Let me start at the end and simply say, you need to have a great sub-woofer in your system. Not just an average or a good enough sub-woofer.
You need a great one.
Blog ended, thanks for reading…
No, really, a great sub-woofer can change everything about how your system sounds and I’ll tell you why.
Have you ever played music at a high volume and found yourself mesmerized watching the woofer or woofers in your speakers dance? They are flying forward and back, vibrating, and gyrating in what looks like impossible crazy ways in their attempt to make the bass that your music or movie is asking them to make become a reality.
So, here is a surprise for you, no matter what speakers you have or how much you spent on them, they are not all that good at making the very deepest bass. Oh yeah, and while they are working so hard to make that deep bass, they will also start doing a worse job of making the other frequencies that they should be good at.
You see, all that excursion and flying forward and backward interferes with them correctly reproducing the other notes that are supposed to come from that woofer!
Machines get distracted too… I know, crazy thought, right?
So how do you fix it? Well, let’s take it from the top… Surprise! Add a great sub-woofer to your system. We sell KEF, Dynaudio and JL Audio sub-woofers for just this very reason, they make truly great sub-woofers.
Check out #howweplay the JL Audio channel on Instagram
For those of you that might not know this, JL Audio is a local, home-grown speaker manufacturer that has its’ headquarters and plant right here in South Florida.
This team started out as car audio enthusiasts who ended making their own sub-woofers for their cars, because what was on the market was not good enough. I remember when they were getting started and they began showing up at local car audio competitions and just started destroying the competition (including my competition car audio systems, I might add).
JL Audio later added home sub-woofers to their line up and when they did, they made sure that they were absolutely amazing. At this point in time, JL Audio makes several series of in room and in wall sub-woofers so they probably have the right solution for just about anyone and just about any situation.
Now, at this point, some of you are probably questioning this blog, “Ron just wants to sell sub-woofers” you are saying to yourself and you’re not wrong, it’s my job, but I do my job very well. And to do that, I do my research.
So, here are some things for you to think about. If you are building a Home Theater system, a sub-woofer or two (or maybe more) are required. Additional sub woofers in a room smooth out what we call “room modes” to give you a smoother and more balanced delivery of the bass, and by association, everything else as well.
There is also an LFE (Low Frequency) channel as part of surround soundtracks. If you don’t have a sub-woofer you do not get to hear all the bass that the movie or music you’re listening to is supposed to have.
But, what about if I only listen to music? You can turn your music into a dedicated 2-channel music system that will be better in every way, just by adding a great sub-woofer.
I know that right now there are some of you thinking, “Oh, the horror, how dare Ron make such an absurd statement?” Well, let me tell you that this is the truth. I have heard this over and over and over again…and to this day I have never heard a system at any price with any speaker that did not improve when the right sub-woofer was added and properly set up.
You see, when you move those very low octaves, the ones that make the woofers in your main speakers dance so much they can’t focus on their job, far away from your main speakers so that they are now free to do what they’re supposed to, everything works and sounds better.
The sub-woofer, which is designed to make the deep bass sounds, and only the deep bass sounds, does its job like magic–everything sounds better.
You don’t have to take my word for it! You can look up reviews in some of the industries’ most respected magazines like Stereophile and The Absolute Sound among many others to see guys that get paid to listen and write about this kind of gear tell you the same thing I just did, or just come into our showroom and take a listen for yourself!
So, in summary; do yourself a favor – get a great sub-woofer!
Ron Lennox is VP of Business Development at BTA and is always trying to save the world from bad Hi-Fi!
*Pictures courtesy of KEF and JL Audio.
