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Cherry Back (shown in Black) View larger Polk Audio PSW125 Powered subwoofer (Cherry) Item #: 107PSW125C 82 Reviews This item is no longer available. Shop all Powered Subwoofers Need help? 1.888.955.6000 Email Chat Ask an expert advisor No pressure, no commission — just lots of good advice from our highly trained staff.
by Loren Barstow Add the Polk PSW125 to your home theater or stereo system and prepare for some serious bass punch. Its 12" driver and high-current 150-watt amp add plenty of bottom-end to all of your music, movies, and video games. This sub sports a new, more powerful driver design to deliver deeper, louder, and punchier bass than previous Polk subs. Special circuitry inside the amp and a solid MDF cabinet with internal bracings ensure clean, detailed lows, even when you crank up the volume. Product Highlights:bass-reflex (ported) enclosure150-watt RMS amplifier12" front-firing driverfrequency response 32-225 Hzcontinuously variable 60-160 Hz crossoverphase switchauto on/offline-level/LFE inputspeaker-level input and output16-1/4"W x 16-11/16"H x 20-7/16"Dwarranty: 5 years woofer, 3 years amplifierOur 60-day money-back guarantee Why add a powered subwoofer? A powered subwoofer gives you bass you can feel as well as hear. Our customers love the depth and impact their subs add to music and movies. We hear comments like "it brings out sounds I didn't know existed in discs I've watched a million times." Powered subwoofers aren't just for big bass that rattles your picture frames; they can also deliver tight, accurate lows. If you haven't shopped for a powered sub in a while, you might be surprised at how small they get. Look for an ultra-compact model if you want to tuck your sub away under an end table or in a corner.
Polk Audio PSW125 Written By SG, cambridge ma on Sunday, May 03, 2015 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Powerful subwoofer.
Polk Audio PSW125 Written By JayG, Iowa on Thursday, April 02, 2015 Great sounding sub. It was a huge upgrade from 50 watt sub Pros: Good bass
Powerful Written By ryxxg, Pennsylvania on Monday, March 16, 2015 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I put this sub in my living room that is 12x20 feet and I fills the room with a rich deep base. I really enjoy the rumbling that this sub causes. You actually get to experience the movie in stead of just watching the movie. Pros: Easy set up to my sony receiver, Deep rich base. Cons: None
PSW125 Don't Underestimate It! Written By Dan, Ohio on Friday, February 27, 2015 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Back in the day... I had 4 Soundstream 12's with a competition amp in the trunk of my car. The bass from this sub does not even come close to that old car, BUT it is not designed for that. This is high quality clean deep low sound that fills the room appropriately. Using this in a 20x20 living room with 17' ceiling and it sounds great. Plenty of power for clean music the way it was produced, and powerful bass in movies. Highly recommended. Pros: Great sound, attractive appearance, not a giant cabinet. Cons: No complaints.
Ehhhhh.......... Written By 1NRA, Florida on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Should have a lot more sound for the $. The Polk 8" sub I got with it blew it away so I sent it back. I called Polk and their very kind and knowledgeable adviser agreed with my assessment and recommended the 505 which is over twice the power and costs $100 less. What a difference, the 505 vibrated a light bulb out of the ceiling!!! Pros: Polite sound Cons: Polite sound
EARTHQUAKE!!! Written By Plummit, Northern Minnesota on Sunday, January 18, 2015 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Considering I paid $50 for this thing, It was a no brainer! Bought along with RTi A3's, CSi A6, and FXi A6's. Although we don't have a huge living room, it is of decent size (16' x 14') and has open archways on each side into other rooms making it a pretty large area and this sub can rattle EVERYTHING without sounding muddy. It is the perfect addition to our setup and we couldn't be happier! Pros: Outstanding LFE during movies. Seamless integration into our setup. Picks up where smaller bookshelf speakers leave off and goes deep!
psw125 Written By Carl, Hart, Michigan on Monday, January 12, 2015 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) awesome sound easy to hook up and adjust Pros: great sound and easy set up and good instructions on how to set-up your receiver (way better than Sony sent with the receiver none btw) Cons: none
Polk subwoofer Written By Powerful bass, Ohio on Sunday, January 11, 2015 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Use this lil guy in our CrossFit gym and happy with this device. Bass is reliable and adds that pumped up sound our clients demand. Pros: Very easy setup. Small footprint.
Polk Audio PSW125 Written By Anonymous, Arizona on Tuesday, December 16, 2014 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Great 'thumper' for my Sony system
Polk Audio PSW125 Written By Henry, Texas on Friday, October 31, 2014 UNDER POWERED.... may be ok for a small room but it did last over 2 years with daily abuse but now it makes horrible noises unless unplugged from the wall Pros: it matched my tsi500's and cs20 Cons: the amp is crap no power short life
Polk Subwoffer Written By HerbV, Vadito, NM on Monday, October 20, 2014 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) The subwoofer from Polk that I purchased has a good sound to it. It is nice and and the sound is clean. Pros: Has a great sound Cons: I haven't encountered any problems yet.
pswpolk125sub Written By Anonymous, Bellevue NE on Sunday, September 14, 2014 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) received dead needed to return to Crutchfield service great as always Pros: last of cherrywook psw125's from Crutchfield. Purchased scratch and dent because of discount from brand new item. color match other polk and cerwin vega speakers. can't really rate performance of speaker yet was offered brand new item but in black which would not match my system Cons: Decided to pay more just because it was cherrywood needed to return due to being dead on arrival. most important that I thought scratch and dent meant from the factory or the store. I found out it was a return from a customer. I would not have purchased due to not knowing the history of the customer returning it. I want them to last as long as possible. Can take six weeks for process--seems a long time to wait.unsure of how long it will last despite warranty.
Polk Audio PSW125 Written By Anonymous, bay area, CA on Tuesday, April 08, 2014 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) great bass. satisfied. fills 16'x16' living room you feel it even at lower volumes (at night while kids are asleep), even more exciting when played at normal day-time volumes
Cool Sub Written By Karl F, Ocean City, NJ on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I was looking for a new sub to replace a 12-year old Acoustic Research down-firing sub that would no longer accept a signal. I wasn't sure what to expect with a side-firing sub, and I didn't want to spend anything on attempting to repair the circuitry, so checked with Crutchfield and found a scratch & dent model (simply to save money) that I thought would give our surround system the proper LFE and base we're looking for. Sound quality and performance are very good so far, and I'm pleased with my purchase. I would give it 5 stars if the cabinet was of a better quality. It's basically paper or a film over the mdf (Medium Density Fibreboard), and since I bought a dented model, when I went to patch, sand and spray paint the two fixes, the film got frayed during the sanding step. It will survive OK, but I just thought the finish would have been a veneer. For anyone buying a fresh sub with no flaws, this shouldn't represent a problem. Pros: Great sound, great service from Crutchfield. Cons: Finish on cabinet could be better.
Boom Boom Goes the Bass Written By BrandonB, Cedar Rapids, IA on Tuesday, March 18, 2014 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) To be honest, I wouldn't have purchased this sub if it wasn't for Crutchfield's credit with a Polk Audio system. However, I decided to spend the extra $50 for this sub vs. the free 10" sub. Boy was that the right decision! This sub packs a powerful punch, filling the room with deep sounds without being overbearing. Pros: Worth the value Easy to install Full sound Cons: Connecting cables weren't included (but I'm just being picky)
PWS125 Written By BillO, Denver Colorado on Monday, March 10, 2014 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) The PSW125 subwoofer matches very well with the TSi400 and TSi CS10 that I purchased. In buying the other three speakers I got $300 off the purchase of the PSW125. The lows really bring movies to life. Pros: Awesome lows and great discount offer Cons: None
Great sub Written By bh, roseville, ca on Saturday, March 08, 2014 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) It sounds great. Even better than I thought it would be. Pros: Deep loud bad Cons: Woofer on the front. It would look better if it were a down firing woofer.
huge sound Written By JD, Denver, co on Friday, March 07, 2014 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I purchased this sub with a pair of Polk Audio TSx330Ts. Its a great sub with great sound however it's almost too much 'boom' in my smallish apartment living room. If you buy it you won't be unhappy however in a tighter, more confined space you may be better off purchasing the smaller model.
Lots of bass! Written By Zoookle, Pittsburgh, PA on Thursday, March 06, 2014 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I originally bought this for music listening mainly, but this sub really shakes the room and makes video come alive. I was hesitant to get this vs the powered DSW PRO 440wi (8" sub). Downside was the power. Since I got the Yamaha RX-A1020 I figured the pre-out would be enough and it surely was. The bass is very clear and loud if you want it to be. I have a 15' x 32' room that opens up to hallways to the rest of my apartment. and the bass can be heard with clarity on the other side of my apartment (with the doors open). I was also able to feel the floor shake from the bass when I sat on the floor in a distant bedroom from the sub and volume only set at half mass. My Setup: Yamaha RX-A1020 Bi-Amped Polk RTI A3 (L & R) Pre-Out Polk PSW125 Sub Polk Blackstone TL150 (center and SL & SR) 14 guage wire banana plugs to AVR and bare wire to speakers Pros: Lots of bass, punchy, clear and will shake the room. Absence of power is not an issue at all using pre-outs. Fills my 15' x 30' room easily. Cons: Its big. And I mean BIG. I had to rearrange my setup just to fit it in the room. Cannot change the firing direction like with the DSW line. Possibly too much bass for my apartment.
Wow! Too loud! Can it be true?! Written By sgurley, St. Louis on Sunday, March 02, 2014 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I hooked this up with my Denon Audyssey receiver and let it do the calibration... ended up with a -12dB for the subwoofer - which is as high as it goes... wow - I was worried this sub wouldn't be as loud as the one it replaced but now I'm recalibrating it at half that volume... amazing. Sounds great so far!
Great Sub Written By Garrett W, Longwood, FL on Monday, February 17, 2014 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) There are a fair amount of reviews saying that this sub is not as good as the psw 505. They both have their pros and cons. First of all I got this sub cheaper because I got the tsx330T's so that in itself is an amazing deal. One thing you notice is when you order this it comes in a massive box, this is because this is a giant sub it dwarfs many other subs i've seen and two people could sit on this thing because of its size. Space for placement was a major concern with me and it took a lot of moving of my furniture to place it. DO NOT buy this if space is at a premium. Moving on, if you see this you'd expect it to be incredibly boomy and overbearing but it isn't, in fact this is an audiophile's sub rather than a basshead's sub. I'm a little of both and this sub satisfies my needs as I put this sub at full power. This sub excels at going low and clean and i've yet to see another sub that matches this. It is powerful, clean and controlled in its bass output. When compared to the PSW 505 it is much larger, less boomy, less powerful, more deep, less aesthetically pleasing, but less prone to rattling on the floor. This sub is for quality of bass, whereas the PSW 505 is for Quantity. A word on the physical design: This not match perfectly with other Polk audio speakers because it is not made of wood. It is made of veneer and although it looks good, it is not a perfect match. The PSW 505 looks much better with Polk audio's wood speakers. Overall, get the 505 if its cheaper. Pros: Low bass, cleanness, variety of connection options, versatility, stability, no port noise like the psw 505 Cons: Amount of bass, space needed for placement, non- removable grill, non perfect matching with Polk speakers. Retail price.
Great performance for the price Written By Mike, Lakeville, MN on Wednesday, December 18, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I just put together a new home theater system using TSi300's as the front speakers, TSi100's as the rear speakers, a TSi CS10 as the center speaker, a PSW125 sub, and a Sony STR-DN840 receiver. Everything sounds great so far. I have no complaints.
Real good bass, for a real good price! Written By Rob H, Redding CA. on Tuesday, December 17, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I already had one. I liked it so much, I decided to double my fun! Here's how I see it...The bass is clean and deep! One sounds great, two sound amazing!! If you do some serious comparisons of Subwoofers, and I have, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible to get this kind of performance for this kind of price! You can certainly pay a lot more for a Subwoofer, but you will be getting yourself into the realm of diminishing returns. Two of these PSW-125 Subwoofers still cost less than many out there, but trust me, these two together are unbelievably impressive!! I only had one for some time, and was very pleased with it. You'll love the PSW-125 for it's rich performance, but, it looks great too! You can't lose! I like the PSW-125 Cherry the best! Has a classy look! Pros: Looks great, sounds great! You'll be impressed every time you listen! Cons: None
here comes the boom Written By Tom, Pensacola, FL on Tuesday, December 17, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) perfect sound from this sub. Has great lows and really lets you feel the thunder! Pros: price, sound quality, style Cons: little large,
PSW 125 Written By GeneP, Yakima, WA on Monday, December 16, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I was looking for a sub that was dynamic and rich but not bone rattling. I have pained for years trying to find a sub I liked. I bought this because I bought a surround sytem package and got a buy on this. What a surprise! My entertainment area is somewhat small and this turned out to be a perfect fit! I am very pleased not knowing what to expect. I wasn't looking for dance floor bass, I was looking for balance and was successful. I used to have a professional sound system years ago and the base would literally make you sick it was so intense. I have outgrown those days and do appreciate good sound. Pros: Very pleasent sound. Balanced spatial fill. Adjustable levels. Still experimenting with the crossover points. Cons: If your looking to Overdose on base then you will need more.
Nice Written By Anonymous, Cleveland TN on Monday, December 16, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) It sounds good Cons: Not enough punch but it was free with my purchase so I can't complain.
PSW125 Written By Mike, Charlotte, NC on Saturday, November 09, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Nice unit. Purchased after many hours of research. Fills my large living room with just the right amount of low tones. Really shines during movies at a decent volume level. Pros: Great sound Cons: Wish it came in a wood color other than Cherry
Great sub Written By Gator, boynton beach, fl on Monday, October 21, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Excellent sub for the money. My first front firing bottom ported and I like it.
Polk PSW 125 Written By kellyx5, Dillwyn, Va on Friday, October 18, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Exactly what I've come to expect from Polk. Great little sub. Pros: Perfect for my midrange home surround sound. Cons: none
Power and Bass like No Other at this Price Point Written By GatorMan, Round Rock, TX on Tuesday, July 02, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I listened to a lot of subwoofer Brands from Klipsch Yamaha Bose etc. And at this price range this was by far the best I heard. In fact it blew away some Klipsch that were much more in price. Bose sounded good at low amounts of power - but could not keep up with this unit. Polk are by far my favorite brand...love them in the car and at home. GREAT Speakers and Crutchfield has excellent prices. Pros: Great Bass / Nice Lows lots of power. Cons: I think the front of the sub could look a little more professional than just the grill.
Polk Audio PSW125 Written By Kerry, Ballston Spa, NY on Thursday, June 13, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Great bass sound, great price.
Great Powered Sub Written By GeneA, North County San Diego, CA on Sunday, June 09, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Max from Crutchfield recommended this as a pair to my 5.1 system running Bose 191 in-wall speakers and a Bose Center Channel Speaker. They are all driven by a Denon 3313CI Receiver. Media/movie room is small-ish ~121 Square Feet and under 1000 cubic feet total so I was concerned about getting something too big. Great recommendation by Max as this powered sub fits nicely AND fills an audio gap in my system perfectly. Pros: Great base response and sound. Integrated perfectly with my system and for my media/movie room size. Cons: None that I have found.
Big bass, big sound, big. Written By Mike V., San Antonio, TX on Thursday, May 30, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Great sub, really shakes the room! Pros: Wow! What a rich listening experience. EASY set up, nice ability to adjust power/volume separately from other speakers. Cons: This is a large unit--bigger than I expected. Make sure you are looking for something this big before purchasing. Measure the area you intend to place it, to make sure it fits.
Fantastic Subwoofer - Insanely Clean Written By Bob, Charlotte on Friday, May 24, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Brings clarity and frequencies to music and movies that I have never heard before. Purchase this subwoofer, you will be glad you did. Cons: Size... could almost be mistaken for an end table.
Polk PSW 150 Written By John L, Pocono Lake PA on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Initially I was quite dissapointed with this sub. Base notes had an irritating buz sound. Advised by Crutchfield personel I continued to use the sub and after each use it sounded better. Amazingly it gets better and better with very realistic base notes. My old Polk RT25Is are great but at times their highs were too crisp. The addition of the sub has eliminated the crispy sound of my higher frequency speakers. Together they sound simply awsome,so much so I have avoided a lot of required chores and cannot stop listening to the two working together. Vinyl records sound the best so far with this sub.I have not tried this set up on movies for surround sound. Classical music and classic rock sound great. Its the first time strings on classic music have sounded realistic and very sweet.I just dont know how to rate them for its the first time I have ever had a large sub (old sub was small) hooked into my system which is vintage Harmon Kardon Amp and Pre Amp. Pros: Sound is very realistic. In fact so realistic that along with my vintage RT25Is you feel your at the actual performance. Cons: This sub will not blow you off your couch as some do that I have heard. May be too mellow for some especially with movies.
Decent sub Written By Legin, Hilo,Hi on Monday, May 20, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Decent sub for the $$$ good bottom end but not very loud. 150watts can only do so much! Pros: Good bass for the money. Cons: Not very loud.
A real thumper! Written By John K, Fort Myes, FL on Tuesday, May 14, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Hard to beat this subwoofer at this price range. Have it connected with an all Polk system (TSi500's, TSiCS20 center, and OMW5 surrounds) paired with a Denon AVR2313 and it really shakes a pretty large room (17'x25') but without sounding muddy. Pros: Great match to Pol system, clean bass response, attractive cabinet Cons: pretty large footprint, kind of stands out in room
Polk Audio PSW125 Written By Hankey Mahnke, Bluffton, OH on Friday, April 26, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) This really added the low frequencies that I was not used to hearing. Great Product and It looks great too.
arrived broken Written By e1868, Cincinnati on Monday, April 08, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) This sub arrived broken. I did not get to hear its sound. I immediately returned it upon opening the box
Nice Sound not over powering Written By BK, River Falls on Tuesday, April 02, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Part of the upgrade that I'm doing to my home theater. Nice sound and not over powering. Adjustable volume allows you to control this, so if you like more boom you can get it. Pros: Adjustable volume Nice finish Cons: None so far.
subwoofer Written By David, Kona,Hawaii on Thursday, March 28, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Great price for this woofer and has the ability to fill my rather large living space all the base I can handle. Pros: Easy setup and fits well with my furniture. Cons: None
Polk Audio PSW125 Written By BrianR, Sitka,Ak on Wednesday, March 06, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Holy wow!!! Great thundering thumps!!! when added to the RM7 7.1 surround sound system stand back!!! full rich sound Polk audio nailed this one down. Pros: Hooked up easy and looks real nice sitting in my living room. dont have to hide it behind something. Cons: I have nothing bad to say about this piece of equipment
polk audio psw 125 Written By david m, houston on Monday, March 04, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Big sound, lots of control Pros: Room filling, feeling sound Cons: N/a
Great for me. Written By RussR, Cincinnati on Saturday, January 05, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I bought a scratch and dent one and some new Audioengine A2s for my computer. One corner of the woofer was smushed up and one foot had broken off, but the foot glued back on easily. The packing was sparse, so perhaps the speaker was further damaged in shipment. After buying some adapter cables to T off the computer audio, I fired it up. Yeah, it made the little A2s whole. Love the system. The speaker is huge compared to the A2s and perhaps I did overbuy, but I'm sending the bookshelf audio system to the basement. Now to get my wife to let me crank it up some to enjoy it. Pros: Great sound, complements small speakers well. Works well for me. Cons: It really was dented up, would not put it on display. Again, some denting may have been caused in shipment to me as the packing was a bit sparse.
sub Written By morris, forest city on Saturday, December 29, 2012 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Nice sub does well with music and movies has enough power to shake the couch in my living room no complants Pros: Plenty of bass and i love bass Cons: This,is a big speaker needs a big place to put it
Don't ! Written By Anonymous, Kalispell, MT on Tuesday, December 11, 2012 5 months after purchasing, this sub blitzed--without any abuse. Beyond the Crutchfield 60 day return, I was relegated to Polk support. Their solution: Disassemble the speaker, and send them that and the amplifier, but not the whole thing! Great. 2-3 hours of my time going and coming. Am I happy with Polk? I ordered a Definitive Sub from Crutchfield (who have great customer service) to replace the Polk. Definitives are great speakers (I have a couple). Pros: Big bass Cons: Unreliable, muddled .
Polk PSW Subwoofer: Very good but not best Written By SteveL, Kern, CA on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Excellent for the price. Works excellent with movies - I'm very happy there. Does not work as well with music, tends towards murkiness, depends some on what type of music, adjusting cross-over and level per artist or genre helps. Fortunately my music speakers, Polk RTiA3, have excellent bass and only need a little subwoofer assistance.
Pretty good but definately not the best Written By Jason, Colorado on Wednesday, August 08, 2012 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) The Polk PSW125 is probably the best bang for your buck that your going to get. With that said, I think it's weak enough to justify spending more on a sub with a more powerful amplifier. This thing sounds perfect when playing movies but lacks significantly in the music department. It does indeed fill the room but does not have the hard hit I would have expected from a 12" woofer. All in all I'm impressed because my home theater is used primarily for movies and this sub performs very well for that use. The fact that it's nowhere near as expensive as something with 300 to 400 watts helps. If you are shopping like I was, and had a budget that required you cut back on the high end equipment, this is a good choice. Pros: Fantastic sound in movies, fills the room with bass, built very well, looks good. Cons: Weak thump, leaves music feeling "meh".
Great Value for Awesome Bass Written By McKenzie River Blues, Springfield, OR on Sunday, May 06, 2012 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Hooked this Polk PSW125 up to my Onkyo TX-NR 515 and Panasonic plasma. Was immediately concerned that is would be too punishing to tolerate because it was rattling the floor. Then I ran the Audyssey speaker calibration program. Wow, what a difference! Now it spanks the bass when called for and doesn't intrude at the wrong time. Works equally well for movies, music and satellite tv. Love this unit and find it much better than the Infinity that it replaced. I have this in a big room (20 x 20) with 9 foot ceilings. It fills the space with terrific bass. Pros: Simple to set up Great manuals Solid bass without negatives Cons: Could be a challenge to calibrate without Audyssey Nothing significant for my system
Great Bass, Great Value Written By Lou G., Sacramento, CA on Monday, April 02, 2012 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Excellent bass output, I had to lower the output level to maintain proper balance with my main speakers. Pros: Sleek styling, thorough selection of controls and inputs. Cat resistant metal grill. Cons: Larger than I realized but it would not be possible to fit a twelve inch speaker into a smaller cabinet.
Happy yet confused Written By Tanner, Kent, WA on Sunday, March 04, 2012 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Soft sound and punchy when needed. I have it in a 12x12 bedroom, so the receiver volume never really reaches half but i find it a little skimpy on volume and especially in music. Action movies such as Iron Man sound good, it is loud enough but does not blow me away. According to all the other views on here, there must be something wrong with mine because it seems quiet to my ear. I have it doubling with a KLH sub that I replaced a speaker with a 12" Kenwood and with 115 watts and its significantly louder. I love the box, it looks extremely slick. It works well. Would recommend maybe two paired together. Pros: Sound, punchy, great looking Cons: Quiet, that's it
Polk Audio PSW125 power sub woofer Written By Tom S., Juneau, Alaska on Friday, March 02, 2012 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) The Polk Audio PSW125 power sub woofer, this puppy pumps out the bass and makes a great end table ?. It works great for music and movies so that you really feel the beat. Pros: This puppy puts out the beat!
Polk Audio PSW125 Written By Anonymous, Manassas, VA on Thursday, January 19, 2012 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Good Sub.
Was good until the warranty expired Written By Sal S, Old Bridge,N.J. on Sunday, June 05, 2011 As soon as the warranty was up ,the subwoofer started making very loud noises ,and wouldn't stop until I put it in standby mode.I Wasted my money. It's worth it to spend the money and get a good subwoofer!!
Great sound / Great price Written By Sal S, Old Bridge,N.J. on Sunday, May 08, 2011 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I've had this subwoofer for two weeks and I can't wait to watch my next movie. It added so much to my theatre surround system that I couldn't believe I've gone without a subwoofer all these years. I should have made this purchase years ago.The only thing I don't like about it is the size.You really can't fit it behind the couch and out of sight unless you have a large room.
Very Happy Written By David, Cincinnati on Thursday, April 21, 2011 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I've owned quite a few subwoofers and this one is a great bang for the buck. I've been very happy and the performance is very good for a front firing sub. You will feel the bass!
Polk Audio PSW125 Written By Patt, AK on Friday, March 25, 2011 For the price of this sub you can't beat it. Descent lows, nice sound. Let it break in, about 50 hours.
Polk Audio PSW125 Written By Steve, Elizabethton on Thursday, March 24, 2011 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Boom Boom Boom! This sub is great! Really enhances the sound and listening experience of my entire system. Attractive cabinet, easily set up, AWESOME sound. Would definitely recommend this product as part of your new sound system!
Polk PSW 125 Sub Woofer Written By GregG, CT on Tuesday, March 01, 2011 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Upgraded to this sub woofer for $50.00 when I purchased a Polk speaker package. Powerful sub that blends very well with music and performs powerfully with movie LFE's. Really hits the low frequencies without being boomy. Had an issue with the volume control but Crutchfield replaced the unit and I'm very pleased with this sub woofer. Would definitely recommend this speaker to complete your surround sound system. Thanks Crutchfield.
Superb bass Written By Sebastian A., Raleigh, NC on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I got this beast two days ago and I'm completely blown away by it. I have the volume knob slightly over 50% and during movies my recliner chair shakes from the deep bass this thing puts out. I can feel the walls, the floor, chair, everything vibrating really bad. I used to have an old JVC 6" sub and it sounds pretty good, but it doesn't compare to the excellent bass from this sub. Not only for movies, but it sounds beautiful for music too. I've been trying all kinds of music since I got it, rock, pop, jazz, etc, and it puts the beautiful kind of bass that you expect from really big speakers. The 12" woofer really makes a difference, and I'm new to Polk Audio but this along with the TL250 satellite set sound incredible.
Polk Audio PSW125 Written By Anonymous, rochester ny on Saturday, February 12, 2011 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) great power......
Polk Audio PSW125 Written By John, Utah on Wednesday, February 09, 2011 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I love this sub. Rocks the room, gives great depth and has great lows and the crossover works great. Really brought the movies to a new demension of reallity. I love the features with auto power, connections and crossover. I bought my first one a year ago and liked it so much in the movie room that I just bought a 2nd one for the music room. Expermented with it in the bedroom but it kept waking the wife up when I was watching a late night movie. Great product....
Average Written By Misterkraft, Sammamish, WA on Tuesday, February 08, 2011 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I was excited because of all the good reviews but it turns out the sub was just ok in my opinion. I really like Polk, but this sub is just under powered. I ended upgrading to the DSW Pro 660 and was so worth the price difference. The PSW125 struggled during really intense scenes which was unfortunate. If this sub had 300 continuous power it would probably be awesome, but 150 isn't enough to move this big speaker. I also have the PSW111 which is an 8inch sub which the same amp and it sounds better in my opinion than the PSW125.
Music Enthusiast Written By Bob M, Dexter, ME on Friday, January 07, 2011 Last week I ordered a whole new stereo, and anticipate it being a lifetime investment that I can expand as needed. I bought a stereo system without surround sound since this system is used almost exclusively for music. I just received the PS-125 yesterday, and used it for 6-8 hours last night. The power the amp produces is completely underwhelming. I have had to boost the output of the receiver to help compensate for this. The bass is acceptable now, but this is with the amp turned up all the way. From reading reviews, I anticipated this performance issue before buying it, so no major surprise there. I would have liked to purchase a Polk twelve-inch sub with a much larger amp (300-400 watt), but did not find one on Crutchfield except for a wireless model, and I merely wanted a basic powered sub. I hope that as soon as the Polk RTI A-7 towers come next week, they will help my low end problem. I think that in the next month or two I will just purchase another of these subs to hook up in my kitchen (an area of large open living space that was adequately covered by my old JBL sub driven by my receiver with an internal subwoofer amplifier channel). On the positive note, the sound quality from this sub is unsurpassed. Words fail me as I try to describe the quality of the sound. I like it a lot and I am planning to buy another for the other end of my large open living space.
BEAST Written By Rob, Washington DC on Wednesday, January 05, 2011 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) If you are trying to decide between the 8", 10", or this animal, Im going to say get the big boy. it has a volume control on it so you can tame it (not that you will want to). I have this along with the RTi6 front, CSi3 center, R150 rear surround, and a sony STRDH810 Receiver. This set up ran me a little over $800, but sounds like i spent $8,000.
Walter Written By Walter, Chicago, il on Monday, November 15, 2010 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Just one word..............EXCELLENT!
Polk quality, as always Written By Will, Atlanta, GA on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) As stated many times over, this unit is big, but beautiful. Solid construction and rich sound that we've come to expect from Polk. Easily adjusted output level to match the rest of my Polk speakers. **Plan your layout ahead of time and make sure it will fit before committing to this sub.**
This unit is BIG!! Written By fourtango, NJ on Thursday, January 28, 2010 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Sound gets a 5, but I am giving this a 4 overall due to its size. It is huge, be sure to check the dimensions!
Great sub Written By soler, Florida on Friday, January 22, 2010 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Great sub. It's big, no doubt about it. I prolly should have just got the PSW 111 which would have been free with my RM85 Polk speakers. As it is I only had to pay a little extra. Great sound. Great deal with other Polk speakers.
Huge Unit for Huge Rumble Written By Jeffrey, Lincoln Park, NJ on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 I ordered this to match the Polk 95 speaker system. This thing is huge. Be sure to review the dimensions of the unit to ensure it will fit where you want it. It works beautifully well with plenty of options how you want to run it. Just be sure to order a dedicated subwoofer cable if your receiver has the output.
Polk Audio PSW125 Written By Roger, Aurora, CO on Saturday, January 24, 2009 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Great sound, great quality, good price. Very pleased...
Polk Audio PSW125 Written By Jaime, Sylva, NC on Friday, January 16, 2009 The sub provides plenty of low end for almost any setup. The sub delivers quality versus price and is easy to equalize with your surround speakers. The family has been quite happy with our purchase.
Overrated Written By Brian, Orlando, FL on Monday, January 05, 2009 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I have a 20' x 25' room (tile floor) and thought this sub would be more than enough. I was wrong. I returned it to Crutchfield (great free return shipping), and bought an Infinity PS212, same price, but a much, much better sub. As always, Crutchfield service was second to none, but they were sold out of Infinity products and were waiting on the newest line of gear. The tech. staff walked me through some great adjustments to my home theater system and my subwoofer settings, but it wasn't enough to make the difference I was going for. If your room is near the size of mine, and you want not only the rumble of the bass, but tight, accurate, punchy bass, do not go with this sub. Remember, this sub is only 150 watts RMS, and therefore, it will not have the power to fill a larger room with the proper bass.
Very nice Sub Written By Bill, Benbrook, TX on Thursday, October 09, 2008 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I ordered this from Crutchfield on Monday and received it on Friday. I have it connected to a Yamaha RX-V663 receiver, using it in a 5.1 system. It is great with music or when used while watching movies or gaming. It has more than enough power for my 15x18 living room, providing plenty of deep bass for the area. During one of the first movies that we watched it rumbled the pictures off the wall above it. I ordered the Cherry finish and I am very pleased with the real wood veneer. NOTE: It requires a subwoofer cable.
A Must Have Written By Paul, Ohio on Thursday, October 02, 2008 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I have owned this piece of equipment for about a year now. It is hooked up to an Onkyo TX - SR805 with a Polk RM20 set (5.1 total) located in my basement. [All items purchased through Crutchfield] Pros: 1. Power. After hooking everything up and optimizing the settings, I watched Saving Private Ryan. Even at a lower volume level, the vibrations created by the explosions rattled my entire house (2 story with basement). 2. Looks. It is too big to put in my existing A/V stand so it sits next to the TV. My wife was a bit miffed by this, something about décor, but even she had to admit that it was not too terribly intrusive. The finish is quite good. 3. Ease of Use. Since my initial settings a year ago, I have done nothing more than dust it every few weeks or so. Cons: None that I have found. It does send the dog and cat scrambling out of the room at times but I never liked our cat anyway - miss the dog though.
Polk Audio PSW125 Power Subwoofer, Greatest Punch Written By Ruben, Gurabo, PR on Saturday, August 09, 2008 I just plugin this monster to my Onkyo TX-SR705 A/V receiver. It replace a Sony Power Subwoofer of only 100Watts. Wow! The PSW125 make a big difference in the bass, that was I wanted. It's controls are very easy to manage and the power is more than I need. I recommend this unit for your home theater. I am a client of Crutchfied since 1998 and their service are extraordinary. The only complaint I have in this shipping was that the box is big and it not have much protection in the interior, the foams are very thin for the weight of the unit. This does not change my mind to following buying in Crutchfield for ever.
Power Punch Written By Magmoto, Houston on Tuesday, August 05, 2008 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I wanted to get room filling - shake the chair - clear bass for my movies. I was not let down. The unit is well powered - responsive - clear and "rocks like thunder". This unit - for the budget I was working with far surpassed my expectations. I noticed that it as not super smooth - rather it was aggressive and punchy. Nice freq response - deep lows - you would have to pay double to improve this area. To me a best value... Adaquate for most systems save highest end systems. IMO - don't go get a lesser sub - you will miss out for not that much more. for the money most will be very happy with this unit. It is a 12 inch unit - takes up some space and the front grill is not super eye pleasing ( I would have preferred gloss black) but it does look good and I made the space on the floor to accomodate - Very happy.
Great bass Written By David, TN on Friday, August 01, 2008 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I bought this as a scratch dent to replace a free 10" sub from Crutchfield I got with a prior speaker purchase. Well I moved the 10" upstairs and replaced with this one. WOW! Lower lows with more volume. Its just bigger sound. I love it. Highly recommend. Scratch and dent, mine had NO FLAWS! Thanks Crutchfield.
Polk Subwoofer Written By Hall, Stroudsburg, PA 18360 on Monday, March 31, 2008 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Cosmetically appealing package that delivers a definate punch to my surround sound system. I recently upgraded to LSi-15 main speakers and decided the bass need some more guts. Very pleased by the product and its impact on the overall sonic experience. My wire fox terrier has problems with the realism but I don't.
Polk Audio PSW125 Written By Phuong, Riverside, CA on Friday, January 18, 2008 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I purchased the Sratch & Dent model for the price and because my subwoofer is stored in my media cabinet out of sight. Since return shipping is free, I figured I could gamble a little to save some money. When I received the unit, I looked closely at the wood grain for cosmetic defects, but couldn't find any. I flipped the box over and noticed that one of the supporting foot had buckled in. The box is made of MDF, but I think the prior owner must have dropped it pretty good to break the board. I was able to pull it out, but it wasn't stable enough to support the box so I drilled a new hole adjacent to it and screwed the foot back onto the base. Took 5 minutes. Outside of that, the sound is excellent and base is clean. The opening scenes of Top Gun never sounded so good. So if you want to save some money and don't mind minor cosmetic defects, I recommend getting the Sratch & Dent model.
Nice subwoofer for movies and music Written By Jose, South Coffeyville, OK on Friday, November 09, 2007 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) This subwoofer has brought new life to my home theater system. Before I was using the integrated subwoofer on a pair of Bose 701 speakers for my LFE out of my Sony receiver. The new Polk provides superb bass level without distortion and makes my movies come to life again. This unit is pretty well built and looks really nice in my living room. As always Crutchfield customer service and delivery are number 1.
Great Googa Mooga! Written By Craig, Raleigh, NC on Monday, April 09, 2007 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) The PSW125 has got to be one of the best subwoofer bargains on the market. Tremendous powerful output. Doesn't strain the least bit at high volume levels. In a small to medium sized room it will shake the walls! Flexible power switch...Stanby/Auto-on/On. LFE input to bypass the built in crossover. I still can't believe the great price Crutchfield has on this. Man, Polk Audio makes great stuff!


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He is not here to help,he is here to destroy,our Constitution has a slim chance of surviving if he is to remain in office. He,s a pathological liar and always will be so what ever you do do not trust anything this muslim traitor has to say.
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He is not here to help,he is here to destroy,our Constitution has a slim chance of surviving if he is to remain in office. He,s a pathological liar and always will be so what ever you do do not trust anything this muslim traitor has to say.
Who wrote this? I don't see a by-line. It lacks the Economist's customary circumspection and evenhandedness. Reads like something I would expect to find within the pages of a Murdoch publication. I am a bit taken aback.
New Lexington is pretty, uh, happy to put himself in the shoes of right wing America. But, that said, it's not a journalist's job to praise the president.
It appears the new Lexington parrots all the European cliches about the so called right wing in America.
Lets take illegal immigrants, locking up illegal immigrants in detention centers in Europe is considered a liberal mainstream position. The EU even sends extra border guards to patrol Greece's borders to keep illegals from entering Europe.
Being against illegal immigrants is a mainstream liberal position in both Britain and Europe.
However when it comes to America, Lexington like most Europeans has a double standard - Americans are racist extremist rightwing for wanting to keep illegal immigrants out.
Have you noticed the Economist doesn't even use the word "illegal" immigrants when it reports on mass illegal immigration from Mexico. They become just "immigrants".
this is the stirring of embers in a very bad dream
Another thing that is not self-executing: an executive order, signed by the president.
e.g., the executive orders to close Gitmo, and to outlaw torture.
Gitmo is still open, and guess what yielded info that led to bin Laden's demise.
Good thing for Obama that his own executive order on torture was not self-executing. If it was, he could not have claimed bin Laden as his only foreign policy success.
"After the examination of millions of pages of evidence, the chairmen of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee have publicly stated that coercive interrogation techniques such as waterboarding did not provide the information that led to bin Laden."
Either you are misled or you are grasping at straws to justify your revenge fantasy. Either way you are justifying war crimes. You should be ashamed.
Millions of pages, huh. Are you sure it's not zillions?
Nothing riles up the Chappaquiddick crowd more than turning their own rhetoric back onto them. Notice that it's okay to plug the guy but not to coerce somebody into coughing up the info that puts the sniper into position.
Meanwhile, Gitmo guests continue to enjoy their tropical vacation, totally off the Chappaquiddick crowd's radar.
Lex crows about the brilliance allegedly embedded in this blather-fest, and fails to mention another G-word, the one that actually typifies Obama's weasel-like uselessness as moralizer-in-chief.
That G-word is Gitmo.
He signed the order to close the place exactly four years ago, after thundering through the 2008 campaign about how wrong its existence is. Lex cheerled that performance.
So here we are four years later, and Gitmo remains open and full of inmates. Not a peep from the cheerleaders.
Obama represents the Chappaquiddick wing of the Democratic Party.
The Tea Partiers are rough, ill-informed, and inarticulate. But at least they're not hypocrites.
Does anyone else think that the United States should just move to a Westminister style parliamentary democracy? The Democrats and Republicans seem to be growing ever more entrenched and ever more divergent in opinion, bi-partisanship is increasingly becoming a thing of the past. Why not just avoid all the forthcoming filibustering and fictional cliffs/ceilings and whatever else and just move to a system where the party which wins a majority can get on with the business of government? The losing side still wont be happy, but at least those who recieve the mandate of the majority of the people would be in a position to actually achieve something...
What a stark contrast to JFK's famous words 'ask not what your country can do for you but what can you do for your country'. Mr. Obama manipulated nearly every minority and/or special interest voter in the country via misleading initiatives with catchy titles such as the 'Fair Pay Act' which was designed only to make attorneys wealthy. Government controlled media outlets helped pave the way to what will be another horrific divisive 4 years for the United States.
Damn pesky media, must be nice to be so powerful.
The President is structuring something Never! Done! Before! and NO PRESS MEMBERS are pursuing it! David Plouffe is taking a cash rich Re-election machine structured in all 50 States on a MISSION. This should not be compared to private political organizations one one side or the other. Don't make excuses for this before you investigate! Talk to David Plouffe! Make him outline an agenda! Where is the press on this historic news of political use?
Some question the true ambition of this extraordinary force. Is it to prepare for a forbidden third term for President Obama? Is it to use tactics that the White House couldn't politically take responsibility for to discredit and destroy the Republican Party so the President is unfettered in 2014? Is it to solidify single party rule with President Obama as our new Potentate? Where is the interview with David Plouffe?
The real question is why hasn't the Press immediately interviewed David Plouffe and forced him to identify how he is going to use the potent ground force? What PURPOSE or end result is sought?
Is he going to do things that the White house could not have done? Will ACORN, the Panthers,and other disparaged extreme groups on the left be employed? This is completely different from private political organizations. This is new! Never Done Before!!
Why isn't the Free Press asking for interviews of Plouffe? Why isn't this being looked into?
If it were the Republican Party, there would be immediate queries! Come on Press act a little bit like you are unbiased! The Republican Party should require an announcement of intentions!
What a load of cobblers
The republicans should be destroyed for having no heart against the people of their country instead of caring of themselves. All this idiocracy that is happening is because of them. Mitt Romney thought he was gonna win, when he didnt accept the dream act? Why dont you republicans dream on, Obama one the latin vote and that is what matters doing whats good for the people and not for himself. You and your republican party should all go to hell! Im tired of people saying Obama will destroy this country, yes maybe he has failed many of his promises, but one thing I know, this time he wont let us down and he didnt. Im done here, next time think before you write.
The republicans should be destroyed for having no heart against the people of their country instead of caring of themselves. All this idiocracy that is happening is because of them. Mitt Romney thought he was gonna win, when he didnt accept the dream act? Why dont you republicans dream on, Obama one the latin vote and that is what matters doing whats good for the people and not for himself. You and your republican party should all go to hell! Im tired of people saying Obama will destroy this country, yes maybe he has failed many of his promises, but one thing I know, this time he wont let us down and he didnt. Im done here, next time think before you write.
Obama has always been makig his efforts to do things he can do and should do.
Obama to the 47% that voted for the other guy (oh how delightfully ironic that number is): FU!
However, the polarization of America is also geographic. Most of the folks in the House GOP are from very secure districts, where politicians worry more about challengers from within their party rather than the general election. While it may feel good to kick the GOP while it is down, I doubt this will change hardened opinions where it matters most, and it may backfire and re-energize the GOP base.
The atmosphere feels very similar to 2009, doesn't it? Obama seems to have a habit of overreach when he's riding high. It'll cost him in 2014, just like it did in 2010.
I cordially disagree with your comment about 're-energizing the GOP base'. If anything, Obama's weak negotiating and over-extending during his attempted outreach in the first two years was the energizing factor.
The first two years of the Obama administration the Democrats looked weak and ineffectual, despite having iron majorities. They were shouted down by Republicans on the public option for healthcare. The stimulus was insufficient to kickstart the economy. Etc.
It's not an energized Republican base Obama needs to worry about in 2014 - it's an energized Democrat one. And nothing will sap that energy faster than faffing around trying to look like a bringer of compromise to the ultra-partisan Republican house.
EDIT: And how could I forget about Gitmo! Oh dear...
Let's be honest, both of the major parties are highly partisan. It's easy to become fixated on the individual personalities involved, but in the end these individuals reflect the values of those who sent them to Washington. It's a mistake to assume that these values can be changed by browbeating them into submission. The polarization in America is not the result of matter-of-degree differences, it is the result of diametrically opposed world views. Although I agree with most of the substance of Mr. Obama's speech, I found it unnecessarily provocative. The White House may believe they can splinter the GOP by driving a wedge between it, but I still maintain that they may instead end the infighting and unify the GOP by providing focus on a common unambiguous opponent.
The GOP was monolithic in his first term, and I don't think there's any doubt that Obama represents an unambiguous opponent for them, even when he's trying not to be.
By all means critique Obama's speech on the basis of it's triumphilism and in-your-face vibe if you don't like that kind of thing. But there's no basis to the idea that he will somehow encourage the GOP to unite against him even MORE than they already are.
Because that is not actually possible.
Neither party is monolithic. The Republicans were monolithic in their opposition to Obama for a time, which was do to perceived overreach. But there have been fractures in the House GOP since the 2011 debt ceiling debacle, and compromise even on the recent (albeit partial) fiscal cliff solution. While the president's speech clearly pleased his base, most see this as a shift to the left (or a revelation that Obama is further to the left than previously estimated). This will strengthen the GOP as a counterbalance.
So much of what he said is only 'partisan' in the U.S.A due to the Republicans adopting such extremist 19th century positions on everything these days.
Notions of American exceptionalism are indivisible from the American state itself. It is the state which runs the most powerful army in the world, it's the state which landed on the moon and on mars. Neither is there any truth in the dogma that taxes somehow discourage innovation and entrepreneurial endeavor.
Austerity has been exposed as a neoliberal con-job - the economic policy equivalent of engineering a disaster for the purposes of disaster capitalism. Meanwhile, their morally repugnant positions on religion, homosexuality, and the treatment of women and immigrants (and immigrant looking citizens) has all the charm of a 1960s advertising firm.
It is well beyond time that people started treating the Republican party like the irrelevant joke it is, instead of the other side of the same coin.
Ridiculous. That's like saying that nonconformists are partisan, judgmental and unreasonable due to their not going along with the rest of the pack. Think what you want of the Republicans, but they value what they value, think what they think and don't care if no one else agrees. There's something admirable in that.
As for your dismissiveness of American power, let's test that by having America pull out of NATO and be isolationist. It's American power that enables the minuscule military budgets and large social safety nets of Europe; many Democrats vote for America's large military not only to avoid being painted as dovish but because it's a disguised form of American foreign aid. We pull out of NATO, each European country realizes it needs to protect itself from Russia, or whoever, and military budgets triple, at minimum. What, then, will happen to their so-superior social safety nets?
"Think what you want of the Republicans, but they value what they value, think what they think and don't care if no one else agrees. There's something admirable in that." Do you really admire them?
I will readily admit that there are still many reasonable, educated Republicans out there, but their party has been co-opted by a bunch of Christian fundamentalist buffoons who dismiss the findings of modern science, evolution and economics. They would turn back the clock to the dark ages and impose a Christian form of sharia law on anyone that doesn't share their white Christian male beliefs and that includes women, gays, and people of color.
Upward and Onward: Obama
It's only 'like' saying that if you refuse to actually examine the positions in detail. Republicans (and non-conformists) do not get a free pass for their beliefs just because they are different. You can actually look at those beliefs closely, and the reasons behind them.
In the Republican party's case, those beliefs clearly and in all circumstances side with the rich against the 99%, with religious fundamentalism against reason, and war-profiteering against peace (cases in point, the shameless support for Wall Street legislation, the notion that the solution to any deficit must come purely from cutting costs, and the literally insane idea of *starting* a war against Iran to *protect* Israel).
As for your assertion that I've somehow dismissed American power, I'm not sure where you get that from. You somehow managed to parlay "It is the state which runs the most powerful army in the world..." into some kind of complete dismissal of the importance of American military superiority and its role in protecting the free world. I don't get it.
Perhaps you think that the American military and the Republican party are the same thing? That's yet another belief that can be examined and found to be utterly baseless (nothing has done more to drive the troops away from the Republicans than the Iraq war).
Face it, the Republican party is finished as an intellectual movement. It's underpinned by philosophies that haven't seen the light of day in the west for over a hundred years. There's no magic reason that it's somehow failing to appeal to anyone other than old white men despite the glorious purity of its message - it's the message itself that is selfish, hateful, and callous.
They side with the rich against the 99%? The 47% of the country that voted for Romney disagrees with you, or doesn't care. What they probably think is that the 1% are making money legally and the Republicans are merely preventing the Democrats from sua sponte deeming more of their profits unfair and seizing it. They're attacking the Left's attempts to normalize their own conscience as a basis for policy. As I see it, the Left doesn't realize that its own actions, like that (or like voting yourself money, or like deficit spending) have set a precedent that the Republicans have merely followed. And vice-versa-- liberalism and religion are merely competing forms of organized morality, and subject to the same risks and excesses.
"failing to appeal to anyone other than old white men" Watch it. The Republicans have been saying that in their -ism-screaming drive to attract women and minorities, the Democrats are actually, if covertly, hostile to white people and men, and the way some Democrats have acting recently has me thinking they might be right. Dismiss and alienate white men at your extreme peril; they're still 40% of the electorate. The Democrats risk a lot if they say things that debunk the ideals they've been trying to push for the past fifty years.
"It's underpinned by philosophies that haven't seen the light of day in the west for over a hundred years."
Um, wow. That's truly a serious argument, to you? It's not many who cite intellectual trendiness as a serious, out-loud reason for supporting or not supporting a belief, and it's even fewer among TE's commenters.
Face it yourself. Political parties always morph in whatever ways are necessary or possible, which is why the country is almost always divided very closely. It's an equilibrium. What this means is that if the Republicans are espousing beliefs you find ugly without dramatic electoral losses, it's because they're empowered to do so by counterbalancing quantities of ugliness or unpopularity of Democratic ideas. It's difficult to see that ugliness or unpopularity in one's own strongholds, which leads to misjudging the strength of ideas, but that's a practical problem.
Essentially your argument appears to boil down to the notion that everything is relative and all ideas are utterly equal - therefore there's no actual need to defend something with evidence or facts, you can just believe what you want and create an identity out of it.
It's actually really weird to see supposed 'conservatives' embracing what is an incredibly woolly liberal theory (post modernism) at its heart. There's something else at work here.
Happily the actual voters kinda like when policies genuinely work in practice, instead of just Ayn Rand/Austrian fantasyland. And we've hit that tipping point now.
Meanwhile, if Democrats are covertly hostile to White Men, they have an incredibly awkward way of going about it - providing free health insurance and unemployment benefits to them. In terms of policies that are making life intolerable for White Men, it's the Republicans who are the union busting, outsourcing champions who are keen to cut public services to the bone. That affects infinitely more white guys than anything the democrats have done. Sorry, I don't buy this race-war stuff for a nano-second.
"It's underpinned by philosophies that haven't seen the light of day in the west for over a hundred years."
I have no idea how else to express the idea that hard science should be excluded from schools because it offends a religious dogma. This is a real thing, that actual Republican groups are engaged in. Absolutely nothing will kill America as a modern nation faster than choosing dogma over knowledge.
If that's 'intellectual trendiness' then I don't know what to say. So much of the middle east has been swept under by religious fundamentalism in the last twenty years - the return to good, proper, old school values hasn't exactly worked out for them, has it?
TE is perhaps a refuge from anti-capitalist bawling, but it is not a refuge from reason. This is another remarkable Republicanism of the last twenty years - the notion of a media that must explicitly cater purely to conservative values, and the shock and dismay that occurs when any hint of reality or responsibility slips through without being appropriately spun.
Finally, it is always possible to examine your own beliefs and their underpinnings to determine their validity. This is HOW political parties MORPH into their current incarnations. Merely because a large number of people believe an idea is favorable to their own outcomes, does not make it a good idea - and already there is so much wrong with that notion as a whole answer, given how regularly people are conned by simplistic logic, false equivalence, and a myriad of other ways to misreason a situation - not to mention pure blind petty hatreds and the other darker angels of our nature.
Again, no-one in America has the ability to con poor white men into voting against their own interests like the Republicans can.
"Essentially your argument appears to boil down to the notion that everything is relative and all ideas are utterly equal - therefore there's no actual need to defend something with evidence or facts, you can just believe what you want and create an identity out of it.
It's actually really weird to see supposed 'conservatives' embracing what is an incredibly woolly liberal theory (post modernism) at its heart."
None of that makes any sense. Are you usually in the habit of making esoteric pronouncements and then not explaining what you mean by them?
"Happily the actual voters kinda like when policies genuinely work in practice, instead of just Ayn Rand/Austrian fantasyland. And we've hit that tipping point now."
Would that they did work. But what the actual voters "kinda like" is the fact that we can choose not to pay the credit card bill right now, while patting ourselves on the backs that the system works.
"Meanwhile, if Democrats are covertly hostile to White Men, they have an incredibly awkward way of going about it - providing free health insurance and unemployment benefits to them."
That's like saying that Republicans are supporting Hispanic people because their policies lower taxes for them or reduce government regulation of small businesses, Hispanic included. I'm talking about white men _as_ white and _as_ men-- not as people who happen to be either, which is what you're talking about. That's the intellectual flaw in your argument. The things you mention are, in any case, no sacrifice for most Democrats, who are using government to steal from rich people, doing those things and then claiming the credit. Nice work if you can get it.
My remark about intellectual trendiness was entirely about the fact that the clear implications of your phrasing was that an idea being old is enough to discredit it.
"the notion of a media that must explicitly cater purely to conservative values"
That's only true in the Bizarro world. I don't want a right-leaning media, but it says a lot about you that you're incapable of perceiving any explicit left-leaning slant to much of the media.
"it is always possible to examine your own beliefs and their underpinnings to determine their validity. This is HOW political parties MORPH into their current incarnations."
Sorry, no. They morph into their current incarnations by perceiving the positions they must take to be competitive, taking them, and then having their minds work out how to sell it to the rank and file. Call me cynical, but that's what I think both sides do.
"Again, no-one in America has the ability to con poor white men into voting against their own interests like the Republicans can."
No one in America is as clueless about government's hard limits to doing good by wealth redistribution as the Democrats are. Democrats can't get away from the free market, but government action always distorts the market to ruin the assumptions Democrats proceeded from in taking action in the first place, like rent controls causing deferred maintenance in those properties and shifting new construction to disproportionately favor high-end homes, or the hard limits on San Francisco construction for green and populist reasons making home prices skyrocket, pricing poor people out of the city, and incidentally causing them to be even more dependent on big government handouts. Or making blank-check promises with Medicare and Medicaid causing the health-care sector to bloat to the point of unaffordability but unchangeability. Or the drive to push more poor people into homeownership by forcing lowered lending standards causing prices to skyrocket and fostering immobility by trapping people into homes they couldn't afford but which are now underwater, and preventing them from moving to take jobs. I could go on and on.
Poor white men are simply rightly skeptical of the government's ability to do much, disdainful of the people and philosophies they're being asked to unite with, and disgusted at the egalitarian collectivism of voting yourself money. They might take the money, but I don't think it should mean much to what opinions they can or do hold, because it's a distorted market; government handouts would be making them poorer if those they're competing with took it but they did not.
It is true that the American government is failing the American poor to a truly alarming degree. This is not, however, because you have too much government and too much regulation.
It is more because you are governed on behalf of the banks and corporations, rather than the people. Americans pay so much for healthcare not because of government interference but because there is NO public system (a singular weakness compared to the entire rest of the western world). Too little government, in short.
Your heart is in the right place, and for that I am relieved. Your solutions however seem to involve doubling down on the same old ancient theories of small (weak) government and big (wild) business. And it should now be *very* obvious, to anyone, worldwide, just how bad a system that works out to be for a country.
As for 'liberal bias' - I'm amused. Large swathes of the media will instantly snap inline with any conservative position (austerity, say) and only shift ground after massive evidence to the contrary and enormous damage having been done. This is a right-wing bias, if anything - perhaps not so far as to extend to climate denying new earth creationism, but certainly to evidence free economic theories like small government, austerity, public-private partnerships and the like.
I can't help your amusement; I see nothing logical about your position. The media is all about liberal populism, like pity, greed-bashing and forcing the suppression of "evil" emotions. How the Left misses seeing that their form of organized morality is as prone to tedious moralism as their enemies in the Religious Right, and that it's the rigid moralism and assumption of the right to meddle in the lives of non-members that is what is objectionable about both groups-- not the presence or absence of God-- amazes me.
And austerity at this point isn't a conservative position. My fourth-grader would be able to see that you can't keep spending more than you take in indefinitely. To which I'd add that spending on things that don't produce more revenue like extending a demented 88-year-old's life to 89, or paying to keep alive the body of an idiot who rode his motorcycle without a helmet, is bad national investing, and that though there are limits to how much taxes can be increased, there are no limits to the indebtedness causeable by mandatory blank checks.
Just wanted to add my voice to those who are saying how refreshing it was to hear some lucid lefty liberal dogma eloquently pouring out of the Whitehouse for once. Those years of cringing through clunky dumb Bush-isms can finally be erased from my memory.
I admit to sharing your disgust at the Bushisms, but I'm starting to have a strong aversion to Obama's speeches too. Quite frequently, they're polished literally to a fault, with just the stale old left-wing ideas in a shiny new oratorical style. It's becoming like listening to elevator music.
Commentator "Leon Duffy" has the right of it. The arguments that the speech is indicative of political naivete on the President's part are contrary to the plain evidence.
Below, the President's "leftist" tendencies seem apparent to some commentators, but largely to those who are already to the right of center. But read _Counterpunch_, or any other far left rag. There are many, potent arguments to the effect that Obama is at best an accommodationist. He has shown himself willing to compromise on key -- I say, key! -- tenets of the liberal / progressive agenda, including overtures to the right (during the "fiscal cliff" talks) to compromise on Social Security / Medicare. One speech doth not a trend make. Smart money says that, whatever the content of his speech, he will reach across the aisle, upsetting his strongest supporters, whenever it seems politically expedient. By "politically expedient", I don't mean anything unprincipled. He does not require re-election, after all. Rather, I mean that he lives to show that government can get things done -- "the audacity of hope" and all.
In my personal opinion, it is no small thing that the President does represent a "majority" consisting of minorities -- and women, the under-empowered majority. The social issues that divide our nation -- abortion, LGBT rights, economic power to the employee -- have intimate ties to the economy. The President's second and final term will be an ongoing struggle to liberate moderate Republicans from the notion that they cannot join him due to his embracing "liberal" social mores. These mores are precisely the ones that can liberate our economy from the draining power of excessive deregulation, which has resulted in excess accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few and the concentration of power in the hands of corporations (so-called "persons") to the detriment of actual human beings. The rise of poverty is coincidental, not with an excess of government assistance, but with a dearth of it.
If Obama wants to succeed, he will stick to his words, turn over a new leaf, and support the coalition which, if enabled, is best positioned to lead the economy to a true recovery.
Obama's declaring war on the Republicans? That's about time!
President Obama Wants Everyone To Do What He Wants...Together
Possibly one of the most descent Americans, a man I voted for in two elections, I believe President Obama now embarks on a losing position for four years.
At a time when Americans are suffering financially, where terrorism seems to have the upper hand, where debt is so crippling, where political disagreement abounds, President Obama is telling almost 50% of all Americans, "do it my way or else...and do it with me together."
It is not just or possible to insist that opponents agree with you or else. These fiery speeches do not bring Americans together but separate them more.
It is fairly clear that those who disagree with President Obama, also don't like him. And so, President Obama has not received a lot of cooperation or goodwill.
But still, a President cannot get anything done when that President pushes his opponent's faces into the dirt.
Also, I just did not hear in his speech much about the economy, or issues that affect all Americans. Instead, it seemed that President Obama was heavy on morality or social issues, and light on crucial economic issues facing ALL Americans. By ALL, I mean the 99%.
I can't help but wonder whether President Obama was trying to write history as the President of social and morality changes but surely, he must know with certainty, that few, if any, of his issues will get resolved in his second term.
It almost feels like President Obama knows he'll receive no cooperation from his opponents, and therefore, he's decided to put out there issues or goals that have no chance of enactment - solely for the purposes of being remembered in history as the President who tried.
Americans are facing a very complex life ahead these next four years. America is facing uncertain times. The World is fighting for economic air to breath and President Obama should be focused on common and universal issues, real compromise solutions, and progress for America and for ALL Americans.
As human beings, we cannot ask someone to do what we want to do...Together. That's an oxymoron.
President Obama, I pray for your welfare and retention of great decency but please, please join with those who disagree with you and reach positive, forward movement, even if that means you do not enter the hallowed ground of the great Presidents that came before you. please consider being remembered as a good President and solve issues facing ALL Americans with your opponents...Together..
Richard Michael Abraham
The REDI Foundation
"It almost feels like President Obama knows he'll receive no cooperation from his opponents". Umm...almost?!?!?!?
Did you also just stumble upon the idea that 'water is wet' and 'the sun rises in the east'.
Please remember that the GOP has had the knives out for his Presidency since Day One- literally!: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/government-elections-politics/in...
Obama could come out with a new program to cure cancer in the next 5 years and the TriCorner Hat Crowd- egged on by the GOP- would be shouting "Keep Your Government Hands off of my leukemia!". On everything from his birthplace and citizenship to his education and his patriotism, his legitimacy has been consistently attacked with an unbelieveable vigor bordering on unhealthy lunacy. When was the last time a President was heckled- "YOU LIE!"- during a State of The Union address?
Enough is enough.
Does the popular vote count for nothing? Obama won decisively in the electoral college but to the outsider the USA seems a more equally divided nation which still adds up to a lot of unhappy opposition and bitterness waiting for the right leader.
Popular votes have normally been on the close side. Only four presidents ever got 60% or more (Harding, Roosevelt, LBJ and Nixon).
Only nine other elections gave the winner more the 55% (Reagan 2nd term, Hoover, FDR 1st term, Ike both times, Teddy Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson in 1828, Grant in 1872, Lincoln's 2nd term).
After that, it was closer to 50% or less (when more than two candidates ran).
I think a closer analysis will reveal that the 51%/49% or 52%/48% split in the popular vote is a relatively recent phenomenon.
Many comments and observations about Obama from Economist writers and readers continue to strike me as deeply weird. Obama makes a few references to free enterprise and individualism, and that is evidence of his centrism. Never mind that he has never once pushed for policies that would move any part of our society further in that direction. Surely, some intelligent readers perceive that there are areas in our government that might be too large, or too intrusive, where the regulation is unwieldy and counter-productive. Surely, if Obama truly believed in a balanced approach, he would attempt to build some comity with the GOP (who, whether you like them or not, control the House and therefore can't be ignored) to advance progressive goals elsewhere.
However, the justifications for referring to Obama as a centrist always center on what he has not done- whether it's a 75% tax rate, like France, or a public option (or single-payer system) for healthcare, or cap and trade, or what have you. Never mind the fact that he has always pushed for the most progressive agenda he can get passed with the legislature he has (even in 2009, he had to abandon the public option when his own party rebelled). Never mind that he would never attempt to propose action that actually restrains the government in some way. The trouble with viewing him as a "European liberal" is that you must accept the ridiculous notion that there is no spending problem, no entitlement overhang, and absolutely no areas of American life where Obama could do a "Nixon to China" move. In other words, you have to be economically illiterate (or seized with partisan insanity, like Paul Krugman).
The Economist continues to suggest that Obama co-opting a conservative idea or two would be a good tactic for his agenda, when they fail to realize that the man disdains even their watered down, limp version of liberalism. He simply doesn't believe that there is any current area in American life where government is too large, strong, or present. His every priority is to enlarge and empower government. Stop accepting words- just words- as the basis for his centrism, and stop arguing that purely tactical limitations in his proposals are the same a philosophical centrism. The American people voted in November, deliberately, for bigger, more intrusive government, and everyone but the Economist seems to know it.
Excellent post, although I think it would be more accurate to conclude that the American people are likely to get "...bigger, more intrusive government..." from Obama, rather than to say that is what they voted for. Many people surely voted for Obama simply because they disliked him less than his opponent.
I certainly agree that to call Obama a "centrist" is to pay him an unearned complement.
This is worthy of being the featured comment.
America has been under neoconservative rule ever since Ronald Regan was elected to office in 1980. And yes, that includes the 8 years of business friendly deregulation and socially regressive legislation like DOMA, signed by Bill Clinton. Government has expanded during this period, largely under the auspices of several phony wars on terrorism, a blind loyalty to Israel, and spying on its own citizens under the pretense of protecting us from terrorism. Taxes have been cut largely benefitting large corporations and the wealthy, while wages, pensions, and healthcare benefits to workers have been slashed and small business owners are left out in the cold.
Yet the drumbeat we hear is that the problem is middle class entitlements like social security and healthcare. Comity does need to be restored - to the working stiff Americans who have diminished wages, standards of living, and retirement security in old age.
Couldn't agree more.
A rather nasty hatchet job on Mr Obama not worthy of TE, simply because he was not 'politic' enough in seeking rapproachment with Republicans holding the US and world economy to ransom with a debt ceiling GOP created.
Mr Obama signalled greater openness and awareness of the challenges faced in keeping social security viable than most other leaders around the globe who face similar challenges. His balance of free enterprise with social responsibility, while entrenching tax breaks for the middle class to accumulate capital, are welcome news and as far away from socialist France's 75% tax hike as is possible.
Continued attempts at smearing Mr Obama as the 'commie under the bed' are so ludicrous by objective standard, that they smack of old style McCarthyism of the worst kind - understated racism disguised as 'principle'. Could the speech have been better, more inclusive and have addressed the budget and deficit reduction challenges? Absolutely - but not if it was scripted by rabid rabbits from the Tea Party.
The conclusion, unfortunately, may be spot on: a Kentucky fried lame duck presidency, blocked by Republicans in the House wherever they can, seething with spite, malevolence and malice.
Do you not note the irony in equating the 'commie under the bed' labeling of Obama to McCarthyism being followed by calling large swaths of the half the country racist?
Is the "Obama is a communist" crowd substantial? What percent of the electorate do you think they comprise?
I am not sure all who articulate such aspersions are necessarily racist, but do believe good number of them come off as pretty fringe in political views.
For goodness sake, did you read the same article? "A rather nasty hatchet job" it was not. Neutral, fair, and thus rather complimentary to Obama, and apparently coming to the same conclusion as you, yet still decried. How can TE win, exactly?
I think it simply depends on how strict you are in holding people to the definitions of communist/socialist/racist/whatever-else-ist. I think the number of people who truly believe Obama is a communist or socialist without dramatically distorting what those words mean are few in number. I also believe the same is the case for people seriously believing that so much of the opposition to Obama is based on the color of his skin, as opposed to the (D) after his name.
Unfortunately, these fringe elements are either spotlighted or hired by the media because their hyperbole draws a big audience. Politicians who do the same get donations and dedicated support from parts of the media sympathetic to them. As a result of the prominence of this rhetoric, I think it slips into common usage either without the belief in the literal meaning, or to avoid debate by delegitimizing the opposition.
I think that fits most arguments over sex, politics, etc. They quickly devolve into at least a few people calling the other side some kind of extreme, without care for how rarely such labels fit. Disagree with laws aimed at promoting equal pay for women? It won't take long before you're outed as a sexist. Strongly believe in a woman having the choice of a legal and safe abortion? The countdown to the revelation that you just really want to kill babies begins.
I think that these arguments turn into a self-fueling cycle. It is easier to justify calling someone else an extreme, even if you don't wholly buy into it, if you've already been called an extreme too.
Racists under every bed instead? I am a bit bored of that argument to dismiss any criticism. Yes, Mr Obama, is of mixed race descent, what is your point? Should he be held to a lesser standard? That would be extremely racist.
The article is spot on, if Mr Obama is to achieve his agenda in his second term he needs to reach out to the Republicans who can otherwise stymie everything he seeks to do. He will be forced to co-operate, is this a bad thing? Probably for the Democratic agenda, but not for democracy in the USA. Voters favour Republicans at a lower level but like the Democrats at a national level. The reasons why will be the subject of much speculation and analysis.
What a fantastic summary! Thank you.
Not to nitpick, but the comma after "Lyndon Johnson" (in the first paragraph) is unnecessary.
Perhaps his lasting presidential legacy, Obama has championed two founding tenets of liberal-progressive government, 1) tax, regulate and spend to grow the size and power of central government, and 2) expand a debilitating, partisan voter dependency upon government with bribes of government benefits.
Here are some of the Obama Administration's new, excessive and costly regulations:
• While Obama has deferred most of his environmental agenda items until his "more flexible" second term, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had the costliest regulations in 2012 amounting to $172 billion;
• The widely unpopular Affordable Care Act (a.k.a., "Obama Care") legislation continues to burden American business with an additional 44 million paperwork hours (over 21 thousand man-years labor) needed from the Dept. of Health and Human Services, the Center for Medicare Services and the Food and Drug Administration;
• The controversial Dodd-Frank financial reforms legislation requires 32.7 million new paperwork hours (over 15 thousand man-years labor) from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission;
• Obama has enacted regulations amounting to over $34.6 billion in new regulatory costs to our 30 largest corporations;
• The most costly of all new regulations fall under the requirements for energy efficiency and fuel conservation totaling $311 billion.
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text:
MISSION Wrong Side of the Tracks | |
Carl Johnson and Big Smoke talking about the meeting between the Los Santos Vagos and the San Fierro Rifa at Unity Station
| |
Game: | Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas |
For: | Big Smoke |
Location: | Idlewood, Los Santos |
Target: | Los Santos Vagos gang members |
Conditions of mission failure: | |
Player death
Big Smoke death Failing to kill the Vagos in time | |
Reward(s): | |
Respect | |
Unlocks: | Just Business |
Unlocked by: | Running Dog |
Not to be confused with Wong Side of the Tracks, a similar mission in Liberty City Stories.
- "Motherfuckers clocked us!"
- — Big Smoke.
Wrong Side of the Tracks is a mission in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, given by Big Smoke from his house.
Frank Tenpenny and Eddie Pulaski are seen leaving Big Smoke's house from the garage. Carl Johnson arrives and Smoke tells him that they have to go to the train at Unity Station.
When the two arrive, Big Smoke explains that the Vagos and San Fierro Rifa are "cutting some kind of deal", and intends to crash the meeting. However, it is an ambush and the Vagos try to escape via train. CJ and Smoke use a Sanchez to chase down the head of the train to kill all four Vagos, all the while avoiding obstacles such as oncoming car blocks and incoming trains. If successful, CJ and Smoke will have eliminated all Vagos before the train reaches the bridge connecting Los Santos and Las Venturas. The two then clear the scene and CJ takes Big Smoke back to his house.
Mission objectives
In order to complete the mission the player must:
- Drive to Unity Station
- Get on the motorbike with Big Smoke, chase down the Vagos gang members and take them out
- Keep up with the front carriage of the train so Big Smoke can shoot the Vagos gang members
- Take Big Smoke back to his house
- Jump on the Sanchez provided for you by pressing the "enter vehicle" button immediately after the cutscene ends.
- Do not waste bullets trying to shoot the gang members as the train is too high.
- Stay on the far right side. Staying too close to the train will give Smoke a bad angle and he will shoot the train instead.
- While still near Unity Station and before the train makes a curved left turn, one Vago (the one who is behind the rest) will be killed when he fails to duck under a metal bar. Since it is pointless to aim for him, Carl can drive faster to focus on other gang members.
- Just above the storm drain that the train passes, there is a ramp that is level with the train, and can be used to drive the bike on top of it. Not only does this give Smoke an easy shot at the Vagos, the player can also shoot at the gang members, assuming that they have a drive-by weapon.
- According to speculation, this mission is noted as one of the hardest in Grand Theft Auto.
- If the player fails the mission, Big Smoke will say "All we had to do was follow the damn train, CJ!". The line has become quite famous among fans of Grand Theft Auto.
- In the beta version, another objective would have been to retrieve a package from the dead Vagos, making CJ suspect something. This was cut before release, possibly because Rockstar Games didn't want to make it too obvious that Smoke is going to betray the Grove Street Families.
- This is one of the first missions to take Carl out of Los Santos and into Red County; for players playing strictly storyline missions this will be their first exposure to the rural area, too.
- Oddly, in the mission Local Liquor Store Carl complains about Catalina shooting so close to his ear, but he doesn't do it with Big Smoke, presumably as he is closer to Big Smoke and the fact that Smoke generally aims the gun higher and to the side, limiting the noise, wheras Catalina is shooting directly forward.
- There is a Minecraft splash screen writing "Follow the train, CJ!" which is a reference to this mission.
- If the player takes Big Smoke back to his house in a different vehicle, it will be replaced with the Sanchez in the cutscene.
- If the player fails the mission just as the Vagos crosses the bridge and looks closely, the player will see that the train will pass through a barrier.
- There is a mission in Rockstar's Manhunt with the same title.