Sub-woofer Basics
Jan 22 '01
The Bottom Line Need to know some basics first
Bass frequencies are the hardest to faithfully reproduce by a loudspeaker system. The ability to get a rich deep full sound can be significantly easier by the addition of a sub-woofer. Many people purchase a pair of stereo speakers with large woofers and never get the deep full bass sound that a sub-woofer will provide. The reason why may be phasing. With two bass sound sources there are certain frequencies that will be canceled at various points around the room. The particular frequency that will be affected will be dependent on the wave length of the frequency and the placement of the speakers relative to the seating position. With a single sound source such as a sub-woofer, the canceling between two sound sources will not occur.
There are basically two types of sub-woofers, amplified and non-amplified. The non-amplified type will usually have dual voice coils to allow for a stereo amplifier to be connected to the sub-woofer. Additionally, there will be connections for the set of stereo speakers. It is important to wire the stereo outputs to the sub-woofer first and your full range speakers to the sub-woofer in order to take advantage of the cross over network built into the sub-woofer. The other type of sub-woofer is an amplified sub-woofer. This unit will have an amplifier built in and will require power to be supplied as well as the sub-woofer audio connection. Most receivers and amplifiers today have an output to connect a sub-woofer. Most amplified sub-woofers will automatically sense an audio signal and turn the sub-woofer amplifier on and off. When the amplified sub-woofer is used, there is usually not a cross over involved only a filter which only directs the very low frequencies to the sub-woofer. Due to this it may be better to make sure your main speakers do not reproduce the ultra low frequencies of the sub-woofer.
Non-amplified sub-woofers generally cost less then the amplified types, so if you already have a lot of power in your sound system (100 watts or more), you may want to opt for the non-amplified type.
Whichever type of sub-woofer you choose, the addition of a sub-woofer to your audio system can be a great addition to your sound system. In home theater systems the improvement can be dramatic.
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