If you’re looking at buying a shallow mount subwoofer, what are the two most important things for you to keep in mind? You don’t want to end up with a crappy subwoofer that sounds terrible. When looking for a subwoofer, always make sure that they have a good power (wattage) rating and are made with quality materials. The 2 most important things to look for when buying a subwoofer are:
- Power: peak watts and RMS watts
- Materials: what is it made out of
Buying a Shallow Mount Subwoofer
When buying a shallow mount subwoofer, the power rating is vital. It’s much more important for subwoofers than it is for tweeters and mids. And this is so because a subwoofer is a much larger speaker with a larger cone. As such, subwoofers usually require more power so they can flex their cone and replicate the longer sound waves of bass notes.
Power
Although subwoofer power ratings are usually gauge when it comes to watts, there are two types of wattage ratings that apply. The first one, and this is also the most relevant, wattage rating is the RMS watts. The RMS watts are a measure of continuous wattage use and they are typically seen as the better category for judging a speaker’s power rating.
With that being said, subwoofers are one of the very few speaker types where the second type of power rating, peak watts, is very important. So, basically, peak watts determine the maximum wattage that a speaker can handle for brief moments. While the mids and highs will generally play more or less continuously, these subwoofers will from time to time play intermittently, and this is depending on your type of music. In this case, a peak wattage can be very necessary if you want a punchier music.
Materials
When it comes down to subwoofers, there are three general areas where the material is very important, and those are the cone, the surround, and the frame. The cap may also be added to this list, but the cap has a low effect on the quality of the audio that is created as well as the longevity of the subwoofer in general.
When it comes to the cone of the speaker, this is the most important material consideration. The cone has the unenviable requirement of needing to be both durable and flexible. This usually leads to the use of intricate plastics like polypropylene.
