There are many parameters to take into account to make your subwoofer louder. The following tips will help you avoid some disappointments and get the best performance from your subwoofer.
The acoustics of the room
If your subwoofer does not produce enough bass, the acoustics of the room may not be optimal. The way to find out is to put on a song with a good dose of bass and take a walk around your room. If you can hear the bass in certain places (it accumulates most in the corners of a room), it means that your subwoofer is indeed able to reproduce these frequencies. It is recommended to treat the acoustics of the room by installing acoustic panels or bass traps, for example.
Another reason why it is important to deal with acoustics is the fact that it is very difficult to control the bass in a very small room. In a studio, you want to get as neutral a sound as possible. By installing a subwoofer in a small room, it may produce a series of deafening noises that will in no way improve the enjoyment of listening. In this case, compact subwoofers are a good solution.
Distribution of bass between the subwoofer and the proximity speakers
The frequency response of the subwoofer should match that of your speakers. Most active subwoofers have a built-in crossover. It allows you to determine which frequencies are supported by the speakers and at what point the subwoofer takes over, and in this way, you can solve your own question, “how to boost bass?”. To make it easier, many speaker manufacturers also offer matching subwoofers.
The placement
First, be sure to decouple the subwoofer from the floor, using rubber feet or decoupling spikes if you haven’t already. The position of the subwoofer in the room greatly influences the listener’s perception of the bass. Although bass accumulates most in the corners of a room, it is not best to place your subwoofer there. It is also not preferable to position it between two walls, and it is to be avoided to place it in the middle of the room.
Besides, the subwoofer must be placed right next to the speakers so that the sound produced by the speakers and the subwoofer reaches your ears at the same time. If your system does not cover the entire sound spectrum, you can reverse the polarity using a dedicated button (“phase” or “180”). The latter’s interest is to find the same polarity for all the speakers that make up the system.
Can you use two subwoofers?
The human ear cannot tell where frequencies below 100 Hz are coming from. This is why sound systems in a studio include only one subwoofer, not two. Adding a second subwoofer did not improve the sound image. If you know which direction the sound of the subwoofer is coming from, it is not a good sign. If the crossover’s cutoff frequency is relatively high, the subwoofer produces sufficiently high-pitched sounds that the listener can determine the direction of. It is also possible for the subwoofer to overload and produce harmonic distortion. In this case, the sounds are around 100 Hz.
Typically, subwoofers are not designed to exceed 80 Hz. If all the low frequencies come from one place, the acoustic problems with this place will be audible. By using two subwoofers, the acoustic problems come from two places. It allows you to solve problems by placement and achieve better bass reproduction and a more balanced sound.
