When Is It Better To Go Without A Subwoofer?

If tight controlled sound quality over your listening area is your top priority, consider using two small subwoofers instead of one larger one. This will not give you the loudest deepest possible bass for your dollar, but there are acoustic issues that can be addressed through multiple subwoofers that cannot be addressed with a single subwoofer

Running stereo subwoofers has many advantages and I find it better to run a pair of smaller subwoofers with controlled tight bass for music that help spread out acoustical nodes due to room interaction better than one larger subwoofer can. This will blend in much better then a larger slower moving subwoofer. It isn't just a matter of additional sound levels, the quality of the bass is better. The reason is because a small 10" sealed enclosure subwoofer is smaller and lighter that larger slower subwoofers with less surface area so it can move faster and this translates into a more musical and a better performing subwoofer. Two smaller subs can do more work than one larger sub and bass reproduction also seems to be more effortless with two.

Also modern sources such as CD's, Laser Discs, DVD's and Video Tapes maintain full stereo separation to below 20Hz.Summing the channels into a single subwoofer reduces or cancels all the low frequency information containing phase differences between the channels. Stereo subwoofers reproduce all of the bass information complete with the phase differences that help provide the imaging and location clues we use to place people and things at distinct points in the sound field. Stereo subwoofers also improve linearity on mono as well as stereo sources by coupling the bass to the room at two points and lend themselves to natural placement near the corners where the low frequency room gain is often desirable.

Ultimately, a subwoofer should never sound like a subwoofer. It should integrate so well with the main speakers that it is indistinguishable in the system. It should never call attention to itself. The bass should simply be more detailed, extended and powerful; the sound more open, transparent and articulate. This consistency of sound, a natural coherence, is essential to long term listening enjoyment.

Room acoustics dominates in the bass region. So the idea is to use what inevitably happens in the room to your advantage as much as possible.

Consider the single subwoofer situation: There's a path length from the subwoofer to your listening position, and then there's another path length from the subwoofer to the opposite wall and back to your listening position. At a certain frequency, the difference between those two path lengths is equal to one-half wavelength. At that frequency you will get cancellation at the listening position. Higher up there will be a frequency where the path length difference is equal to one wavelength, and at that frequency there will be reinforcement at the listening position.

Now if you put a second woofer in the room positioned such that its path lengths do not coincide with those of the first woofer, the peaks and dips from their outputs will never exactly coincide (in other words, they will be "de-correlated"). So the net result will be a smoothing of the response throughout the room. Subwoofer's are not just for Home Theatre but the bad ones definitely are!

Many dedicated two channel enthusiasts have been amazed when I added a good subwoofer to their system. Sub bass is something that you do not miss until it is not there, then you wake up damn fast to it's overall importance in sound synergy.

If your subwoofer system is not specifically designed for Hi-Fi it may detract from the music more than it adds. Slow, muddy and uncontrolled bass is what too many subwoofers on the market sound like. Most people do not know what sub bass distortion actually sounds like so they believe that their sub sounds pretty good or are unable to see the value in this type of technology.

Did you know that you can easily make your systems sound much worse with a subwoofer than without? If your aim is to achieve tight, controlled, accurate bass without distortion, your subwoofer must choose a subwoofer that gives you this, without compromise.

That's why I choose REL. For the one reason that I have never been able to get a subwoofer to integrate into my system as invisibly as a REL B Series. In a perfect world, you should be able to add a subwoofer to your systems and never know it's there. This is largely the sensation the REL B3 achieves. Categorically a reference-quality product - when it comes to low frequencies there's no question that this REL Britannia confidently rules the waves.

I use 2 x REL B3 subwoofers myself and would not use anything else even if it was free. For those of you who's budget does not stretch to a REL subwoofer I would recommend whole heartedly to postpone your planed purchase until such time as you can. The difference is that great and I have heard many systems brought to their knees by underperforming subwoofers. Do not let this happen to you.

REL's are not traditional subwoofers, but true sub-bass systems. A REL is designed to augment the performance of "full range" speaker systems, to provide linear response down to below 12 Hz. Therefore, for the moment, set aside everything you've been taught about subwoofers and how they are integrated into a stereo or theatre system. REL's set-up and positioning differs from other subwoofers. A REL will take advantage of physics and room acoustics to provide deep pressurisation as no other sub-woofer can. It's important that you bring to the set-up process a willingness to do things a little differently in order to obtain these superior results. The end result of your labours will be an utterly seamless integration of true deep bass to a sound system, regardless of the main speaker's low bass capability.

It is helpful to know that you will almost always connect the REL to the input on the rear panel labelled "HIGH LEVEL." This connection is made using the supplied 10 meter cable, the bare leads of which connect to the speaker output terminals of the power amplifier. The easy and foolproof connection at the REL end is done with a Neutrik Speakon connector. The purpose of connecting to the speaker output terminals is one of the unique secrets of REL's success. By connecting to the high level input on the REL from the amplifier, you build forward the sonic signature o your main system, including the tonal balance and timing cues of the entire electronics chain. In this way, the REL is fed the exact signal that is fed to the main speakers.

Many people automatically buy any subwoofer when they are purchasing their home theatre equipment and believe that most will do an adequate job for Hi-Fi. Wrong. Most will do a terrible job. But until you have heard better the majority of buyers will never know the difference. The REL B Series subwoofers are on of the only models that I would even consider for High-End Hi-Fi as well as home theatre use. For Hi-Fi purposes you really need a fast subwoofer and the good can so easily be separated from the not so good.