Perhaps it is the exhilarating thrill of feeling the thump of bass in your chest. Maybe it is the joy of knowing that a body cavity has the power to be moved by the pulsating throb of a bass beat pumping from the speakers (even cheap speakers). However the listener receives the thrill, he is often feeling the power of a subwoofer.
The art of understanding the subwoofer begins with understanding how it can affect sound quality – and understanding sound quality is dependent on your understanding of the terminology to describe that sound quality. There are two main elements of sound and almost all listeners fall into the category of preferring one or the other.
The first is the SQ or sound quality, which really refers to the controlled low boom sound that comes out when you are using a smaller woofer. You normally are using a smaller sealed enclosure when your system gives this sound. Sealed enclosures take up less space than ported enclosures, and the sound is not affected significantly if the design bears some minor mistakes.
The SPL or sound pressure level refers to the huge bass sound that is so strong; you can feel it all over your body. It is in a ported enclosure, which is made like a sealed enclosure but is made with an extra opening so you can attach a port.
The biggest tradeoff with having so much of the sound that comes from a ported enclosure is space: you need lots of it in order to properly set up woofers that can give you big bass sound. Cheap wall speakers or cheap ceiling speakers give you a little latitude in terms of space. Subwoofers are used with these systems and can be tucked under a table, placed in a cabinet, in the ceiling or in the floor. The subwoofer would even give a needed boost to cheap stereo speakers.
There is other terminology you should pay close attention to when you are fielding the specs for subwoofers. The Fs is the frequency the subwoofer resonates. The higher the Fs, the higher the driver will play. X-MAX is the number of voice coil windings that hang over the top magnetic plate in a subwoofer. The more the coil windings move, the more SPL will be created. The BL is the force created by a motor. The more BL, the more control the woofer has.
The most important thing to give attention to when you select a subwoofer for your system is how you will install it. Will you treat it like cheap speakers and try to do the installation yourself or will you hire a professional who can then be accountable for any mistakes if something goes wrong? According to audio enthusiasts, the probability that your system will sound good rests about 80 percent on how soundly you can install it. If you must splurge on any part of the process, it should be this part. It is almost more important than choosing the subwoofer itself.
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