It puts out a lot of bass for its size. It sounds fantastic.

Has a good feature set. You can run through the speaker and take output that have the lows filtered out or take the full-range signal. I have found that the filtered signal is missing too much of the low spectrum if you are sending it to SRM450. Probably because its a passive filter as opposed to a crossover (I'm not sure)

Its pretty easy to use. You can tell when a signal is getting to the subwoofer by seeing a green LED. Once it gets a signal you are pretty much done.

The construction of the cabinet is great. However, my unit failed after 3.5 months of using it 7-8 times per month. I spoke with a club owner who uses his 8-10 times a month and he has had several subwoofers fail also. My failure was in the amplifier unit. I'm still waiting to get it back, its been two weeks so far. I am the only one that moves the cabinet, so I am confident that it hasn't been mishandled or dropped. We also don't drive it that hard.

This is an expensive piece of equipment. So I would expect it to be well engineered and manufactured. While it preformed beautifully for the first 25 times I used it. I expect greater longevity for a $1,000 piece of equipment.

I tried calling them directly and they asked me to take it apart to check and see if the speaker was seized. I was a bit surprised, I didn't want to take the thing apart and risk voiding the warranty. I figured they would provide shipping to get it out to a warranty shop. They wanted me to pay for shipping (or drive it myself) 2.5 hours. Instead I took it back to where I bought it. They diagnosed the problem and are waiting for the replacement part (the amplifier unit) from Mackie. I have dealt with them on a smaller piece of equipment and they did a swap. I am a bit disappointed on this one, but its a much heavier piece of equipment and would cost a fortune to ship.

This is a very sexy piece of equipment and when used properly gives us a "pro" sound. Several musicians who have seen us play are considering adding a sub woofer to their system.

Active musican, home recording engineering/production

Classic Rock, Blues. Roots

I have used this product for a little over a year now. I A-B'd this speaker with JBL, QSC and a couple of other competitors at my local Guitar Center. The Mackie had a tighter sound and seemed to have more presence. But, I've had problems using this speaker on the gig as 'live-band' reinforcement. I've blown through 2 of them already. Maybe it's how much I'm pushing them but I don't believe so. I've been running sound many years and I'm also using 'acucurve' limiter on the subs just in case... The SWA 1501 sounds great when it's working.

Mackie has no authorized warranty repair in Orange County Califonia. That's just not cool! I had to find out the hard way that when my speaker quit instead of just taking it back to Guitar Center or using OC Speaker... I had to send the product back to Loud Technologies in Seattle Washington!

Great, small, can be handled by one person in transporting.

Band Leader / Music Contractor / Recording Engineer

R&B, Rock, Reggae, Jazz

sound awesome shakes the walls!!

great features

sounds great looks great and puts out more than enough bass when needed.

definetly worth the cost doesn't take up to much room but still puts out great bass.

one main speaker was making a craking noise when we got it mackie took it back and replaced free of cost with a new one havn't had any trouble since.

LOOKS GREAT!!!!!!!

run sound

Rock

It is deeper than some other subs. It can really put out too. It has a nice mellow sound and it can really thump. I did a outdoor gig and it was killin em.

It has only XLR I/O.

A really, really nice sub.

Maybe a little expensive, but worth it.

Haven't needed em.

I bought it and I'm very happy with it.

jazz / r&b

Sounds really good... I have 2 1501's and 2 eon's... perfect for medium crowds and can handle a large one if needed.

I like how it's simple to use... but the thremal function doesn't work untill it's to late.

plug and go...

If you are lucky enough to find one of the older models you will be more then happy. If you purchase one built in the last 3 years beware. I've had to recone 3 speakers now due to thermal over load and voice coils burning out. The heat sink on the older one was noticably cooler (gain was 75%) then new one (only 50%!!). New ones are too fragile. I even rented one while cones were being repaired on mine and thermaled that one in 2 hours on a 50% load (manufacture date was 11/06)

alot of money for a big paper weight... once it over heats they are worthless unless you spend $150 to recone the speaker...

no experience with them

I do admit the product is a really nice looking unit... but not worth the headaches... If mackie would stop pinching pennies and went back to their old ways the product would be great.

DJ

Top 40 and House

Really nice and powerfull

maybe it could have some tune up knob for frequency limiting...

Just plug and listen...

What can i say. mine survived a flood. complete water imersion for 3 hours. works fine without service need... FaNtAsTiC

Could be cheaper like everything else

Never needed

Yes you shoul want one or two :)

Audio Technician

House and dance music in general

The SWA 1501 sound great and you can feel the bass from a small cabinet when the amp does not burn out.

I love the 100Hz built in crossover. Small compact unit and light weight for one person to move around.

A simple plug-in, but you have to keep an eye on it so it does not overheat the amp which leads burn out amp & driver.

The SWA 1501 DOES NOT lives up to there name of Mackies. I own two 1400 amps; 6 450s & a pair 350s by Mackie. Have them for over 5 yrs and had only two problems with them. Most spent on a repair $385. The SWA 1501 I had for less than a year with a month left on the warranty. They spent most of there time at the repair shop. I only use them 4 times and each use the amp & driver would burn out within hours of use.

SWA 1501 would be a bang for your buck if the amp & driver does not go up in smoke.

I still have a month left on the warranty but Mackie refuse to repair the SWA 1501. They claim that they have satisfied my warranty.

SWA 1501 is NOT worth it. I would NOT give SWA 1501 to my ex-wife or this I can use to piss her off. It sure did for me.

If your running two subs in stereo mode, it could sound a little muddy, howevere when you run then in Mono, they sound great.

The high pass built in crossover comes in handy, howevere In future models, I would include the popular feature to be able to power a high frequency speaker as well.