AV Talk Subwoofer Tests

Over time we hope to build a reference library of subwoofers and their real-world performance as demonstrated by a series of standard objective tests.

Let’s face it, a good subwoofer is what makes the home cinema experience more real. The ability to portray explosions, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in your own room with a ‘you are there’ sense of reality is what every home cinema enthusiast hopes to achieve.

Sadly, if you just go on manufacturer’s specifications and professional reviewers’ and friends’ flowery descriptions of how good a particular subwoofer is, it is very hard to select one that will work in your room from the myriad of models available. Many people end up disappointed because their chosen sub doesn’t produce the bass quality they really

Sure, there are other sources of objective tests of subwoofers; magazines (both paper and online), some discussion forums and review sites that publish reviews. Some of these even include useful objective measurements. But each reviewer uses his own selection of measurements, performed under a particular set of conditions which means that you cannot easily compare the findings.

So in order to cut through some of this, we decided that we would like to perform a set of standard measurements against as large a range of subs as we could muster and see how they really stack up.

We are pleased to make these results available to all those interested in seeing what their subwoofers can really do. We hope you find the results useful.