Subwoofer Reviews

No audiophile system nor home theater system is complete without at least one subwoofer, also known as a LFE or point one channel. Setting up a subwoofer used to require a lot of guess work, but modern subwoofers tend to feature internal amps, EQ systems, and room correction software. With all these settings, it's easy to set up your subwoofer to integrate with your floorstanding speakers or your bookshelf speakers. Look below for a complete list of reviews of the best subwoofers from brands like Revel, Bowers & Wilkins, Paradigm, JL Audio, Wilson Audio, and many others.

Everything You Need To Know About Subwoofers

1.0 Overview of Home Theater Subwoofers
2.0 Types of Subwoofers
3.0 Room Correction For subwoofers


1.0 Overview of Home Theater Subwoofers
Subwoofers are speakers designed specifically and exclusively to reproduce the lowest register of audio in home theater and audiophile systems. Often using large drivers sealed in a square-shaped box, subwoofers originally were designed to augment the lackluster bass performance of floor-standing speakers. Getting subs to integrate with audiophile speakers in the early days was without question a challenge but, when done properly, the results added tremendous impact to the overall sound.

Today, subwoofers get a lot more respect, because in 5.1 surround, the "point 1" channel is the LFE or subwoofer channel, meaning that even with most good surround sound formats, ranging from Dolby Digital to DTS to today's best lossless formats like DTS Master Audio and Dolby True HD, your subwoofer is getting discrete audio mixed and mastered only for your woofer. The significance of this for audio and movies is that the mixing engineer can determine exactly where the most bass-demanding effects or instruments can go; the best place for them to go in the mix is the subwoofer. It allows your main speakers to do what they do best and do it more clearly, while not sucking the life out of your amplifiers, which are trying to power a gigantic explosion or the dynamics of a tympani drum. Most modern subwoofers today are powered with digital or powerful class AB amplifiers, allowing them to do their job of reproducing bass from around 140 Hertz to subsonic levels of below 20 Hertz.

2.0 Types of Subwoofers
There are two main categories of subwoofers: passive and active. Passive subwoofers are woofers generally lacking internal amplification, which means they require one channel of amplification and sometimes an external crossover component. Passive subwoofers were more popular in the late 1980s and 1990s, but with the advent of class-D digital amps, specifically with Bob Carver's Sunfire True Subwoofer, the size of powered subwoofers shrank and the power, volumes and depths that even a small subwoofer could reach drastically increased. Today, it,s hard to find a passive subwoofer in the market, as most of those currently available in the marketplace are active.

3.0 Room Correction For Active Subwoofers
One of the most important developments, along with the application of digital (class D) internal amplifiers, for powered or active subwoofers is the advent of automated room correction for subwoofers. Increasingly active subwoofers had more and more set-up options that, without question, confused the heck out of consumers who didn't know how to set parameters such as phase, let alone how to physically place a subwoofer to get the best performance and most seamless integration with their main speakers.

Today's most feature-rich subwoofers come with room correction software and a calibration microphone which, with the flip of a switch or two, can easily optimize the settings and even the placement of a subwoofer in a music or home theater system. The audible difference between a subwoofer optimized for a room vs. one just plunked on the floor and turned on is not subtle. The room has a major effect on a subwoofer and placement can make a gigantic difference. Setting levels, phase and polarity can also make a notable improvement that can be heard by mainstream consumers.