HiFi Subwoofers

Our HiFi active subwoofers are ideal for discreet placement in the home, with simple connections and a modern stylish design.

Which size HiFi subwoofer do I want?

There are several factors that will ultimately decide the correct choice of HiFi subwoofer for addition to your home audio system.

Desired and expected bass performance from any HiFi subwoofer is closely related to the size of the room it's being used in, the placement, and the speaker system it's being integrated into.

If you're already using floor-standing speakers for example, the use of an active subwoofer will mainly be for reproducing the frequencies that the main speakers struggle with, especially when listening at lower volumes. The sub will behave as an in-fill, boosting the low-end and enhancing the overall experience, so a smaller sub of 8" to 10" will be perfect.

For smaller stand-mount or bookshelf speakers, the addition of a HiFi subwoofer will be a far more prominent feature, as it will be used to fill in the low-end frequency gaps that smaller speakers simply cannot reproduce.

Monitor style speakers are extremely popular, both for their convenient physical size and for the high level of detail and focus that their smaller drivers are known for. This will always be a trade-off however when it comes to deeper bass, which is where the addition of a dedicated HiFi subwoofer really makes a huge difference to the overall sound.

For this situation, a larger 10" or 12" HiFi subwoofer will give you that much-needed bass reinforcement, complimenting the main speakers with its fully adjustable output level and frequency settings for you to set as desired. 

Do I need a subwoofer?

Sonically speaking, the majority of speaker systems and HiFi systems will benefit enormously from the addition of an active subwoofer into the mix, as they provide a real presence and feel.

Where a HiFi subwoofer really enhances things is at lower listening volumes, where your main speakers will be producing very little mid to low bass. This can be very frustrating for listening to music, or for TV and games console audio, which is often enjoyed in the evening when higher volume isn't desirable. 

An active subwoofer features its own amplifier and adjustable level control, allowing you to keep your main speakers at lower volume, whilst boosting the bass frequencies to give that desirable sonic and physical bass response in a completely controllable manner.

Subwoofer signal input

HiFi subwoofers generally do not feature the balanced component LFE (Low Frequency Effects) channel input found on home cinema specific subs, instead opting for a standard RCA stereo line-level input and built-in adjustable crossover network. 

The main reason for this is to allow use with the widest range of HiFi amplifiers and preamps, as the subwoofer can accept a full range line-level stereo audio signal, and the onboard filtering will extract the bass frequencies, with the low-pass adjustment allowing the upper bass cutoff frequency to be set, which is generally around 80Hz for most speaker setups. 

Subwoofer high-level input

The other common signal option on HiFi subwoofers is a high-level input, which uses the speaker outputs from an amplifier and operates as an in-line filter, removing the lower bass frequencies for itself and passing the modified signal out to the main speakers, which now connect to the subwoofer instead of the amp.

This speaker level connection is particularly useful for adding an active HiFi subwoofer to stereo systems that have no line output or preamp output available.

Down firing HiFi subwoofer

Smaller active subwoofers, those with the main woofer driver under 12" will often be what known as a down-firing configuration. This means the enclosure will be raised from the floor on feet of some kind, and the subwoofers driver is located on the bottom of the unit, facing the floor.

This design utilises the floor surface itself as a type of baffle, helping to acoustically amplify the bass frequencies and spread them around the room. This also has the benefit of providing you a much larger output volume than the subwoofers woofer and amplifier would be capable of alone.

As bass is non-directional, you can hide your HiFi subwoofer out of sight behind furniture and it will perform perfectly, or of course you can place it in a more prominent position, and our subwoofers are finished in smart laminates to blend seamlessly into most homes.

Front firing subwoofer

As the name suggests, the main woofer driver is placed in a more traditional forward-facing design which is common for subwoofers of 12" or larger.

Bass purists will argue that front-firing produces greater detail and handles the more subtle low frequencies for a better overall HiFi sound. Which is often true, but generally due to the fact that larger HiFi active subwoofers have both a more capable main woofer and more importantly, a far more powerful amplifier built-in.

The extra acoustic boost provided by the floor surface in a down-firing subwoofer design is actually unwanted in a more powerful sub, as the larger woofer will create so much down pressure that it can cause uncontrollable resonance that will completely swamp the main audio.