Why the fascination with subwoofers?


I have noticed many posts with questions about adding subwoofers to an audio system. Why the fascination with subwoofers? I guess I understand why any audiophile would want to hear more tight bass in their audio system, but why add a subwoofer to an existing audio system when they don’t always perform well, are costly, and are difficult to integrate with the many varied speakers offered. Additionally, why wouldn’t any audiophile first choose a speaker with a well designed bass driver designed, engineered and BUILT INTO that same cabinet? If anyone’s speakers were not giving enough tight bass, why wouldn’t that person sell those speakers and buy a pair that does have tight bass?
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Showing 5 responses by mijostyn

Oh and the Swarm system is a bad joke. The people who thought this up have no understanding of acoustics in a usually sized room. It is all about reducing first reflections. All the swarm system does is increase the number of first reflections. The result is mud. It may be powerful mud but mud none the less. 
Hey Noble, Real Bad Idea. I love Maggie 20.7s but adding two more bass panels is just going to give you a lot more of no bass.(below 40 Hz)
Dipoles make crappy subwoofers. There is this myth out there that you can not mate a dynamic sub with a dipole bas panel. That is because most are trying to do it the wrong way based on more mythology. I have been using dipoles exclusively since 1976. I would never live with out a sub woofer. There is no other way to reproduce that visceral you are there experience.
Noble, if they are built into walls they are no longer dipoles and trying to get the resonances out of walls is a nightmare. The limiting factor in all Maggies with a ribbon tweeter is the tweeter. It is a wonderful tweeter, some say the best ever made but it is delicate. Adding more panels is not going to increase the system overall output. I can't speak about sound quality because I have never heard it done. Quality first, output second.
The key with any linear array system is to keep it functioning as a linear array over the entire audio and subsonic spectrum so that power output remains even from top to bottom. There is always a weak link in the chain. In my case even with 800 class A watts at my disposal it is the satellite amplifiers. At that point I am putting out 110 db which from most peoples stand point is absurd. Comfortably loud is 95 db. At 110 db my subs are hardly working. You have to make your subs a linear array which you can do either vertically with two sub towers from floor all the way to the ceiling or horizontally with drivers all along the front wall from corner to corner. It is easier to control resonance in a smaller enclosure so I favor multiple small cabinets over one or two large ones. Your explanation of Q was excellent. I build my subs with a higher Q than usual 0.76. I depend on amplifiers with very high damping factors to control the drivers. This increases efficiency.  How many you need depends on the length of your wall and the crossover frequency you want to use. To take the most advantage of boundary gain two have to be in corners and the others along the floor wall boundary. I use a cross over of 125 Hz so the individual drivers have to be 6 feet or closer together. The wall is 16 feet so a total of four subs will do the trick. Because of boundary efficiency with room control I am flat down to 16 Hz where I roll the party off steeply to prevent issues with the turntable. If you want to use a higher crossover you have to space the drivers closer together. If you have a longer wall you will need more drivers. A point source system is different. If you used this type of sub array with a point source system as you backed away from the speakers the subs would become overpowering. As Atmasphere suggested a two sub system tuned to the listening position would work fine or if you wanted more even response throughout the room a "Swarm" would be fine. I use 12 inch drivers exclusively by the way. I am working on a new set of balanced force subs with octagonal enclosures made of 2" MDF. They are essentially a tube with a 12" driver in each end opposing each other, canceling out all Newtonian forces. Same Q. 
I use 4 subs but I have floor to ceiling linear arrays and two subs just won't make it. If you are clever and work with your room acoustics and you have a point source system which is just about all of you, 2 subs will work perfectly fine. In most normally sized houses I do not see the need for drivers over 12".  I think 12" is perfect. In addition to a properly designed driver the key to sub performance is a very heavy solid enclosure. Any vibration of the enclosure is distortion. If you put your hand on the enclosure at volume and you feel it buzzing away you have a problem. The best enclosures do not resonate at all and you do not have to do anything to them. If your enclosure vibrates the first thing to do is go to the local granite store and you can usually get cut offs for cheap. Just place an appropriately sized piece right on top of the sub. That can help tighten things up quite a bit. Also make sure the sub has 3 spiked feet not four. Three feet make a much better connection to the floor. No rocking. Subs have to be right up against a wall or in a corner. They are 3 to 9 db more efficient this way.