From jake92028@yahoo.com Thu Apr 15 11:06:36 2004
Subject:Review Roland KCW-1 powered subwoofer

I added a Roland KCW-1 subwoofer amp to my Pro-145 and KT-80 setup
over the past weekend plus a mid-week date last night. I'm very
impressed. The KCW-1 put a deep but very clean, fat low end on my
organ bass and left hand piano without a typical bass player
subwoofer's unpleasant overamped rumble. The closest comparison is to
the effect of a high quality home theater sound system's subwoofer,
but designed for pro sound. I got this amp through Musician's Friend
for $445.99 plus $35 shipping. The KCW-1 is a powered subwoofer which
outputs 200 watts into a 10" subwoofer speaker enclosure with two
ports, one above the other on the right front. Controls and inputs
are on the back, with a crossover knob control adjustable from 30Hz
to 120Hz, a "Bottom" switch to boost the selected frequency range if
needed (I didn't), and a standard volume control knob. The KCW-1
inputs are Left (Mono) and Right 1/4" plus L/R TRS mic jacks, which
can handle a variety of inputs: A specific subwoofer feed from one or
two stereo amps (signal is summed to mono), or any standard amplifier
line out signals. I used a mic cable to connect the KCW-1 to my KT-
80, adjusting the sub's volume for this amp, then used a 1/4" cable
to connect from my Pro-145's subwoofer output, adjusting its output
level control to match the KT-80's volume. A KT-80 is almost a
perfect fit side-to-side sitting on top of the KCW-1 cabinet - used a
thin piece of MS "green foam" as a pad between. Since both MS
amplifiers have Eminence Beta 12 woofers with a frequency response
that tapers off below 60Hz, I set the KCW-1 crossover to 60Hz which
was both simple and turned out just right. The sub has a Phase switch
to allow changing the speaker's phase to better match stage/room
acoustics. If you hold your hand near the ports, you can feel the air
moving from the sub speaker's excursion as you play. The KCW-1 is
small at 17 x 17 x 18 which is a nice compact footprint, and not
really "subwoofer" heavy at 50 lbs. This little amp really sweetens
the low end in a classy way - kind of like something you didn't know
was missing until you tried it and found out = wow! I planned to give
the KCW-1 a fair test for a few nights and send it back if not very
impressed - I'm keeping it. I hope my mini-review is of interest to
some. I definitely recommend this Roland subwoofer amp. Walter j