A question regarding subwoofers.

[Lord Cohliani]

I don't know if any of you guys know much about sound but I figured I'd ask (seeing as I don't know of any forums dedicated to sound).

Anyways; do subwoofers work? Since there's only one, how would it play sound that's recorded in two channels? I'm quite curious.

Thanks, in advance.

[Cutter De Blanc]

Re: A question regarding subwoofers.

I don't know how they work, but yes they work.

Makes the Bass more bass-ey.

[Lord Cohliani]

Re: A question regarding subwoofers.

Yes but I'm curious as to how. When I asked my father he said that they don't work because sound is recorded in two channels and there's usually only one subwoofer.

I highly doubt that something that has been sold for years doesn't work, but I have no way of arguing otherwise.

[Chrono]

Re: A question regarding subwoofers.

What is it for: car audio, home theater, computer?

[Vanilla Iced Tea]

Re: A question regarding subwoofers.

Your father clearly hates you. That or he doesn't really have any idea how audio recording works.

A subwoofer is essentially just a special type of speaker that's designed to produce only lower frequency sounds. So, like, you know how when you're listening to a song, there's a whole spectrum of different frequency sounds coming out of your speakers? The subwoofer only plays the sounds that are below a certain frequency: that is to say, the lowest, bass-iest sounds.

And to answer your question about audio channels, either the inputs on a subwoofer (or the output on the receiver) combine the left and right channels into a mono channel. You could technically have stereo sub with two woofers, but that's just crazy talk.

I mean, how can you even say that it doesn't work...? If you put your ear to a subwoofer, it's clearly pumping bass. What does your dad think it's supposed to do?

[Sampson]

Re: A question regarding subwoofers.

Your father is an idiot.

[John Mora]

Re: A question regarding subwoofers.

Yes, subwoofers work, the way VIT said. But for stereo setups, the default method of playing back the sound is 2.0, that is to say, a left and a right speaker with no subwoofers. In order to get a signal to your subwoofer in that case, you need to specifically change the settings of your pre-amp/receiver to output to the subwoofer when playing material recorded in stereo. Otherwise it should automatically work for material recorded in 5.1.

[Lord Cohliani]

Re: A question regarding subwoofers.

And to answer your question about audio channels, either the inputs on a subwoofer (or the output on the receiver) combine the left and right channels into a mono channel. You could technically have stereo sub with two woofers, but that's just crazy talk.

Aha, this is exactly what I was wondering. Thank you.