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newguy5 · 01-14-2008, 09:56 PM

treble and bass are just frequencies. a subwoofer is a speaker that has a crossover built in to it. a crossover is simply a filter that only allows signals of 80hz and less to pass through--80hz and less are your notes that are considered "bass."

subwoofers and/or amps are also built with crossovers that have slopes. a standard slope, like 12 db/oct, basically scales down a note that is played above 80hz by 12db every time it reaches an octave. the steeper the slope (6 db/oct), the less bass that will come through the speaker, but it's not really less, it's just more bass and less mid-range.

problem is, most people will turn their crossover to 120hz or more (for their subwoofers) so their subwoofer is actually playing music, and you can actually hear people sing if you put your head to the subwoofer. this is just bad mixing and a true subwoofer should rarely play frequencies above 80hz.

of course with these types of speakers you don't have that option to adjust your crossover. i've got years of experience building car systems and you can manually adjust those things when building car systems. but, i just wanted to give you a clearer understanding of what bass is and why subwoofers play it.

subwoofers are just speakers built to handle those low frequencies and they are built in boxes so that they vibrate and you can "feel" them. you take a 15" 2000 watt sub out of a car enclosure and play it and you won't feel any bass. put it back in a case and in the back of a car and you'll go deaf. bass resonates because of the enclosure it's in and buying a system with a subwoofer will only just give you a more resonant and clear bass.

01-14-2008, 09:56 PM	#34 (permalink)
newguy5 Diamond Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Dallas, Tx Age: 25 Posts: 1,021	treble and bass are just frequencies. a subwoofer is a speaker that has a crossover built in to it. a crossover is simply a filter that only allows signals of 80hz and less to pass through--80hz and less are your notes that are considered "bass." subwoofers and/or amps are also built with crossovers that have slopes. a standard slope, like 12 db/oct, basically scales down a note that is played above 80hz by 12db every time it reaches an octave. the steeper the slope (6 db/oct), the less bass that will come through the speaker, but it's not really less, it's just more bass and less mid-range. problem is, most people will turn their crossover to 120hz or more (for their subwoofers) so their subwoofer is actually playing music, and you can actually hear people sing if you put your head to the subwoofer. this is just bad mixing and a true subwoofer should rarely play frequencies above 80hz. of course with these types of speakers you don't have that option to adjust your crossover. i've got years of experience building car systems and you can manually adjust those things when building car systems. but, i just wanted to give you a clearer understanding of what bass is and why subwoofers play it. subwoofers are just speakers built to handle those low frequencies and they are built in boxes so that they vibrate and you can "feel" them. you take a 15" 2000 watt sub out of a car enclosure and play it and you won't feel any bass. put it back in a case and in the back of a car and you'll go deaf. bass resonates because of the enclosure it's in and buying a system with a subwoofer will only just give you a more resonant and clear bass. __________________ C2D E6750 Arctic Freezer 7 Pro 2GB G.Skill RAM PC2-6400 Gigabyte P35-DS3L Sapphire Radeon 3850 250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 Thermaltake TR2 500W 22" Westinghouse (widescreen) Last edited by newguy5; 01-14-2008 at 10:00 PM.