Product Review: Rockford Fosgate R400-4D and Blaupunkt XLf 8A Active Subwoofer – Introduction

Amp it up

First up, the Rockford Fosgate R400-4D. This is a Class D amplifier, which in simple terms means that it is really very efficient. This efficiency is also reflected in the design: it is a really compact unit. A few of the specs, now – 

It is a 400 Watt full-range 4-channel amplifier. It has a 75 Watt RMS power rating for 4 Ohm speakers, and that goes up to 100 Watts for 2 Ohm speakers. There are a bunch of adjustments available on the amp that need to be set up before it is installed. Some of them are the ‘Punch eq’, crossover frequency and gain. What’s more, they can be set individually for the front and rear set of speakers, giving it a lot of flexibility. 

There's no sub-stitute

The other half of the equation for the purpose of this article is the Blaupunkt XKf 8A active subwoofer. It isn’t your traditional boxy, big woofer cone, this; it isn’t even a bass tube. This is a slim, compact enclosure that is hardly bigger than most amps, and it has its own amp packaged in it as well! It weighs 4.3kg and is slim enough to be mounted under the front seat, for maximum effect. It has an 8” aluminium cone, and has a frequency response spanning 20-150Hz. The controls on the XLf 8A are relatively simple – there are three dials for gain, crossover frequency, and phase. You can choose to give it input via regular RCA jacks or loudspeaker-level inputs as well. 

In our next article, we’ll have a look at how much time, effort and difficulty was involved in installing the entire setup in (the appropriately named) Jazz.

The Rockford Fosgate R400 can be purchased here. Price: ₹27,890.

 The Blaupunkt XLf 8A can be purchased here. Price: ₹ 17,490.

Images: Kaustubh Gandhi