Mitch, actually, I don't use those SW-800s (Kinergetics) anymore. I use a single Martin Logan Depth and it's great (it does use a servo, BTW) Sorry about the outdated pic. That's one of my spring projects.
Most on-board sub amps are I believe Class D "switching" amps. They're designed to only drive the lowest couple of octaves. I'm not clear on why, but they don't require big power supply transformers or storage capacitors.
You still need a "regular" Class A or A-B amp for the mid/highs, although there are now some alternates to those as well.