We have a bit of thing with subwoofers. It’s because adding a subwoofer can be one of the most powerful upgrades you can make to your home theatre or stereo system. Yet, a lot of people are not convinced of their merits. With a good subwoofer it’s like you can feel the room breathing. I guess it’s one of those things you have to experience to realise. But also… one subwoofer is not the same as the next.

The best subwoofers add dimension, impact, excitement, and low-frequency extension without negatively affecting the overall accuracy and believability of your system’s sound. A big subwoofer can do this – and so can a small one. One of the misconceptions we want to address is that a bigger subwoofer isn’t necessarily better. For someone who’s not familiar with acoustics, the reasons for this may not be readily apparent.

Bass is the problem-child of the acoustics family. It’s unruly and difficult to handle. Which is why you might bump into all sorts of advice around bass management.

One of the most often recommended measures is the use two or even more subwoofers to handle unruly bass. While you might assume this is for added SPL, the greatest benefit will actually be taming the stroppy sibling with smoother and more consistent bass response as a result.

How to go about it? Let’s be clear: there is no 2 minute solution. But if you allow the time and effort, the rewards will be absolutely worth it. 

Most people equate subwoofers with the thump-thump they hear from other cars at stoplights. Volume at the expense of quality.  There is no sugarcoating the message: it’s called bad bass. In the world of the dedicated audiophile, this is what gave the subwoofer (and with it bass) a bad rep. But the idea with any speaker system is to accurately recreate all frequencies in the audio spectrum equally, including bass. What you want from a quality subwoofer, placed correctly in a room, is a deep realistic sound, not the thump-thump. So let’s be clear that a good subwoofer doesn’t make a boom sound, but just stronger (and lower) bass than is possible with normal speakers.

Which subwoofer type is better – sealed or ported? An ever returning and extremely popular discussion topic on the forums and blogs, there is no shortage of opinions on the subject. Add in a few die-hard myths and generalizations, and it’s no surprise this is one of the most commonly questions asked. You might hear some people say that ported subwoofers are no good for music, and are only useful for delivering big sound effects, or conversely that sealed subwoofers are “musical”, but lack the depth to deliver the bass called for in today’s blockbusters. While some subwoofers may certainly fit these stereotypes, the truth is considerably more complex. The strengths of each subwoofer type are discussed below, along with the recommended applications and listening environments which will result in optimal performance. 

Subwoofer design has undergone a revolution. No, the physics of woofers, amplifiers, and enclosures haven’t changed. But new technologies have made it possible to push the bass-ic laws of nature to their limits, such that the best of today’s inexpensive subwoofers can outperform many of the top models from 15 or 20 years ago.