• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Are some subs better at stereo music vs movies?

dan_uk

Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2021
Messages
93
Likes
42
Simple question really, are some subs better for stereo music? And are some subs better for movies?

If so, which brands of sub are best for music / stereo 2.1 listening?

Thanks
 
The best sub is a second sub.

Ported or sealed doesn’t matter.

As long as the sub digs deep and can create enough spl with low distortion.

Treating your room and using dsp can also have a positive effect.
 
Regarding sound quality for subwoofers, it comes down to output at low enough distortion levels and extension. After you have the output/extension you're looking for at your preferred listening levels and room size, the rest is just using DSP to account for your room as well as personal preferences for bass. Subwoofers don't care whether they're playing music or movies.
 
Last edited:
I have had several sealed and several ported subs over the years (SVS, PSA, JL Audio, Martin Logan, DIY with Dayton Ultimax, and others). I can tell a difference between them, and I prefer sealed subs for music. That said, ported subs do well with music as well, and I'd bet most people would never notice the difference.

You generally need to spend more money on sealed subs than on ported subs to get the same low end output, because they need more power. Personally, if I had a dedicated theater setup where I knew I would not be listening to music, then I'd get ported subs for the benefit of either spending less for the same output, or spending the same for more output. I am currently about 3/4 done building a soundproof room for both music and movies, and will be running 4 sealed subs because I plan to do a lot of music listening in the space.
 
If you look at the speaker measurements on ASR, you will see the lowest frequencies dominate distortion. The low frequency effects in movies are designed for theaters. For games many people use LFE shakers on their chairs. We don't hear the LF sound effects often in real life, like explosions or the ground shaking, so we are not going to have sensitive ears for distortion in LF sound effects. We do have experience hearing low piano notes, string bass, and low notes on musical instruments. Less distortion is better, that is the idea behind adding more subs. I'm a fan of sealed subs, and servo subs, but have not done a listening comparison.
 
Back
Top Bottom