PSA: Short Unused Speakers and Subs in the Listening Room


I think most people know this, but it’s important to electrically short speakers and/or subwoofers in the listening room that aren’t being used. This can be accomplished by connecting the terminals together with a spare speaker cable or jumpers.

I had a pair of passive, sealed subwoofers I didn’t have hooked up in the listening room. I could tap on the subwoofer cone and the room would energize with bass at the resonance frequency of the subwoofer. When I shorted the terminals with a copper wire and tapped on the cone, there was silence. It was quite remarkable actually.

Has anyone else experienced this? One question I have is if I should short a subwoofer that is not in any sort of box or enclosure. When I tap on it, it doesn’t seem to energize the room with sound.

128x128mkgus

roxy54- Yes I am back. Thanks.

ratboysr- You are one of the reasons why. Well, sort of. In a way. In the sense you represent the sort of readers I never really knew about, but are out there. Something that didn't hit home until I launched my website an instantly had a huge (for what it is, which ain't much) influx of visitors. So many thanks, it is much appreciated.

mkgus- Yes multiple subs are really better even if all you do is sit in the same place. That's what I do, and the improvement is massive. 

As for true to the original sound, with a lot of recordings that is anyone's guess. But come listen to Tchaikovsky. Or Belafonte at Carnegie Hall. Or anything faithfully recorded in a large venue. The way that is recreated is uncanny. Heck even Peter Gabriel Secret World Live, the unmistakable sonic signature of a huge space is captured like nothing else. The only other room I heard anything like this was an impeccably acoustically designed and tweaked out room that also had two huge racks of subs, not a classic distributed array exactly but with 4 on each side stacked 5ft high not all that different either.

When you hear it, in like 5 seconds you will jettison all doubt. 

Welcome back MC. The more minds, ears and opinions the better when looking for something so slippery as audio nirvana. Your expertise was surely missed.

The only other room I heard anything like this was an impeccably acoustically designed and tweaked out room that also had two huge racks of subs, not a classic distributed array exactly but with 4 on each side stacked 5ft high not all that different either.

Reminds me of the Infinity IRS V speakers which have 6 stacked bass drivers per side. The sound was jaw-droppingly good! Why use 1 subwoofer when you can use 12? Just don’t forget to short them if you aren’t using them when listening to music. Actually, I’m quite sure you can accomplish the same effect as shorting by simply turning on the amplifier but don’t feed it a signal. I get the same effect tapping on the cone and hearing silence by turning on the amplifier as I do with shorting. I wonder what the technical reason is.