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geoff geoff is offline
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Default Subwoofers! Etc.

On 4/02/2021 3:33 am, Ty Ford wrote:
Hi,

After years of not caring about subwoofers, I finally got onboard after hearing a modest one on a Polk system that we got for Kathy's living room flat panel TV. This is a combo system with small table mount speaker cluster and a modest bluetooth wireless sub. It's a MagniFi Miini
https://www.polkaudio.com/en-us/prod...s/magnifi-mini

Hearing the sub made me wonder what the Onkyo receiver/amp in my living room might sound like with a sub. I've been running it as a 5.0 system for 15 years. I have a friend who used to work for Polk so I asked him. He said he likes the largest one. The HTS 12. 200W RMS, 400W peak. OK, fine! My Onkyo has a Subwoofer output spigot, so easy peasy.

https://www.polkaudio.com/en-us/prod...woofers/hts-12

Not a huge difference on CDs so far, but movies with 5.1 or more...Wow. We watched "Hook" a few nights ago and John Williams' score was HUGE.

So, how do we feel about subs?



Funny how 'subs' has morphed from once being specialised speakers at the
very low end of the spectrum (ie below normal speaker system), solely to
shake your seat and flap your trousers in earthquake movies, to any
speaker that handles the likes of frequencies up to 150 Hz or so.

Three scenarios for today's subs seem to be:
- Completely handling the bass side crossing over around 150Hz (or
whatever). Summing two channels to mono, or two independent subs.
- The above but reinforcing the 'top' speaker that still run full-band
(potentially messy).
- As above again, but tuned to kick in where the top speakers tail off,
with or without crossing over.

In my domestic arrangement my TV has a 'soundbar' that incorporates a
small sub. This arrangement works well for general TV viewing (Panasonic
something-or-other, don't really care !). I purchased this after finding
that the abysmal sound from my new TV was not actually a fault ;- (

For anything that benefits from better sound quality I switch the TV
output to my normal stereo that has speakers that extend reasonably flat
to around 20Hz anyway (KEF R107).

Similarly my studio speakers extend low enough not not need a sub, nut
could possibly benefit as as low -3dB point of 40Hz (Tannoy DMT12)

For hire-out PA systems I generally supply separate subs configured to
either protect or add to the top, depending on the client and nature of gig.

geoff