JL Audio makes some of the best car, boat, and home theater subwoofers. In fact, their most expensive home theater sub, the g213 v2, is a whopping $20,000. However, in this article, we will look at the opposite end of the spectrum and review their entry-level sub, the Dominion d110.

In the early ’70s, Jim Birch and Lucio Proni, two college friends, started to build loudspeakers as a hobby. Their passion quickly became a business when they realized people wanted to buy their speakers. By 1975, they combined the first letter of each of their names and created JL Audio, a speaker company that, over the last 50 years, has become one of the most well-respected audio companies in the world. Today, their subwoofers are known for their powerful performance, outstanding build quality, and being built in the USA with global components.

Design & Build Quality

The JL Audio Dominion d110 is a 10-inch powered subwoofer designed for home theaters and two-channel applications. The cabinet is carefully engineered and constructed using solid, CNC-cut MDF with multiple braces on the inside. It comes in a black ash finish or a black gloss finish. Be sure to check the prices of each finish, as they will vary in price, so you can save a few bucks by choosing one over the other.

We unboxed a d110 in gloss black and immediately noticed its solid construction and beautiful exterior. It is a sealed cabinet about 13 inches tall, 12 inches wide, and 16 inches deep. And it’s a rather compact ten-inch subwoofer that won’t take up much space. It weighs in around 40 pounds, which is a testament to the high-quality materials and components it was constructed with. On the front is a matte black steel baffle plate that is actually part of the driver and that takes up almost the entire face of the subwoofer, providings a rigid launch platform for the long-excursion driver. There are four holes to slot in the mesh grille to cover up the entire front if you prefer that look. All of your controls and inputs live on the back. You get an LP Filter that you can turn on and off, an LP Frequency (Hz) dial with adjustments from 25 to 130, a master level dial, a phase (deg.) dial that goes from 0 to 280, and a polarity switch for 0 or 180 degrees. Below the huge heat sink on the back are speaker level inputs, line level inputs, a wireless link input, a switch for grounded or isolated, and the power input.

If any of these switches or knobs are confusing or you don’t know how to set them up, we’ve got you covered.

When you purchase your JL Audio sub from Audio Advice, not only do we offer free shipping, lifetime support, and a price guarantee, but we also can have our home theater experts available to help you along the way to make sure you have it set up perfectly so you know that you’re getting the most out of you purchase.

Features & Technology

Let’s get into some of the tech that makes the d110 unique. Inside, you have a 750-watt Class D amp with a tightly regulated switching power supply that allows the amp to generate massive amounts of unclipped output voltages. This ensures the sub stays within its comfort zone, which is well beyond where most smaller subwoofers run out of power or driver capability.

In between the amp and the driver is a DMA Optimized Motor. DMA, or Dynamic Motor Analysis, is JL Audio’s proprietary behavior modeling system, used to understand linearity under real power. This system was developed in 1997 and has been refined over the years. It has played an important role in the design of all the current JL Audio subwoofers. A lot of research and technology has gone into the DMA system that we won’t go into here, but if you’re interested in how it all works, check out our in-depth article at audioadvice.com, which we will link below. All you really need to know is that the end result of the DMA system is vastly reduced distortion, higher output, and tight, clean, and articulate bass. As a result, it's capable of peak-to-peak excursions over 2.7 inches without audible distortion. Quite impressive!

JL Audio also uses a Vented Reinforcement Collar (VRC), which is meant to improve the rigidity and stability of the cone, spider, and voice coil junction, which will reduce glue breakdown and material weakness. It also directs the airflow over the voice coil windings for improved thermal performance. This may seem like a small detail, but it dramatically increases its reliability to ensure this subwoofer lasts a long time.

No matter how perfect a company tries to get their production part dimensions, it’s inevitable to have some slight variations in all of these small detailed parts. To help solve this, JL has created its FCAM or Floating Cone Attach Method. This is an innovative method of bonding the surround/cone assembly to the voice coil former/spider assembly, which helps ensure the concentricity of the surround, spider, and voice coil without torquing the suspension and providing precise alignment and pistonic movement. Essentially, it prevents any slight variation in one of the production products from negatively impacting the integrity of the suspension and coil-centering at high excursions.

Managing the lead-wires on a long-excursion woofer can be a challenging aspect of its design. Many long-excursion woofers rely on a simple solution that simply weaves the lead-wires into the spider of the driver. However, this can affect the spiders' stretching behavior and lead to reliability issues over time. You can use a “flying lead” to overcome those issues, but they also come with unique challenges. So JL Audio has patented their Engineered Lead Wire System, which is used in the d110. They use flying lead-wires but are carefully engineered inside entry and exit support structures molded into the terminals and the voice coil collar. This is a much more labor-intensive approach, but ultimately gives you reduced distortion, reduced mechanical noise, and improved reliability.

Performance

We set up this sub with a pair of Sonus Faber Lumina II bookshelf speakers and a Rotel S14 integrated network streamer. We did plug in via line-level, but we also want to note that you can use JL Audio’s JLINK TRX system to wirelessly connect your sub anywhere in your room up to 100 feet away.

We kicked off our audio journey with "Wasted Times" by The Weeknd, and introducing the d110 into our two-channel setup was an eye-opener. The immediate transformation it brought to the overall sound left us in awe. The d110 exhibited an astonishing level of speed and precision, showcasing perhaps the best start and stop behavior we've ever encountered in a subwoofer of this size. It blended seamlessly with our speakers, disappearing during more articulate passages and also standing out in bass heavy parts of songs.

We next tested Miles Davis’ track “So What” and again were impressed with how much detail was added to the low end and how well it blended with our speakers. In fact, its seamless integration was so remarkable that some of our team members, who typically prefer a two-channel setup without subwoofers, expressed their willingness to incorporate the d110 into their own systems.

The compact sealed subwoofer design played a crucial role in delivering an articulate and musical sound without any lingering bass overhang. Around the 2:20 mark in Wasted Times, the bassline unleashes a barrage of punchy attacks and many subwoofers in this price range might sound a bit muddy. However, the d110 handled it with finesse, exhibiting impeccable responsiveness by starting and stopping on a dime while delivering a substantial amount of bass.

Moving on to the car chase scene in "6 Underground," we aimed to put the d110 to the test with explosive action sequences. Let us unequivocally state that if you crave lightning-fast, deep, and high-output bass, the d110 unquestionably delivers. Despite its size, it displayed a robust attack with deep extension during every heart-pounding action sequence, infusing the room with an astonishing level of impact. As we cranked up the volume to the max, the sheer amount of air this subwoofer moved and the incredible excursion of its woofer left us thoroughly impressed. It achieved all of this without a hint of distortion, maintaining its lightning-fast response throughout.

Overall Recommendation

If you are looking for a subwoofer that is able to deliver fast, tight and deep bass in a two channel or home theater system, the JL Audio d110 will not let you down. It is extremely well built and designed to last a long time with all the features you should need. In our testing, we’d recommend if your theater or media room is bigger than roughly 300 square feet, go with two or more of the d110’s to really fill your room. And with how small and affordable they are, you could add three or four of these to a room and connect them wirelessly if you want to really fill your room with even coverage of bass.

We’re here to help!

Audio Advice has been in the industry since 1978, and throughout the years, we’ve developed a team of professionals who live and breathe all things audio and video. We spend countless hours testing and reviewing every product we sell to be sure it stands up to our extremely high-quality standards. With our state-of-the-art home theater audio lab, we can become product experts and provide our customers with in-depth, honest feedback.

When you buy from Audio Advice, you’re buying from a trusted seller since 1978. We offer Free Shipping, Free Returns, Lifetime Expert Support, and our Price Guarantee. We look forward to serving you!