The subwoofer is my favorite speaker. This magical transducer enables you to feel the gentle 20Hz rumble of a distant building crumbling, or the 60Hz whack-in-your-chest of a kick-drum. No other device in a home A/V system can make music or movies come alive in such a unique way.
Background
If you get a subwoofer then you will probably want to use it to play the low bass and use your other speakers to play the higher-frequency material. Typically you want to set the crossover frequency on your A/V receiver to 80Hz and tell it that your main speakers are “small”. This splits the bass out to the subwoofers and the higher-frequency signals out to the main speakers. If you have really big tower speakers with 8″ or larger woofers/subwoofers built-in then you can consider setting the speaker size to “large” in your receiver. If you set it to “large” then the receiver will send full-range sound to the main speakers and it will only send special LFE (low-frequency effects) sounds (such as explosions) to your subwoofer.
The subwoofers that I’m going to recommend are all “active”–they have an amplifier built-in. This allows you to hook them up to the LFE output of your receiver and the sub’s built-in amp does the work of creating a loud enough signal to properly drive the subwoofer. If you buy a home-theater-in-a-box it might come with a “passive” subwoofer where you have to run speaker cables to it so it can suck its power out of your receiver. This is far from optimal because the amplifier in your receiver is not designed to properly drive a decent subwoofer.
Recommendations
DIY
In the subwoofer market a DIY sub will almost always beat an off-the-shelf sub when it comes to value. If you’re willing to build your own, even from a kit, you will get much more impressive performance for your dollar. Since there is only one driver it’s pretty easy to put a kit together quickly.
Dayton C1500K 15″ Powered Subwoofer Kit – $285 – This sub really is a great value. The 15″ driver plays down to 25Hz. The amp only puts out 240 watts, but unless you have a large room it will probably be plenty for a very nice experience.
Total DIY 15″ Subwoofer – Approx $400 (including DIY box materials) – If you buy this 15″ driver and an amp like this 240 watt unit you will have a very similar setup to what I have at home. I then built a rather large vented box for it out of MDF. It’s tuned to 23Hz and it plays very loudly, plenty loudly for my 20′ x 17′ room.
Dayton T1503K 15″ Titanic Mk III Subwoofer Kit – $750 – This 15″ sub is powered by a 1000 watt amplifier. Need I say more? The cabinet is a bit wimpy for that much power, so you might want to upgrade the cabinet after a year or two. Regardless, this is a great setup for the price.
Off-The-Shelf
Dayton SUB-100 HT Series 10″ 125 Watt Powered Subwoofer – $132 – This little guy won’t blow you away if you have a huge room, but if your room is small or your budget is tight it’s a great value. It’s rated down to 30Hz, so you’ll still hear that 32Hz low-B from the 5-string bass guitar.
Elemental Designs A2-300 Subwoofer – $350 – This 12″ sub is powered by a 200 watt amp. I picked it for this list because it’s not too expensive, it is pretty well-reviewed, and it is decently heavy at 72lbs shipped. They rate it down to 18Hz, but it’s hard to tell if that’s in-room response or just the natural response of the unit; either way it’s not bad.
SVS PC12-NSD Cylinder Subwoofer – $569 – SVS is one of the most revered sub manufacturers out there. This 12″ unit has a 325 watt amp and looks to output down to about 20Hz. It’s certainly a unique shape, so it would have to pass the WAF (wife-acceptance-factor), but since the enclosure is a tube it should be less likely to resonate.
Epik Subwoofers Vanquish – $599 – This sub is unique because it is a sealed design while the other off-the-shelf units listed here are all ported. The sealed design can be an advantage for music playback because some people perceive them as having a “tighter” or more accurate sound. This thing has some juice behind it with a 600 watt amp feeding a robust-looking 12″ driver. It’s rated down to 20Hz, and since it’s sealed the response below 20Hz will fall off slower than with a ported-sub.
HSU Research VTF-3 MK3 Subwoofer – $629 – This sub is a 12″ unit powered by 350 watts. It boasts a unique adjustable tuning mechanism that allows you to select either a “max extension” or “max output” mode. The rated frequency responses are 18Hz and 25Hz respectively.
Now You’re a Speaker Expert
I hope that this 9-part series has provided you with the education necessary to purchase good speakers for your situation at a price that fits your budget. There are a lot of choices out there, but now you know what things to look for in a quality speaker enclosure, and how to discern the needs of your specific application. Please post any questions you might have in the comments section.
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#1 by Matt on October 26, 2009 - 6:37 am
I know some people like to hide their subwoofers under a table or a drape or something. Does this significantly impede the quality of sound? Where should you position the woofer?
#2 by Joel on October 26, 2009 - 7:22 am
Something like a drape or cloth will generally not affect it. Placement does matter though. Depending on where you place it the sound you hear may be stronger or weaker due to how the sound waves build up in the room.
A good method for finding an appropriate spot is to put the sub in your listening position, i.e. on your couch, and then crawl around the room with your head to the ground. When you find spots where the bass is strong then you know those would likely be good spots to place it.
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