![]() Sealed subwoofers are often considered “tighter” and more precise, while ported and passive-radiator subs are considered more powerful. Woofer loading (sealed, ported, or passive radiator): You can find three basic types of subwoofers: those with a sealed box, those with a ported box, and those that use one or more passive radiators (essentially an extra speaker cone that’s not powered and works acoustically much like a port).See our blog post on subwoofer setup for more information on these connection types. However, most models do offer both speaker- and line-level connections, which allows them to connect to practically any type of audio system. For this reason, we didn’t require that they have speaker-level connections, as we did with the models we considered for our budget subwoofer guide. Inputs: These subwoofers are most likely to be used with home theater systems rather than stereo systems.Neither did we set a maximum, figuring that many people in search of higher performance would be happy to accommodate a larger subwoofer. Size: The subwoofers we feature here are step-up models, and they’re all capable of delivering at least a useful amount of bass, so we didn’t set a minimum woofer size.(We raised the price ceiling by $100 for our most recent update in April 2022 because inflation and supply-chain issues have pushed the prices up on all of our picks.) With this price cap, we’re not suggesting that subwoofers costing more than $900 aren’t worth the investment-in my experience, many have been-but there’s a practical limit to how many of these bulky, heavy devices we can pack into a single guide. ![]() ![]() We set $900 as a maximum, figuring that would allow us to call in major models from most of the leading brands and keep the focus on relatively compact subwoofers that most people wouldn’t mind having in a living room. Price: Because the price ceiling of our best budget subwoofer guide was $300, we decided to make that the minimum price for the models in this guide, with the understanding that prices fluctuate.Subwoofers are like power tools, where an increase in power almost always costs substantially more but almost always results in noticeably better performance. Companies have ways to make great speakers for cheap, but they can’t make a great subwoofer for cheap. Anyone who is serious about sound quality-and especially anyone who prefers hip-hop, heavy rock, or action movies-will be happy they bought a high-performance subwoofer rather than a budget model. A subwoofer designed for high performance rather than a low price is likely to sound clearer and more precise when reproducing music, and it shouldn’t distort or boom when reproducing movie soundtracks. ![]() Still, there are limits to the performance of any entry-level subwoofer, such as the models in our best budget subwoofer guide. Proper subwoofer setup, as I describe in this blog post, is important and can help any subwoofer perform its best. However, many people have a bad impression of subwoofers because they can make a boomy, annoying sound if improperly positioned and adjusted. ![]()
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