2. speakers
  3. 152909-18279

Eh hem!...Subwoofers... What do ya know?

Subwoofers are a thing.  A thing to love.  A thing to avoid.  A misunderstood thing.  

What are your opinions on subwoofers?  What did you learn and how did you learn it? 


128x128jbhiller
davekayc
173 posts
 
I think everyone is on the right track relating to their own likes . I agree having lots of power to mains is important. My mains are 3 way bi amped . 150w solid state to the 15” woofer and 100wch tube to the horns, tweets. Asking the woofers to reach down to the basement takes away from their clarity . Subs reinforce those very low notes and in this way gives an omnipresent feel to the sound . With my remote on my c46 preamp i can cut the outputs i used to engage the subs . Sound is still beautiful but having that ability from your chair to turn them on and off sure trains you to set them modestly as to only give the full picture nothing more.  Think of the 20th century fox orchestra intro where the last sound is made by a very large drum kind of a whomp powerful yet subtle . Can you hear a sub? Or the room that drum was recorded. The silence between notes is the most beautiful sound. 
turnbowm
353 posts
 
"It really is easy, go big or go home!....  I recently eliminated my sub for my two channel setup. My room constraints wound up creating more problems than I could/want to try to "fix" so I binned it"

geof3,

I guess going big didn't quite work out.
richmos
127 posts
 
My main system is Apogee Duetta Sigs. They don't go down much below 40-50 Hz, so I added a Paradigm 15 Ref Servo sub - sounded good. Then I added a 2nd 15 Ref Servo sub and it sound great!. I have them wired in stereo and positioned as if they were part of the Apogees - in other words - right next to them. Works for me.
m-db's avatar
m-db
997 posts
 
millercarbon2,139 posts12-06-2019 9:01pmAlmost everything people "know" about bass is wrong.
Location with one sub is everything. You can spend a lifetime moving here and there trying in vain to find the magic location with smooth bass. 
Do you have any experience using the Crawl Test for anybody locating less than four subwoofers?

I could go on and on. Which I tend to do, both because this is so important as well as its really hard to understand. Took me a few weeks of research to really be sure myself.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. How would you determine crossover frequency and gain with less than four subwoofers?
daveyf's avatar
daveyf
2,952 posts
 
Subs for music vs Subs for HT. Big difference in what you trying to accomplish sound wise, IMHO.
I use a large woofer that is not that accurate for HT set up...and two REL T5i's for my big rig. The T5i's are very fast ( therefore they do NOT interfere with my main speakers..which is the goal) and are invisible SQ wise in the blend. What two subs do is exactly what REL states they do, which is to smooth out the response in your room. Unfortunately, setting up two subs is IME a ton more time consuming than setting up just one....but worth it in the long run.
More to discover