Your sub experience: Easy or hard?


For those of us with subwoofers, I'm curious whether you thought integrating it was easy or difficult.  That's it.

Of course, lots of DBA people will chime in. No problem but please ask that everyone stay on topic.  If you want to discuss all the pro's and cons of DBA take it to a brand new thread.  Thank you.

The focus here is just to ask how many people had easy or difficult times and what you thought was the difference.

erik_squires

It depends what you are trying to do / solve with subs.  I have an extremely difficult problem so the solution, including using 2 subs was also difficult. The problem could not be solved without subs as placement was critical, simply buying a pair of speakers or amp with more bass only made the problem worse. 

In the early ’90’s, I tried like heck to integrate a sub into my two-channel music system. All the subs I dragged home just didn’t integrate well since they were all essentially home theater subs that were non powered with passive internal low pass crossovers. It just didn’t work and I gave up. All of the cabinets were either band pass cabinets with just a port exiting the box or a typical down firing, ported cabinet. There seemed to be no such thing as an audiophile subwoofer back in the early ’90’s other than maybe some JBL models which were not obtainable to a broke kid right out of college.

Fast forward to 2020 when I started planning a completely new 2 channel system and with nearly 30 years of more experience (especially in the pro audio area), integration of a pair of 18’s was very easy. All passive speakers with outboard electronic x-over made it easy. Also, a much better budget certainly helps!

My 2nd system in another room is also using a pair of 12" low frequency drivers in sealed cabinets supplementing 8 inch two way stand mount speakers. Again, passive sub cabinets crossed over by an outboard Sumo crossover into dedicated subwoofer amplifier and dedicated mid-hi amp. It’s easy when you’ve done it a few times and know about how things should be initially set up (crossover point & slope, gain structure, etc.). Tweek a few things with the ears and one is good to go.

@riley804 
Why don’t you use wireless receivers/transmitters like this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Transmitter-Receiver-Subwoofers-Surround/dp/B00SJ49ZJQ/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3PPIQAUB5T43J&keywords=Wireless+receiver+for+sub&qid=1653536873&sprefix=wireless+receiver+for+sub%2Caps%2C107&sr=8-3
‘They are inexpensive, reliable and easy to setup. Without them I don’t know how I would manage to integrate four subs in my system given I don’t have a dedicated room. 

Slightly off topic and I apologize...

It's great to be reading these threads on subwoofers and hearing how many people are embracing the use of subs.  Also, there are true audiophile subs available now which, as I alluded to in my earlier post, just were not around when I started this hobby 30+ years ago.  All positive/fun stuff for this hobby we enjoy!

With a high pass crossover it was very easy in multiple rooms and systems. Without it , it was very hard and honestly never right.