Running subs in stereo

[MUTCHYMAN 10+ year member]

is there any advantages or disadvantages to running subs on their own channels from a two channel amp? couldn't find anything on the search, just that they may screw up airflow if the subs aren't seperated in a box.

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[creyc 10+ year member]

Disadvantages? Yes. Advantages, not really.

Because they will have different signals going to them (potentially) you will get out of phase issues where one driver is working against the other at times in the music.

The produced sound waves will have canceling going on. That means wasted energy.

Then there's the whole point that you cant even detect where sound is coming from at subwoofer frequencies. Thats why you can put your sub in your trunk and it still works with the music fine. Try doing that with your speakers. Therefore even if sub-bass was in stereo, you couldn't tell left from right.

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

I ran my first sub stage in a single sealed box, separate chambers. I had it in stereo and mono on the same amp, same settings. I couldn't hear any sort of stereo coming from the sub stage at all.

Very bad idea if the subs are in a single chamber.

 

[T3mpest 10+ year member]

no, most recordings don't record the subbass material in stereo in the firstplace, your ears can't pick up the differences well enough at those frequencies.

 

[creyc 10+ year member]

no, most recordings don't record the subbass material in stereo in the firstplace, your ears can't pick up the differences well enough at those frequencies.

While thats often true, it's not something you should automatically count on. And with so many sources of music; be it a friends band, an inexperienced electronic artist or what have you, it's easy enough to just summate into a mono signal for your subwoofer.

And if you must, just take a single channel (pick on, left or right) since most sub bass will already be summated. At least you wont have any negative effects this way, although it's not optimal.

 

[MUTCHYMAN 10+ year member]

So i guess running mono is the winner? This is good because i can get more watts for the dollar (poor high school kid)..

 

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

Mono is fine in a car. You cannot get the stereo seperation (distance) between the subs in most cars to give you a true "stereo" effect.

 

[Death By Bass 10+ year member]

if the bass is stereo, and you play it in mono, doesn't that mean, that if some of the bass was supposed to just be in one channel, its now in both, and in theory 6dBs or so louder than it was meant to be? even if you cant hear the stereo seperation, you're still going to hear overpowering bass, in the off chance that this is the case //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif