I had for size and built-in amp.

Bought this powered sub for my 2025 Chevy Silverado LT Trail Boss with the Bose system. The Bose system sounds great and this sub makes it sound even better. It definitely adds the depth you’re looking for. This 8” sub sits well under the rear driver side seat area. Because this sub sits in the cab and not in a trunk like a sedan, this 8” inch produces the punch that you can feel in your back. Perfect for a truck cab. Construction is good quality and the box has a vinyl wrap on it. It also has a sturdy speaker grill to protect the woofer.

Functions correctly and sounds great. But….it was a challenge to get working in the RV. Everything was pre wired so it should have been easy. When it didn’t work even though it was plug and play I figured it was damaged because the shipping company had beat the box up badly. However, after checking every connection several times, I found loose speaker wire connections at the plug that goes into the subwoofer. I was in contact with the supplier during troubleshooting and they were responsive.

Unbelievable sound for a compact box. So impressed 10 out 10.