Rob Sinden
Distinguished Member
The traditional approach to great sound will have you believe big floor standing speakers will give the best sound. I disagree. Here is why………
The weakest link in a good audio system is the way the room changes the sound of your speakers, and the problems are most obvious in the low frequencies. Imagine you have a system that sounds superb in your room and then you move to a house with a very different sized room. Now you will have far too much or far too little bass.
With big floorstanders and traditional electronics, there is nothing you can do to adjust the level of bass required for your room. You will either have too much or too little unless you are incredibly lucky.
When a sub is used you have a volume control to perfectly match the amount of bass required in your room. Another issue that a sub can fix is cancellations that mean certain low frequencies will be totally missing in your listening room. Moving a speaker or you seat a little won’t fix the problem. When a sub is reproducing the bass, you can move it around the room to fix this issue.
40 years ago I was a hifi enthusiast who believed big speakers were the road to great audio. I opened a hifi shop in my 20’s with 3 different dem rooms. Big speakers didn’t work in the two small ones and didn’t have enough output to fill the big room.
I have installed systems in a thousand rooms, and I know that putting the best traditional hifi equipment in the best listening room cannot create an accurate system. The use of sub woofers can transform the biggest issue in most room, the huge peaks and troughs in the bass.
This isn’t an approach the HiFi trade recommends as big speakers are easier and far more profitable to sell but done right, it delivers measurable and audibly better sound.
The weakest link in a good audio system is the way the room changes the sound of your speakers, and the problems are most obvious in the low frequencies. Imagine you have a system that sounds superb in your room and then you move to a house with a very different sized room. Now you will have far too much or far too little bass.
With big floorstanders and traditional electronics, there is nothing you can do to adjust the level of bass required for your room. You will either have too much or too little unless you are incredibly lucky.
When a sub is used you have a volume control to perfectly match the amount of bass required in your room. Another issue that a sub can fix is cancellations that mean certain low frequencies will be totally missing in your listening room. Moving a speaker or you seat a little won’t fix the problem. When a sub is reproducing the bass, you can move it around the room to fix this issue.
40 years ago I was a hifi enthusiast who believed big speakers were the road to great audio. I opened a hifi shop in my 20’s with 3 different dem rooms. Big speakers didn’t work in the two small ones and didn’t have enough output to fill the big room.
I have installed systems in a thousand rooms, and I know that putting the best traditional hifi equipment in the best listening room cannot create an accurate system. The use of sub woofers can transform the biggest issue in most room, the huge peaks and troughs in the bass.
This isn’t an approach the HiFi trade recommends as big speakers are easier and far more profitable to sell but done right, it delivers measurable and audibly better sound.