How to Pick a Home Theater Subwoofer

[@Evolancer276]

Great video!! So much useful information. I’m pretty new to really understanding home theater. I had a really budget HT when I was a teenager. Now 33, I’m finally diving deep into this awesome hobby and this video was extremely helpful. I found your channel this week and loving how much detail you put into your videos. I have a living room which is where my HT will be. Your comment about pressurizing the room help a lot. I’m planning on a SVS PB-3000 and now I will be going into it knowing I’m just not going to get the pressurization with my living room with the layout of high vaulted ceilings and open layout to kitchen. I’m looking forward to watching your channel

[@techmosaic7489]

I am glad you're finding my videos useful. Feeling your room pressurized with subwoofers is an incredible experience, but very difficult to pull off in an open concept living room. I'd agree that it is not worth pursuing for most people's living room setups. But that doesn't mean you can't still have a great home theater experience. A PB-3000 would be fantastic for a living room.

[@AeroPR]

What a fantastic video. Best simple buying guide I have seen yet and packed with tons of great accurate details. It took me weeks of research, reading and watching videos to acquire the knowledge shared here in 40 mins. Just yesterday I found that room size to speaker spreadsheet. The brand comparison is on point and helps point people in the right track. Subscribed and hope to hear more from you in the audio world.

[@lukeace347]

Very factual video. It took me many years of learning and thousands of dollars to get very similar conclusions. Very good job. It's like ultimate beginner compendium. For all new to this hobby - this guy get it right.

[@myhomeaudio8751]

Wow great explanation.

[@techmosaic7489]

Glad you liked it

[@Bork0r]

Extremely informative! Subbed. A lot of thoughtful things that ran true to me. The pb1000 vs sb4000 was a mindblowing stat. Regarding listening levels.. if you (who are reading this) dont know how loud you like your music/movies in decibels and you have airpods for your phone, do the following: go to to settings-control center and add the hearing app. Then swipe down from top right edge of your phone to access the new ear shaped icon. From it, you can monitor the real time listening levels of all sound on your phone like spotify or youtube. My comfort level ends at about 80db even if im rocking out to a beat. I could probably stand for louder if its low bass but it would certainly start to tax my ears for extended listening.

[@r2p941]

Great video!!

[@techmosaic7489]

Thanks!

[@r2p941]

Because of your video I’m getting 2 of the speedwoofers for my basement theater. Room is 20’x15’ with 8’ ceiling. Keep the videos coming. Maybe do one on your setup..?

[@usmankhalid990]

Thanks for the video! Do you have any plans on a subwoofer placement video?

[@joekool5676]

What are your thoughts on how sealed subwoofer has tighter base and better "quality" base. If goal is not just output, then sealed is an option, correct?

[@myhomeaudio8751]

Can you please explain what is headroom? Because when you cut a peak it actually reducing the output of a particular frequency right?

[@TokeBoisen]

Yes, when you cut a peak, you are reducing the output at that frequency. This also means your subwoofer is going to be doing a lot less work at that frequency to give you equivalent output to other frequencies. So at this cut frequency, you have "X" dB more output on tap before your sub runs out of steam. That is increased headroom

[@vGnome]

Does this apply to music playing 2.1 setups or just bit HT setups?

[@samhalsey5051]

If a living room has one opening. Is there a good temporary solution to seal other than doors?

[@1954fallen]

I enjoyed your video.. how to pick a sub for HT.In the consideration you forget to mention between a FRONT firing sub and aDOWN Firing sub. Can you tell me about these two kind of sub. Their pros and cons.Thanks I highly appreciated.

[@joekool5676]

What r your thoughts on mixing different sealed subs that are different sizes such as 12 inch mixed with 15 or 18 inch. Any advantage or disadvantage. I suppose same can be asked for mixing different sizes of ported subs

[@techmosaic7489]

The short answer is that it depends, but more often than not, it's probably not worth it. There is nothing specifically wrong with mixing different size subwoofers as long as they are all sealed or all ported. However, I would warn people to not fall into the trap of trying to continue using their existing subwoofer when they upgrade just because they already own it. Often times, if they are making a significant upgrade, then the old sub is contributing almost nothing to the overall experience. It's just consuming space and power. For example, say you start out with a budget subwoofer like the $150 Dayton SUB-1000. It is a 10" ported subwoofer. And later as an upgrade, you get a SVS PB-1000 Pro. At 31.5Hz, the Dayton has 95dB of clean output while the SVS has 108dB. For context, you would need about 6 of those Dayton subs in the same room to equal the single SVS sub. And the Dayton sub is port tuned to 30Hz, so the disparity widens below that. At this point, there is no logical reason to keep the budget Dayton sub in that setup. Or you can be in a situation where you currently have a 12" ported SVS PB-2000 Pro. I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to integrated that with a 13" ported SVS PB-3000. That wouldn't be my goal from the start if I am looking to buy two brand new subs. But if I already own one of them, there's nothing wrong with buying a slightly mismatching sub that will better fit your budget or the space available in your room.

[@simarjitsingh9975]

Hello Buddy, great & informative content. Please advise what could be best match subwoofer for a 1872 cubic feet (12x13x12) living room. 10 or 12inch and Sealed or Porte. It will be a one time investment for a longer time. Decent volume but rich base.

[@techmosaic7489]

Ideally, I would take two RSL Speedwoofer 10S MKII ($900 total) and put them on opposite ends of the room. If you can only have a single subwoofer, I would get a single HSU VTF-2 MK5 ($750 after shipping).

[@samhalsey5051]

Thank you!!

[@sammy10001]

Hello question for you: If i start out with a ported, and down the line plan is to get two, but plan is also to get to 10z, you recommend large sealed. Can you just seal the ports on your ported, have it act as sealed and get a 2nd one? Or do you litreally have to switch to a pure sealed, or does a ported sub with ports sealed act as roughly the same thing?

[@techmosaic7489]

It is possible to plug the ports on a subwoofer and turn it into a sealed sub, but it's not always a guarantee. Many subwoofers support this functionality through a seperate tuning mode. For example, on HSU subs, you need to flip an EQ switch on the back of the sub when you seal it. On SVS subs, you need to change a setting in the app when you do it. Your best bet is to contact the manufacturer of your subwoofer and ask them if they support plugging their ported subs. If they do not, I would not recommend you do it. You can cause permanent damage to the sub. Another thing to consider is that when you seal a previously ported sub, you lose a lot of output. A sub that may have previously been adequate for your room no longer is. And not all sealed subs are capable of significant output down to 10Hz. Finally, I just want to reiterate that there is a pretty significant price gap between having bass in your room that can play flat down to 20Hz and bass that plays flat down to 10Hz. It is multiple thousands of dollars in subwoofers alone. It is not a goal everyone can achieve, and even for those who can afford it, not everyone nessesarily wants it. If you're someone who has the means and desire to do, then selling your ported subs and buying larger sealed subs is really the only reasonable way to go. The money you save by trying to reuse the ported subs is not going to be significant in the context of everything else. Tactile transducers such as Buttkicker is an alternate way of achieving tactile bass at a significantly lower cost.

[@sammy10001]

@@techmosaic7489 awesome. Thanks