Subwoofers

Possibly the most complex and difficult area of acoustics as room acoustics, subwoofer design and the ability to blend in with the primary speakers is more "suck it and see" than technical design expertise (although a lot of that is needed as well).
Subwoofers are a bit of a hobby for me as, many years ago - about 20 if memory serves - there were very few powered subwoofers available on the market and Dolby Pro-Logic had just hit the shores with the release of the RayDek decoder. Consequently we had to design and make our own. Fortunately I had the services of Scott McKenzie who was managing the store at the time (now National Sales Manager for Onkyo and associated brands), Scott was really into this stuff and designed and organised the manufacture of "The Coffee Table". This was a full sized coffee table housing twin 12" drivers in their own cavities driven by a 100 Watt amplifier. It kicked like a mule and was musical to boot.
About a year after we started selling these units, Miller and Kreisel released the V75 which was a 75 Watt 12" subwoofer that performed almost as well as the Table and at half the price. End of Table then.

A good subwoofer shouldn't be noticeable when playing music, it should blend in as an extension of the main speakers. Some people say you shouldn't use a subwoofer when listening to stereo music - I say its a necessity and naturally is part of any Home Theatre system. Subwoofers vary enormously in performance and matching the subwoofer to any system has to take in the size and shape of the room, type of main speakers, amplifier or receiver and, of course, the budget. Oh, the size of the subwoofer is another issue but as they're relatively omnidirectional, they are pretty flexible in placement.

Most cheaper subwoofers are fine for Home Theatre but just don't handle music very well. Some more expensive ones are aimed at specific markets as well. REL, one of the worlds most famous subwoofer manufacturers, had a series which were excellent for music but couldn't give that "Movie" feel. Fortunately, that range has now been discontinued and their current range will match any type of audio set up. Some other manufacturers make subwoofers that are great for movies but sound "boomy" and are just too obvious when playing music. Paradigm make some of the best subwoofers currently available and their Sub 2 has a 4500 Watt amplifier driving six 10" woofers, goes down to 7Hz and weighs in at 106kgs (mind you, with a retail price over $10,000 it'd want to be good). Definitive Technology are also masters of the "Deep".

For information about the best subwoofer to match your needs, best call me, Steve, on 02 9651 4922 as e-mailing gets too impersonal and a lot can get lost in the translation (I need instant feedback on my questions as well)

Generally allow around half the retail price (or more) of the two main speakers to get a subwoofer to match.