Daily Blog - Ross Jones - March 7, 2008: IS THERE SUCH A THING AS TOO MANY SUBWOOFERS?
I remember putting together my first home theater system, one component at a time. Strangely enough, the last piece of the puzzle was the subwoofer (strange because I’ve been playing electric bass since high school, and own several bass amps and cabinets). Since that first taste though, it’s been like crack. I cannot get enough. I’ve got five subs right now, although I don’t have them all hooked up at once (at least while the wife is around). I should have six (I really liked the SVS PC13-Ultra I reviewed) but, as mentioned in my last blog about the SAF, when she asks “why do you need ANOTHER subwoofer,” it’s actually a rhetorical question. I figured that out when I tried to explain why it made sense to get another sub and offered to print out the Harman white paper on multiple subs and placement. Our Editor-in-Chief has four matching 18” subs, which will loosen just about any dental work. But I guess once you get past one for each corner, it becomes more difficult to justify the need. And making space for them. So how many is too many? I think it’s an unanswerable question, kind of like ‘how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.’
March 7th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
What happened to the previous version of this blog (and my comment to it)? Just curious.
March 8th, 2008 at 9:40 am
I had to reformat Ross’ blog, and your post got deleted. Please repost it.
March 8th, 2008 at 11:52 am
I don’t recall it exactly, but the gist of my post was that I must not be a “basshead” as I’ve never felt the slightest need to add a second (never mind another more) sub or even upgrade the one I have. I’ve made some bass traps, I use the R-DES I won from the Secrets contest and with that, I’m quite content with my modest Boston Acoustics PV900 sub. I do appreciate having a sub for 2 channel music (and will have one in my next 2 channel system–in the planning stages for now) as I think the freedom to decouple bass from the mains, thus allowing optimal placement for imaging and bass response (almost impossible with just two speakers), is the greatest musical benefit of a sub. As for movies, my room is small (11.5 x 15 with a 11.5 x 7 storage area behind a curtain) and the one sub does a more than sufficient job.
I’ve read about how 2 is better than one, 4 are better than two and so on but I believe for this to be practical, one either is using small subs (much smaller than mine) in my sized room OR one has a much bigger room. For the latter, additional subs make sense.
March 10th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Well, there is “sufficient” and then there is headroom above reference levels with any soundtrack. Your single PV900 cannot reproduce the full content of some modern soundtracks, even at less than reference levels. Some people aren’t satisfied with “sufficient”.
March 11th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Even in smaller rooms, multiple subs are valuable to handle room modes, and provide higher output without pushing the amps (as a general rule, the second sub adds about 3 dB).
March 12th, 2008 at 4:49 am
That’s fine (and it’s why I don’t claim the “status” of “basshead”
). My PV900 gives me way more bass than any other setup I’ve ever had and it is enough to rattle loose objects in the room, if I want (as it has with some movies). My comment was not intended to denigrate those who choose to have more, but rather to explain why “more bass” is not one of MY priorities Honestly, the only time I miss the extra bass is with certain classical organ pieces that I listen to occasionally–but even then, I used to listen to those pieces with speakers that had excellent sound, but limited lower bass (down to about 50 hz). Now, I get reasonably flat (with the EQ and traps) response to 25-27hz and usable bass to 21-22hz (though the tones I’ve tried below that are only noticeable when played individually–hence the missing bass for organ music) and that is a vast improvement over my old 2 channel system. The extra few hz, on a cost/benefit basis, are not a must for me. Others are free to make their own choices.