My Son tells me I need a subwoofer for my audio system. What is a sub-woofer and what does it do?

A subwoofer can be an important addition to your system; although not essential it can really add to your enjoyment of your audio equipment.

A subwoofer is a dedicated “bass” speaker. By definition it is designed to reproduce frequencies below what your normal stereo speakers are capable of (“sub” means below and “woofer” is your normal bass speaker).

Subwoofers became popular at the same time digital home theatre was introduced into our lounge rooms. This is because subs were primarily designed to replay the very low frequency soundtrack that is recorded in movies.

Bass has a subliminal (no pun intended) effect of un-nerving us and is used in movie soundtracks to create tension and excitement.

Subwoofers can also be used to enhance music, in fact many of those “satellite” (really small) speakers rely on some sort of bass box to give you a full, dynamic sound from such a discreet package.

As bass frequencies are Omni-directional placement of the sub can be more flexible than normal speakers, indeed it is sometimes possible to hide this speaker behind furniture or inside cabinetry.

BUT the three MOST important factors of subwoofer performance are SETUP, SETUP and SETUP. It is very important that you get an experienced installer to connect, position and tune your subwoofer or the results could be disappointing through to down-right annoying!