Blog

What is a subwoofer?

A subwoofer is a separate, dedicated bass speaker (or “woofer”) designed to focus solely on reproducing powerful bass sounds. By splitting the audio signals and sending the lowest frequencies to a subwoofer, you can experience deeper and more powerful bass, leaving your paired speakers to focus on mid and high frequencies, delivering a wider range of sound with no loss in quality.

Do I really need a subwoofer?

In short, yes. A standard two-channel speaker comfortably delivers the full range of sound down to 50Hz, but begins to lose power and clarity beyond this point. By offloading the lowest frequencies to a subwoofer, you can experience richer and bolder bass than you would with just a standalone speaker.

But adding a subwoofer doesn’t just help produce lower lows, it also allows you to experience higher highs. It lessens the load on the rest of your system so your speakers can focus on the frequencies above 50Hz—like the sound of a whistle or hiss of a snake—creating improved detail and less distortion in the mid and high-pitched frequencies. This means that a subwoofer doesn’t just benefit those who love high-intensity action films or bass-heavy electronic music, but instead balances and improves your overall listening experience.

a powered Subwoofer makes it easy to add pulse-pounding bass to your music, gaming, or home theater setup. But what exactly is bass? What does a subwoofer do? And do you really even need one? Read on to find out.

Imagine the moments when you’ve been truly overwhelmed by sound—the rumble of an explosion in an action film, the beat dropping on your favorite song, or the subtle details of a faint whisper—and you can bet that bass played a part in that experience. Bass itself adds depth and power to your sound, while a dedicated bass speaker (also known as a subwoofer) helps deliver a richer, more balanced listening experience.

Adding the right subwoofer to your sound system can make your music feel more detailed, your movies more immersive, and your games more thrilling.

What is bass?

Bass is the low end of the sonic spectrum, stretching from the lower limits of human hearing at 20Hz up to around 100Hz. It’s the rumble you can feel in your chest when listening to music or watching movies, like the deep rhythmic pulse of a reggae bassline or the hulking drone of a massive spaceship overhead.

Bass, and the low frequency soundwaves that produce it, carry an immense amount of power. That’s why it moves you so viscerally, and why it can be heard from further away (or through walls and other surfaces) where higher frequencies get dulled and muffled.

But bass has always presented an age-old challenge to sound designers and engineers alike: Most people can’t accurately experience bass the way it was captured and recorded in the studio because it requires an equally powerful speaker to reproduce it. The solution? A subwoofer.

Bass is a vital part of sound, and a physical feeling as much as something we hear. Whether you’re after all-powerful bass or subtly sharper sound, adding a subwoofer like Sub or Sub Mini to your Sonos system can bring out the full range of experiences from your music, films, and games, helping immerse you in them more powerfully than ever before.

Share to