How do subwoofers work

But here are a few tips for those looking to add a subwoofer to either a home theater or car stereo system. In general, a home theater subwoofer integrates into your central sound system, increasing the width and depth of a system's soundstage.

The sound waves created are omnidirectional and bounce around the room. Both the room size and furniture arrangement can affect audio, with bass frequencies being sensitive to room factors. There's a chance the waves bounce into each other, making standing waves or bass nulls. Installing a subwoofer into your home might take some work. Try placing it in different spots around the room, like corners surrounded by a sound-absorption device or a filled bookshelf to help reinforce the bass.

Understanding the environmental factors in your home, like its natural acoustics, will help you find the optimal position for your home theater. Subwoofers installed in the trunk of a car. Have you ever pulled up alongside another car playing music so bass-heavy that your car shakes? That's what a good subwoofer does. Cars come with a factory standard sound system based on their make and model.

Most sound systems need to be professionally installed, especially as cars become more advanced. Once the correct specifications are chosen and installed, you'll notice a richer sound. Subwoofers offer a better bass response, allowing you to listen to sounds your speakers couldn't reproduce alone.

With quality subs in your car, the chance of your music sounding distorted at high volumes is significantly lower. If you have a better idea of what and how subwoofers work, you'll probably need to understand the two types of configurations — passive and active. A passive subwoofer's power source is an external amplifier with enough power to maintain bass effects through the subwoofer.

An active subwoofer has an amplifier built-in, and requires an AC power source or outlet. Active subwoofers will usually be more powerful than passive ones. Outside of those configurations are various styles of subwoofers, with each style serving a different purpose. Each style of subwoofer has a specific environment it works best in.

When buying a new sound system, consult with an expert or sales representative about your individual situation.

Once you have all the necessary information, you can start building your sound system to experience sound the way you're meant to. Subwoofers boom the thunder, the rumbles, the explosions and the guttural lows that bring music and DVDs to life.

Reproducing low frequencies from Hz, subwoofers let other speakers be diminutive and unassuming. Subwoofers come in a variety of designs. The amp drives the woofer and the pre-amp does a host of useful chores:. Some subwoofers give you the option to adjust the phase, which means the phase can match your front speakers regardless of their placement.

Sealed Box : A sealed box design is exactly what it sounds like. If well built, it provides a tight, well-defined bass. Ported Box: You have probably noticed that most subwoofer boxes have a hole in them. This hole is referred to as a port. The advantage is that a ported sub can usually produce lower bass tones, per watt input, than a non-ported sub. Isobaric Designs: There are several nifty things that can be done when using two woofers per box:.

For additional technical information go to:. How Subwoofers Work. In a kind of the passive sub, the same stereo amplifier that drives the main speakers provides power to the sub. The full-range output from a power amp is input to the sub in this method. In this case, an extra crossover in the signal path is used to remove bass from the speaker-level signals driving the main speakers.

If you want to employ a passive sub, we suggest that you add a separate power amp and an electronic crossover to the sub. This subwoofer has line-level inputs fed from the preamp, line-level outputs driving the power amp, and a volume control. The crossover frequency can be adjusted to let you select the frequency, providing the best integration with the main speakers; and the line-level output is filtered by removing low frequencies from the signal.

The amplifier drives the woofer and the preamplifier does a host of useful tasks. Subwoofers come with three designs- sealed, ported, and isobaric box designs. Sealed box subwoofers are the most basic and cleanest sub box design. Isolating the back of the speaker from the front, the sealed box provides simple construction and controlled response for the most of subwoofer applications. Ported box subwoofers have a hole in them, which is called a port.

A ported subwoofer can produce lower bass tones per watt input than a non-ported sub. Building this type of box is much complicated. Isobaric box subwoofers are designed to get the maximum bass from a very small space.