Bruce J. Richman wrote:
Erik Squires wrote:



Ok, here's my first barage.

People who buy subwoofers purely on spec, or reviews of the subwoofer are
completely screwed. The only simple way to evaluate a subwoofer for YOU is
to put it in your room.(*)

The reason for this is that subwoofers, more than any other component, are
most subject to the effects of the room they are on.

75% of the sound of a subwoofer is really the sound of your room and the
placement of the subwoofer in the room. Only a small amount of the quality
of the perceived sound with a subwoofer has to do with the subwoofer itself.

One of the worst mistakes that consumers make, IMHO, is to look for the
"best" subwoofer they can afford, without knowing how that subwoofer will
work in their room. That is, the "best" subwoofer in the world, can sound
like bird poop hitting a car roof in the wrong room. An "average"
subwoofer, hundreds if not thousands of dollars less, which matches the
room, can evoke the fear of God and the joys of spiritual and physical
ecstasy.

A room with very pronounced 20 Hz resonances due to room dimensions really
would benefit from a smaller sub, one with a cut off at 40 Hz and 4th order
high pass response there, allowing the user to hear ALL of the bass, from
the satellite speakers on down, not just the room resonances. But in this
SUV world, no one really wants to hear that. More more more, that's what
we want, to reach perfection via the credit card instead of self
exploration, or self knowledge. When we can purchase another 0.01% lower
distortion figure. then we know we are on the path of virtue and truth.
Bleah.

(*) There are other ways to evaluate the sound of a room, and the match of a
speaker in it, but this involves tools usually reserved for architectural
acousticians, and implies that you have an accurate model of your room, as
well as an accurate model of the subwoofer being considered, which except
for professional speakers, is a rare thing indeed.











I would agree with you that there is absolutrely no substitute for auditioning
a subwoofer in your own listening room before plunking down any dollars. I
would also agree with you that there is no necessary positive correlation
between the cost of the sub and its performance. Having said all that,
however, I would not want to dismiss manufacturer (or reviewer) specs out of
hand, inasmuch as they can, if nothing else, serve as a guide, at least,
for steering people in a direction that might produce choices worth
auditioning.
For example, knowing a sub's "alleged" lower & upper limits can be useful in
deciding how such a response range *might* usefully integrate with your main
speakers. Also, whether the crossover should be high-order, as you suggest, or
one of the more common 6 or 12 db slopes, would, IMHO, depend on whether you
intend to use the sub to "take strain off" the lower end of your main system or
as it least two respected manufacturers maintain (REL & Vandersteen) to provide
more of an augmentation and/or addition to the lower end of the main speakers.
IOW, there would appear to be a number of options out there, as you correctly
suggest, and for my .02 worth, preliminary consideration of specs & price
should precede, but not exclude, a personal audition whenever this is feasible.





Bruce J. Richman




When I bought my sub, I started out by buying a cheap but powerful 15"
system. It was pretty good sounding and it gave me some understanding of
what I might be able to expect. Next I auditioned a pricey model in my
room for a couple of days. What I decided I needed was another of the
first unit I bought so I could operate at a lower power level and a
higher cross-over. I love the sound now using two subs.

I really think a lot of the fun of this hobby is discovering and playing
with the equipment. That is not to say music isn't important. I just
consider that the be a separate hobby. If you can have fun and enjoy the
toys, why not..

Carl
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