Subsonic filter wish and a solution


I started a thread a while back called anyone wish they had a subsonic filter. Thanks to everyone for their input to that question, btw. I have a very mild case of woofer pumping as it is sometimes called. I can't hear it, as far as I can tell, but it bugs me because, as some of you have commented, it results in the amplifier using energy in it's effort to produce the very low frequency junk signals. I figured out quickly that I could not simply add a high pass section to the actual speaker crossover because of the huge size of the caps and inductors needed to do this. And since I like the match of my phono pre/cartridge/arm, I have been looking at either an internal modification of the phono preamp or a high quality outboard filter. It looks to me that Marchand's XM-46SB is my solution. It can be customized as to frequency rolloff. I ordered one that rolls off at 24dB starting at 18Hz. It does what I want it to do, and no more. I'm hoping that the benefits will outweigh the downside of adding two interconnects and the circuit to my system. My main objective is to solve the problem with little or no affect on the frequencies above the 18Hz, and also to avoid buying a new phono preamp. I'll post again once I get the filter, in case anyone is interested in the results.
240zracer

Showing 3 responses by dopogue

Yeah, put a cover over the woofers. What you don't see can't hurt, huh? Personally, I wouldn't be without a subsonic filter. Let us know how the Marchand works out. Dave
My amps are worth a crap, including the subwoofer amp which fortunately has a subsonic filter built in. EVERY LP exhibits LF issues -- if your amps and speakers go deep enough. There's a lot of LF garbage down there You never heard it?
Dan, let me tell you a story. I bought a pair of non-powered Hsu subwoofers a while back and was faced with a choice of crossovers -- their passive one for $50 or an active one that included a subsonic filter, at $349. The Hsu advertising material said that if you played LPs, the active crossover was essential but I figured, what do they know, so I popped for the cheaper one.

Well. I was flat astonished to hear what was down there below 15-18 hz. Not music, God knows, and nothing anyone would want to hear. And only on LPs. Buying the active crossover eliminated the problem and, I swear, really cleaned up the low end response to boot. A friend without subwoofers but with very strong main speakers suffered from woofer-pumping -- with LPs -- and a subsonic filter fixed his problems too. I'm glad you haven't experienced this sort of thing; count your blessings. Dave