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Topic: Dual subwoofers in stereo system (Read 3630 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: Dual subwoofers in stereo system

Reply #1
Truth.
See chapter 13 in Toole's book. He talks about the topic quite a bit here as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vn6hQHRgzk&t=774s
Also play around with room sim in REW to see what happens with 2 as opposed to 1 sub.

 

Re: Dual subwoofers in stereo system

Reply #2
I've added one sub woofer to my stereo system 2 days ago, but it's something absurd in stereo I think...

I listen to acoustic jazz, engineers mix jazz something different than pop/disco.

I've placed the subwoofer to the right side, but for example in a track; engineer puts the acoustic bass to the left channel of stereo.

With this setup, acoustic bass comes from both the left speaker, and the subwoofer from the right side, I said it's something absurd.

I will buy another subwoofer and put it on the left side, then I'll connect them in stereo, and it will be okey I think...

Re: Dual subwoofers in stereo system

Reply #3
There's nothing absurd about trying to reproduce low frequencies properly. The kneejerk rejection to subwoofers from pseudo-purist placebophiles is a known phenomena and it seems it has affected you as well to some degree.
What I think you're describing is improper crossover settings, the lowest frequencies are not localizable, but it seems like you've set the crossover too high and the sub gets some of the localizable higher freqs as well.

Re: Dual subwoofers in stereo system

Reply #4
Quote
I've placed the subwoofer to the right side, but for example in a track; engineer puts the acoustic bass to the left channel of stereo.

With this setup, acoustic bass comes from both the left speaker, and the subwoofer from the right side, I said it's something absurd.

I will buy another subwoofer and put it on the left side, then I'll connect them in stereo, and it will be okey I think...

1. Deep bass is non-directional.   You can hear the direction of a stand-up bass or bass guitar mostly because of the harmonics, but  (at least in theory) you can place the subwoofer anywhere in the room and still get a good stereo image as long as the harmonics are coming from the left or right speaker..

2. A proper subwoofer crossover (like what's built-into an audio video receiver) will mix the bass from all channels and send it to the sub (assuming bass management is turned-on).

3.  Most mixing engineers will pan the bass to the center.    Bass is taxing on the amplifiers & speakers so it's best to take advantage of both woofers.     Usually, the whole bass instrument and kick drum is panned toward the center but sometimes the bass frequencies  are mixed and panned to the center.

Re: Dual subwoofers in stereo system

Reply #5
Quote
3.  Most mixing engineers will pan the bass to the center.

It's true in pop music/disco music and in rock music, etc. But as I said, it's different in jazz. For example in Bill Evans trios, you can hear the full acoustic drum set from right channel, or in other songs, acoustic bass can be panned whole from left etc...


Re: Dual subwoofers in stereo system

Reply #7
An example... Whole drum kit panned to right channel.

Artist: Bill Evans
Album: Complete Bill Evans on Verve, CD.1 of 18
Track: 01 - The Washington Twist.flac

Okay...  Um a single sub can handle this just fine.  There's nothing completely out of phase or broken here where a single sub could cause problems.  It sounds like the piano is entirely hard panned to the left, with the bass in the center and the drums hard panned to the right.  Check your crossovers.

Re: Dual subwoofers in stereo system

Reply #8
Quote
3.  Most mixing engineers will pan the bass to the center.

It's true in pop music/disco music and in rock music, etc. But as I said, it's different in jazz. For example in Bill Evans trios, you can hear the full acoustic drum set from right channel, or in other songs, acoustic bass can be panned whole from left etc...

In that case, the low frequencies in the music clip are not low enough. Subjectively, many people consider around 100 Hz to be 'bass' or 'low frequency' and those can definitely be localized.

The genre of music doesn't matter to your audio system.
Sound is just that - sound.
An argument that some genres of music being inferior / superior to others is not based on science.

All this being said, yes, two identical subwoofers in your music / movie audio system is scientifically better than one.