Cheap Subwoofers – Explained
Many people ask for cheap subwoofers, but how many know the technology behind the words. Who fully understands the term subwoofer?
So, to be sure you can get cheap subwoofers, just ask yourself do you know what it means.
In simple terms a subwoofer (which can also be known as a ‘sub’, or indeed, a loudspeaker) has the job of producing the bass sound. In other words, the low-pitched audio frequencies so beloved of drivers of hot hatches.
Now there are a number of audio frequencies that a subwoofer operates within: consumer products tend to operate in the below 200 Hz range; for professional live sound it’s less than 100 Hz; and, for THX approved systems, it’s less than 80 Hz.
Subwoofers are there basically to help out the main loudspeaker which has to cover the low frequency range, as well as the high. A subwoofer comprises of one, or a number of individual woofers that have the ability to withstand air pressure, whilst at the same time resisting deformation.The subwoofer comes in two main types: known as passive and active. Passive are powered by an external amplifier and have a subwoofer driver, and enclosure. Whereas active subwoofers have an internal amplifier.
The subwoofer has a number of key designs which include bandpass, horn loaded, infinite baffle, or bass reflex. Each of the designs have varying efficiencies and bandwidths, and vary in size and cost.
As to their history, they hark back to the dim and distant past when the first home stereo systems needed to get a little bass to cover all the ranges. That was in the 1960s, but it was not until the 1970s when the subwoofer began to build an identity of its own, in response to the Sensurround movies. Action packed blockbusters needed lots of low frequency bangs and crashes, and the subwoofer was thrust into the limelight.
And the subwoofer could literally move people in their seats. Large subwoofers were used to rock people in the cinemas.
When the compact cassette arrived, and then the compact disc, they, unlike vinyl records, could handle lower frequency bands and for the first time, producers were able to use them to enhance the music.
Spin onto the 1990 and the arrival of the DVD further opened up what was possible for music producers as the discs could be recorded with a surround sound process which had, as an integral part, a low-frequency effects channel. This could be picked up when using the subwoofer in home cinema speaker systems.
The subwoofer has gone from strength to strength, now an integral part of most sound systems.
So, remember, when hunting out cheap subwoofers, they have a purpose in life: to give you Bass and lots of it!
