Do subwoofers really help?


Easy question here all...if you mismatched your amp and speakers (meaning your amp has trouble with the load of the speaker), do Subwoofers really fix that problem? Is it smarter just to sell your speakers and get ones that better match the amp?
bobrock

Showing 2 responses by drew_eckhardt

That all assumes you're not blowing rail fuses, sending the amplifier into thermal shutdown, or getting it to oscillate because it's unstable.

Where it's oscillating you want a better amplifier; and otherwise you may be better served with more efficient speakers.
The only place where "amplifier to speaker matching" would really be an issue in the bass would be with something like a single-ended triode with no global feedback and a resulting high output impedance, an OTL amplifier, or Bob Carver's "current source" outputs with a series resistance.

That has the side effect of increasing output where the speaker's impedance is high, like around the woofer and/or port resonances.

If you high-passed the main speakers+amplifier you'd get the port and perhaps woofer+box resonance out of the amplifier's pass-band which would reduce the problem.

You'd still have problems with reduced output were the impedance was low, like on .5 way speakers below the baffle step. Where that wasn't in the main speaker stop-band you'd still have problems.

Personally, I think that if you're going to use tone controls you should be honest about it and knowingly apply them before the power-amp in the shape tat best suits your room, placement, speaker defficiencies, and tastes.

That's more likely to be successful and cost less than trying multiple amplifier+speaker combinations hoping you'll be happy.