What Am I Listening For?

When Is It Better To Go Without A Subwoofer?

by James Leahy

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 active servo controlled, 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 you aim is to achieve tight, controlled, accurate bass without distortion, your subwoofer must employ an active servo control mechanism. This specially designed electronic circuit loop that measures speaker cone behaviour and works with the speaker's amplifier to correct the signal, significantly decreasing distortion. This technology definitely does work and is not just a sales gimmick. I use one myself and would not use anything else even if it was free. For those of you who's budget does not stretch to a Digital Servo Controlled 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.

Many people automatically buy any subwoofer when they are purchasing their home theatre equipment and believe that most will do an adequate job. Wrong. Most will do a terrible job. But until you have heard better the majority of buyers will never know the difference. The Velodyne Servo Controlled subwoofers are on of the only models that I would even consider for 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.

One company who specializes in active servo controlled subwoofers is Velodyne

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