Subwoofer improve Music SQ ?

[The Baron Groog]

Ame, put simply: YES

If you can filter the bass from your existing speakers they will play the frequencies they are producing better, with greater clarity and detail.

Think of your speaker as a pond and the sounds it produces as ripples. Split "music" into Bass, Mid and Trebble. If you throw a small pebble(trebble) in along with a brick(Mid) and a breezeblock(bass) the ripple from the breezeblock contains the most energy and will cause the biggest ripple-easily washing out the smaller ripples from the brick and pebble. If you throw in just the brick and the pebble you will have two more distinct ripples.

All this is assuming you buy a quality sub-woofer and cross things over properly, a phase shift function on the sub can help remove cancellations and allow you to integrate it properly.

In reality the true "SQ" of the system is irrelavent-provided you enjoy what you listen to!

 

[navinmra]

If your bookshelves do not go below 60 Hz, a subwoofer can help increase the low frequency spectrum per se.

I think a quick calibration with a Radioshack SPL will not only tell the low frequency limit of your bookshelves but also help you choose the right cross over frequency for a smooth crossover if you use a sub. People do silly things with setting the crossover too high or low and in the end ruining the sound.

More on crossover settings later if that's the direction you want to take.

Another odd quirk of the Onkyo is a setting called double bass. Please turn it off and set your front speakers as small in the configuration.

Getting back to your speakers, if they are probably not well coupled to the floor or platform, there could be extraneous vibrations including that of the speaker cabinet that muddy the sound. Putting them on spikes can make the bass tighter by coupling the speaker cabinet to the floor or mount.

Navin

 

[venkatcr]

If your bookshelves do not go below 60 Hz, a subwoofer can help increase the low frequency spectrum per se.

I think a number of us have been talking about this for a long time. A sub woofer is meant to play the Point 1 in movies and is not meant to be used with music at all. If your bookshelves do not have the requisite frequency spectrum, then the choice of bookshelves are wrong. At the minimum they should go down to 40Hz, and need not go below that. Why? Simply because no two channel music has data at less than 40Hz. Two channel music is always 2.0 and never 2.1. If you use a subwoofer and force the system to play the point 1, you are creating an artificial sound that was not part of the original recording.

Mind you, there is no harm in doing this if you like the deep booming sound that a sub provides. It is just that it is not part of the music.

Cheers

 

[vivekam]

Why going so low in music?
I guess only Tuba can produce such low frequencies.
For music 2 speakers are more than enough.

 

[navinmra]

I agree. The bookshelf by itself should touch 40Hz if its good. I also feel that the sub should truly fire only when there is an LFE signal fed to it in a 2.1 or 5.1 setup. I've set my cross over to 40 Hz and configured my floor standers as large so that way my sub is nearly silent when I am listening to an LP or CD. I like it that way, but I guess its a matter of personal taste.
Navin

 

[suri]

Dear Friends

Can anyone confirm that for the kind of music I play adding a WF150 sub will improve the SQ?

Thanks in advance.

ame

will not -no