subwoofers! who likes 'em? who hates 'em?

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I did not say "virtually nothing." I said "you won't hear much from them." most music peters out below about 40-50 cycles, precisely where a sub just BEGINS to pick up. that is why if it is adjusted to stay out of the way of the higher frequencies carried by the normal stereo speakers, you won't hear it [the sub] IF it is a quality unit not putting out spurious bass harmonics. most are NOT quality units in this regard, they "double" [output 2nd and higher harmonics which makes them sound "thicker" and "louder" but not neutral in the least]. if you just have the well-adjusted sub turned on and the stereo speakers muted, with most music you may hear at most, just an odd vague faint rumble, not obviously musically related. BUT [and it is indeed a big but] if you put on a quality recording featuring the 19 and 32 foot organ stops, orchestral contrabasses, ARP synth bass lines, or a thunder drum, or recordings of trains an and cannon fire and such, the sub will come into its own and imbue your reproduction with much thrilling realism. some people [like moi ] collect such recordings.

Is it fair to say that based on your definition, subwoofers are mainly for enhancing very low frequencies that pop up occasionally? If so, it would seem that most people with subwoofers are abusing them, or at least using them for the wrong purpose.

They have their use, like they can add more depth to a sound system...but I don't like the way everyone uses them. I don't see the point in turning it up as high as possible and then proceeding to put on the most trashy music they can find or that obnoxious party music(or whatever you call it, I do like some electronic music but not that crap that just sounds like what they'd play at a frat party). Like people who do that are going to be deaf by the time they are 50 if not sooner, especially when they are closed into a vehicle with all that noise.

I forgot to add its even worse when the person has speakers that are clearly blown out and so it sounds all the more crappy.

I would not mind having a sound system for my t.v that has a subwoofer or at least sounds like it does, but I'd need to save up if I wanted to get a good system. For listening to music I have a bluetooth JBL speaker that sounds pretty good, and can get pretty loud it has a reasonable base level but its not adjustable like on a seperate subwoofer.

well...

I have at least one recording in my collection that might benefit from my sound system having a subwoofer.

Years ago I was in my fav used book and records store looking through the vinyls, and went to the oddball section. There I found a vinyl LP made by the Woods Hole oceanographic institute in circa 1959 of hydrophone recordings they made from boats of various species of whales and dolphins.I auditioned it through headphones on the store's stereo system. Heard a man stiff stiffly announcing "here is the grumpius borealis blah blah, better known as the common speckled dolphin being recorded fifty miles off of Cape Hatteras", and then I heard bubble noises mixed with an animal making squawking noises. A record that geeky and that useless was something...that I just HAD to have. So I bought it.

Anyway one of the featured cetaceans on it was the finback whale (cousin of the blue whale). The announcer explains that you have the right kind of stereo equipment that can play back into the low ranges you can hear the dramatic call of the Finback. I could just hear a very faint hint of it on my eighties turntable and receiver component system. Basically just a single faint pulse.

But if I had a subwoofer then...maybe the full majesty of the finback whale call would... knock me out of my living room chair!

That's interesting, naturalplastic . If the record came out in 1959, did subwoofers (as we know them) even exist? A few enthusiasts had hi-fi stereo sets, but the year that record came out, most people had monaural single-speaker rinky-dink record players. What was the "right equipment"?

By the way, was the record even in stereo?

Not sure if it was in stereo. Good question. I may, or may not, still have the album. Will hafta check. I moved a couple of years ago and abandoned a lot of my hugemongous record collection, but I think that I saved that thing, but maybe not.

I took some radio courses at the community college some years ago, and learned that the physical grooves in vinyl records get wider the lower the sound is. Standard records have a limit- agreed upon by the industry- for the maximum width of grooves allowed (and therefore a lower limit on the how low a frequency can be put on standard consumer vinyl of the vinyl era). But this album may have been made for scientists who...who knows?... might have had nonstandard needles and turntables in their labs to play back the data on the record. So even if I had a subwoofer a consumer turntable (either from the era, or one of the new ones you can still buy today)may not have the right kind of needle to truly exploit an abnormally fat groove in a vinyl to reproduce the sound in the first place, before the signal even gets sent to a subwoofer if I had one hooked up to my system.


I know enough about audio to know...what I don't know. Lol! Oh well.

But the guy narrating on the record did say "IF you have the right equipment you can hear it" implying the sound is indeed on the vinyl if you have some kind high end equipment of that time to play it back.

yes. either because they don't know any better, or that they do but are being bloodyminded.

some bargains can be had on ebay. that is where I got my sub. it is a quality unit that can reproduce a semblance of contrabass down to 16 cycles. that is the territory of 32' stop pipe organs that shake the air inside cathedrals and large churches.

there were monophonic test discs that had bass engraved down to 16 cycles [lowest note of a 32' pipe organ stop]. the high-end cartridges such as those made by Shure [RIP] could track those frequencies, but the amps and speakers that could let the listener actually HEAR [and feel] them were strictly high-end and expensive. the early KLH and AR acoustic suspension speakers could reproduce them at reduced volume. there were subwoofers then, but they were rare.

How? I so need that, hate semis.

With regards to bass I find I can only counteract it with my own, moving is in the end what I end u doing, since I can only take being woken up so much before playing my own, but if I can't find quiet then a band like Project Hate has some solid sound that blocks mot others, although still some soft spots, or Rammstein etc.

I have found the best way to mask objectional lower-frequency sounds is to match them with one's own, in the form of brown noise. brown noise is the technical term for static sounds that are weighed heavily towards the bass range. I have a large HEPA air filter that does a good job with that, and sometimes when that isn't quite enough I will augment with a 20" box fan in the corner, or I will put on a CD with brown noises on it and subwoofer activated. it is a calming noise, no sharp edges on it, that is somewhat soporific, it is the same kinda sound one hears from the air handler system in large buildings, or for sci-fi fans, it is the background rumble of a space ship