Subwoofers in Hi Fi

[jaxwired]

I'm interested in other opinions on this topic. I personally have never liked subwoofers in a 2 channel music system for the following reasons:

1. They don't integrate well with the main speakers.

2. They exaggerate the bass well beyond what the music intended.

3. They are unnecessary since little music content exists below 45Hz (unless you are really into Britney's latest church organ offering)

4. They are adjustable so people almost always turn them up too high. Most people have a perverted view of the appropriate volume level.

They say that low bass in omni directional and the point source should not be readily detectable, yet I can almost always point right to it.

 

[Tear Drop]

Subwoofers in 2 channel can be difficult to set up, but it is possible to make them disappear. One rule of thumb I always go by is using a high level connection (speaker cable) as opposed to using pre-outs for a low level connection. I used the pre-out method with my sub for the first couple of years (going by dealer advice, lol), using extremely high quality interconnects, and I could never get it to 'fit' with my main speakers. After a friend suggested that I should use a speaker cable connection, I used some very cheap speaker cable I had laying around to give it a try and everything suddenly fell into place. After getting better cable and fine tuning the crossover the sub finally disappeared.

Points 1, 2 & 4 are simply to do with setting them up correctly, which just takes a lot of fine tuning and patience (and maybe a helping hand moving them around!). However, point 3 is not true. All sounds have harmonics which extend both up and down the frequency spectrum, well beyond the initial 'fundamental' (as I believe it is called). For example, a plucked violin has harmonics which go all the way down to DC (0Hz). Retrieval of harmonic information is vital in any hifi system if you are looking to reproduce sound to a high quality level. This explains why a properly set up subwoofer will yield greatest benefits in the midrange, but also the treble, and not just the lowest registers of the frequency spectrum.