I wouldn't touch the new one's. Their for looks and sound like total crapola. If your looking at the new one's forget it.
Review of Cerwin Vega Stroker 122
in the German car audio magazine 'Autohifi-World.de', March 2005.
"Zum Anschlag!"
FULL ATTACK!
Only very few manufacturers have been capable of reaching a cult status on the car audio scene. But Cerwin Vega definitely belongs to this category.
Almost unbeatable has the legendary Stroker ruled the world of dB Drag competitions until recently. Even though it has been produced almost unchanged since the early nineties, this subwoofer still has a lot of fans! And it is true that with it's outstanding sound and unlimited SPL capability, the Stroker is still standing way out from the crowd!
After quite a long time of development, the new Stroker is ready to overtake the pole position of the old. And the sign of the stars look very good indeed: 29mm low profile, 3 inch voice coil and 4000 watt peak power capability is talking a very clear language here! The massive chassis and the gigantic drive engine (magnet) is pumping up the Stroker to a formidable 16 kilo of fighting weight.
Something new for Stroker and outstanding for Cerwin Vega is that in case of fault even an amateur can recone the woofer very easily (in case it is possible at all to drive it too hard). Both the surround and the voice coil are bolted to the chassis.
Enough of talking - now I want to power up the beast! So the subwoofer is quickly mounted into the specially designed box that the German Cerwin Vega distributor 'Sound Inspiration' also has supplied and then put into the trunk of my car. The well suited Cerwin Vega power amplifier EXL-1000D was also delivered from the distributor for the test. And from the very first beat, it became perfectly clear that this was a true Stroker: High Efficiency, lightning fast and already at low listening levels very powerful!
And after some burning in, it seemed that all hell broke loose.
What now happened justifies that the true German translation of the name Stroker must be: Zum Anschlag ("Full Attack!"). It seemed to both my ears and the volume control of the head unit that the Stroker had no limits whatsoever! Even by the most insane Sound Pressure Levels far beyond safety, the woofer would stroke any kind of bass chord extremely loud and clear - never mind was it the darkest hip hop or heavy beats - it was simply breathtaking! At this point it became obvious how ingenious and powerful the design of the woofer and the enclosure really were. The tuning was perfect, the sound is ultra dry and precise without any tendency of booming or coloration.
Actually, it makes no sense to go deeper into describing the sound and power of the Stroker - you have to actually hear it yourself to experience just how good it is!
If any SPL junkies want to find the limits of the Stroker, they have to beware of the power specs of Cerwin Vega: The 2500 WRMS are absolutely realistic. Our SPL measurement proves technically that the Stroker development is an absolute success: We measured 143dB (1 kW in the supplied box) SPL which is an extremely impressive result for a 12" woofer! You cannot stop thinking with excitement about what may happen when the Stroker falls into the (right) hands of the competition people on the dB Drag scene!
Conclusion:
Cerwin Vega is back with an impressive vengeance and the new Stroker series have all the qualifications to become a winner!
Reviewer: Frank Miketta
2/2005 edition of the Autohifi-World.de
