Home Speaker Asylum

General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

RE: Stereo effect

I think that most people here would avoid speakers so small that they output little or no bass below 100 hz (NHT Superzeros, etc...), but two subwoofers ARE sometimes necessary to preserve stereo effects with such speakers.

Because stereo exists in at least some modern recordings from about 80 hz on up, using a single sub for a pair of very tiny mains like the Superzeros could cause you to lose that stereo info in the region of 80 - 100 hz. Unless you smoothly fill in the gap in response, that is. Granted, we're talking about a relatively miniscule loss of stereo info here but when listing to a recording of a solo male bass singer (for example), you probably wouldn't want to hear imaging cues toggling between two stereo speakers and a single subwoofer near the bottom of the bass singer's vocal range...

The way to fill in stereo the gap in such cases is to use two subwoofers, one for each speaker. Each subwoofer should be as close to the tiny main speakers "midrange/bass" driver as possible, in order to maintain maximum preservation of stereo info in the upper bass range.

However, if you listen exclusively to vinyl (or bad modern digital recordings) on a pair of Superzeros (or something similar) you should probably not worry about preserving stereo info in the 80 - 100 hz region, as recordings from the vinyl era typically had summed or mono bass from 100 hz on down. With vinyl, you can use only one subwoofer with a pair of of speakers like the Superzeros, if you are so inclined.

All that said, I would agree that two (or more) subs can also help smooth out bass response, at least in some cases. So two or more subs are almost always a bonus IMO.



Edits: 11/09/16

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Parts Connexion  


Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups
  • RE: Stereo effect - genungo 08:15:10 11/09/16 (0)

FAQ

Post a Message!

Forgot Password?
Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
  Remember my Moniker & Password  (What's this?)    Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:
Message:   (Posts are subject to Content Rules)
Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:  Automagically notify you when someone responds.