When it comes to a discussion about subwoofers, it can quickly turn into numerous questions and misconceptions. They have a bad reputation among many music enthusiasts. However, that does not dismiss their importance when you want to enhance your sound system, and they will do a better job at it than your default right and left stereo speakers.
The poor image is not unjustified, though: subwoofer sizes are intimidating to many people who want to keep their rooms free of clutter. Plus, subwoofers will not always interact well with other speakers you may already have – although this is a solvable issue. It is therefore important to understand why subwoofers are essential to enhance your music listening experience, which we will discuss below.
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Why subwoofers are important for music
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It enhances the reproduction of lows
There is one element of music that subwoofers handle better than any other speaker; the reproduction of bass. When you are dealing with a good subwoofer, it always includes an in-built low pass filter. Additionally, you can set it to the ideal frequency range of the subwoofer when you want to achieve greater accuracy of the bass.
The low pass filter serves to filter specific ranges of audio signals, and only allows low frequencies to go through it to the subwoofer driver, resulting in the reproduction of low frequencies and the characteristic ‘booming’ sound. The lows are also accurate, which makes it different from regular speakers that can distort the lower frequencies when they try to produce lows.
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It can reveal more sound details that you cannot get from normal speakers
The sound frequency range that a human ear can pick up is between 20 and 20,000 Hz, which a full-range speaker can cover comfortably. This means that using a high-quality regular speaker will allow you to hear the highs, treble, and bass.
However, subwoofers are slightly different, because their structure allows them to specifically reproduce frequencies below 200 Hz, which is in the lower end of the spectrum. The result is that you notice more details in the music, even from other instruments like pianos, drums, and bass guitars.
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It improves lower control
Plenty of music genres will involve instantaneous stopping and starting of vocals and instruments, which leads to a common problem in most speakers – they cannot handle the reproduction of these changes all the time, and this makes the sound undefined or distorted. Using a good subwoofer will eliminate the issue because it can reproduce the quick changes in the signals, giving you clearer and more accurate sounds.
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Takes some work off the stereo system
The stereo system has plenty of work, especially when it is handling lower frequencies because the amplifier needs a lot of power to handle and generate bass correctly. When it attempts to reproduce the sound in full range, the amplifier will suffer some weaknesses because lower frequencies will consume most of the power; if you increase the gain, you will notice distortion in the sound quality.
Fortunately, using a subwoofer will take the burden off the speakers, as you will connect it to the receiver and set its high pass filter to leave the higher and midrange frequencies to the speakers. The overall effect is that it cleans up your music sound without the risk of overpowering the other frequencies.
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Subwoofers will rarely distort the sound
A regular speaker tends to distort the sound when playing very loud music, especially when you increase the gain and volume. This is because their drivers are not powerful enough to handle the high volume levels, which is not the case for a high-quality subwoofer.
Conclusion
Overall, using a good subwoofer is a great way to reproduce lower frequencies and improve your listening experience regardless of the music genre you listen to.
