In the entire home theater system, the subwoofer is responsible for reproducing the majestic scene sound effects in the movie, and is used to supplement the low frequency and ultra-low frequency areas that the main speakers cannot reach. Especially in multi-channel sound encoding such as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, independent subwoofer channels are planned, which must be matched with one or more subwoofers.
Having a subwoofer home theater system will take your audio-visual experience to the next level. What’s more, many audiophiles who are obsessed with low-frequency volume will also add a subwoofer to the HiFi system to form a 2.1 HiFi system.
Don’t judge the quality of a subwoofer by its size
The size of a subwoofer is related to the driving power of the subwoofer itself, the type of the cabinet, the efficiency of the unit and the transient performance.
A large-sized subwoofer can certainly push air over a larger area, thereby producing more substantial low frequencies, but it has a much heavier sound basin than a small-sized subwoofer. If you want it to produce stronger low frequencies, the amplifier circuit must first have a stronger output power.
Furthermore, the instantaneous performance of large-sized subwoofers is often not as good as that of small-caliber subwoofers, so the speed of low-frequency transmission is often not fast enough, and even produces the phenomenon of “tailing” of sound. Therefore, before purchasing a subwoofer, you need to choose a suitable subwoofer from the perspective of the listening space area and the sound matching.
Main speakers instead of subwoofer? Sound quality will be compromised
Some people think that since the subwoofers of the main speakers at home have reached the size of dual 8-inch or 10-inch speakers, there is no need to add a subwoofer. In fact, the low frequency of the main speakers is not at the same level as that of the subwoofer.
The volume of the main speakers is often not as good as that of the subwoofer. The size of the speaker unit in a home theater system cannot determine whether the mid- and low-frequency range (especially the low-frequency part) of the whole combination is sufficient. The reason is that the regular multi-channel system will most likely assign the frequency band below 80Hz or 90Hz to the subwoofer.
Although the bass has no direction, it pays attention to the phase
Phase is a way of delaying the incoming signal of the subwoofer, and its purpose is to achieve a consistent output signal with other speakers. Simply put, when the subwoofer and the left and right channel speakers are emitting sound in the same direction, the sound phase of the two should be close to the same phase.
If the subwoofer is placed in a position “opposite” the speaker, the subwoofer will be 180 degrees out of phase with the left and right speakers. Inconsistent phases can easily cause the low-frequency band to increase or disappear, and the low-frequency sound will appear “muffled” and missing.