Home Speakers and Subwoofers

Whether it is enhancing the experience of listening to vinyl, keeping a party going, adding to a home theater system, or crafting an immersive TV experience, speakers and subwoofers are essential home audio equipment. Speakers in general are compact machines that can produce sound, and subwoofers are a certain kind of powered speaker that specializes in bass tones. Read on to learn about how to choose speakers and woofers and how many you need.

A home theater a combination of audio and visual electronics that are meant to bring the atmosphere of a movie theater into the home. Typically, this means having a large TV or projector and a surround-sound system. Surround sound means positioning several speakers around the edges of the room so that the sound can come from all directions, just like in a movie theater. Different speakers can serve different roles. For example, larger speakers might become the front set that sits near the TV and plays most of the sound. Smaller ones might be rear speakers that arent used as often. A good subwoofer is key because it handles all of the deepest tones, which takes a special design.

To complete a home theater setup, the minimum recommendation is for one subwoofer. That is enough to get the powerful bass that defines the theater experience. However, some people do try out getting two subs. That wont double the power, but it can increase the quality of the low end. In addition, it can split the bass between two origin points, improving the surround quality of the low-end performance. Two subwoofers should be adequate for a room of ordinary size, but adding more than two can really boost the sound quality for home theaters set up in large rooms or with top-shelf systems.

Unlike amplifiers for electric guitars, higher wattage does not always mean louder output when it comes to subwoofers. This is because watts might determine the maximum volume of a sub, but the owner sets the actual volume. A higher-watt sub might sound better than a low-watt one even when both are set to the same volume. More wattage might mean a larger size and ability to drive bass waves and better clarity. Therefore, wattage levels that would be suitable for a very large space on an amp, like 1000 watts and up, might be acceptable in a subwoofer for home use.