Rockford Fosgate Punch P2D212
Twelve inch woofer from the Punch P2 series of Rockford Fosgate, with two 2 Ohm voice coils. The woofer is rated for only 250w RMS, yet has high power features like the vented and bumped back plate on the magnet and the woven-in tinsel leads. The subwoofer is rated to be CEA 2031 compliant which means the facts and figures are comparable with other manufacturers’ products and are not exaggerated. Hence the power rating being ‘only’ when in fact it can cope with half-kilowatt peaks, which is astonishing on a woofer of this price.
The magnet has a textured PVC boot over it and the neat trim ring that it comes with has a logo on it for the Punch range and features soft textured coating areas and some more metallic finish. The sub is a polypropylene type with an injection moulded inverted dust dome that covers the whole cone, so it looks like a simple concave dish. This is shiny and attractive and arrives with a cover of removable plastic film that you take off last thing after installing. The woofer was hooked up to offer a four ohm load with the coils in series on the test rig and was powered using a Rockford Fosgate Prime R500-1 monoblock amplifier reviewed here. The sealed test enclosure used is made by Acoustic Wood and is very solid and inert and uses Neutrik Speakon gastight connections.
– Frequency response: 26Hz to 250Hz
– Power Handling: 250w RMS (500w max)
– Parabolic Injection-moulded ABS/Acrylic dust dome
– Thermo-formed Polypropylene cone
– Linear Spider has embedded tinsel leads
– 16 Gauge pressed steel ‘compound bend’ chassis
– High density poly-foam surround
– Dual 2 Ohm voice coils
– Nickel plated 10 Gauge squeeze terminals
– Voice Coil Diameter: 2 inch four-layer on Nomex collar
– Mounting depth 162mm
– 62 Oz magnet
– Efficiency: 86dB 1w/1M
– Fms: 26Hz
– Qts: 0.55
– Vas: 67.6 Litres
– CEA 2031 ratings compliant
– Eight Allen headed self tapping bolts included
Review by Adam Rayner
The one thing that the newbie subwoofer manufacturers cannot emulate versus Rockford Fosgate is years and years of award winning products. So the Punch P2D212 subwoofer here is the umpteenth subwoofer carefully designed with experience and craftsmanship by a company that has been at the top of their game for ages.
While it’d be easy in theory to make a cost no object woofer of mad power, what is harder is to make a subwoofer that can debone you with its bass yet play some decent Sound Quality the rest of the time, look good while it is doing so and yet being priced at an affordable level. Sir Alec did it with designing the original Mini and this midprice woofer manages to make it like a high priced item in every department except the cost.
For literally two bob more than some of the me-too type products, the Rockford Fosgate Punch P2D212is a bit of a class act. It starts with two 2 Ohm coils. They are nice and wide, live on a posh Kapton former and are four layers deep. Also the lead-out wires or tinsels of these coils are woven into the linear linen spider that holds the bottom of the cone assembly in place. These are posh end features yet filtered down to a midpriced product.
The looks are lovely. There’s a boot over the lumpy double stack of ferrite magnet and the top trim ring is injection moulded plastic yet looks like it is made of metal with rubbery inserts. It is in fact a very clever soft velvety coating that won’t take a scratch from a fingernail yet feels like real rubber. Lovely! Oddly enough, this is described as ‘reversible’ on the UK RF website but it isn’t. It’s one of those find-it-on-every-single-makers’-site-without-fail errors. However, it is branded writ large with the word PUNCH and is very smart indeed.
I stuffed the driver into the utterly inert test enclosure supplied by Acoustic Wood (makers of fine boxes for the discerning) which is acoustic foam lined, made with chamfered edges, is really thick-walled and has a Neutrik gastight Speakon connector on the back.
Then I gave it utter hell.
I used Power Supply More Bass More Boom, More Bottom, which was the second of the ‘Your mother f###’in ass is goin’ DOWN!’ recordings from the nutters in Miami. There’s an illustration of some dude holding his head with his ears bleeding through his fingers on the disc! So it’s polite and restrained
No it ain’t and the woofer loved it. No purring, no flapping, just pure rich deep bass that had that characteristic seemingly-limitless USA hardcore feel to it. The �100 SNG Audio Jatt-12 recently tested was good, but although this is a 40% more costly woofer it does offer a significant slice of extra smoothness with its powerful output.
I admit I didn’t strain it as I was using the Rockford Fosgate Prime R500-1 monoblock amp to drive it and showed the amp a four ohm load by hooking the two 2 Ohm voice coils up in series. This means I wasn’t hitting it with the full half kilowatt but as I reckon the amp and sub are so well matched, this might even be the best way to use them in your car unless you have got that rarity an upgraded alternator installation. It draws less current and yet you can spank the living crap outta the gains in this mode without ducking your voltage and getting the sound to light effect first and then your CD player crashing through low voltage identity crisis moments below 10V DC.
The woofer scored so well on all fronts of power handling, build, efficiency as to how it uses watts and especially the price it comes in at to score enough to earn itself a Talk Audio Recommended award.
Good kit.
Sound Quality 8.0
Build Quality 9.0
Power Handling 10.0
Efficiency 8.0
Value For Money 9.0
Overall rating 8.8 