Best Subwoofer For The Money

Best Subwoofer Brand

If you’re looking for a subwoofer, you can save a lot of work for yourself by checking out our list of the best subwoofer brands. Generally, you can be assured a quality product with any subwoofer made by Polk Audio, BIC America, JBL Speakers, or Yamaha. There’s still variance in quality, of course – but a bad Yamaha subwoofer is still better than the vast majority of its competition. Let’s take a closer look at each of these four brands, and discuss their pros and cons.

Our Overview of the 4 Top Brands

Polk Audio is fairly high-end in its target audience. The closest thing they have to a mass-market product is a $300 iPod dock. So, be prepared for a decent amount of cash outlay for any of their products. The PSW10 is one of the most popular options; it’s a 100W, 10-inch subwoofer with a very reasonable $110 or so. It’s small and relatively affordable, but does a great job both in music and movies, producing a well-defined bass sound.

In the higher end of the product line, you have the DSWmicroPRO1000. It’s 12 inches, 2400 watts at peak or 1200 continuous, and has an incredibly strong and clean sound profile. It’s also just shy of $900, but it’s worth it, should you fancy yourself a bit of an audiophile. Lastly, Polk Audio has a fairly decent selection of built-ins and automobile subwoofers, which are well worth considering.

BIC America isn’t any less targeted toward the high end of the market than Polk Audio, and their subwoofers have similar price tags. BIC tends to charge a little more, but provide slightly greater sound quality and wattage. Really, though, they go after essentially the same design goals, and they trade blows in terms of success in achieving those.

Either brand is a great pick for high-end systems, but isn’t well-advised if you want something a bit more affordable. That’s a shame, though; even if you’re on a budget, you want to get your money’s worth. So, what would be the best subwoofer brand for someone without the ability to throw a few hundred dollars at the problem?

Yamaha has a far more diverse product line than any other company in audio. They make everything from cheap headphones to hundred-thousand-dollar concert pianos; it’s no surprise that their subwoofer selection would have similar range. Yamaha’s dedicated powered subwoofer line starts with the YST-SW012. It’s still not super-cheap, at a price of $129.95, but it’s a good entry-level unit that’s accessible to people with tighter budgets, and boasts reasonable sound quality with 100W of power. Their other products are relatively competitive in their price range, but they don’t chase the same super-high-end segment that Polk and BIC do. They top out with the $449.95 NS-SW310, which has excellent sound quality, but is lacking in power given its 160W rating.

Lastly, there’s JBL Speakers. Their dedicated subwoofer offerings are fairly limited, and only really cover the $400-$600 mid-high-end range; this means that you don’t have nearly as many choices as the other brands. They’re providing some fantastic sound quality and earth-shaking loudness at those price points, but you are advised to be cautious; compared to the competition, build quality is questionable. You may wind up sending a lemon back before you get a subwoofer that you’re satisfied with. Still, the value proposition of a subwoofer with a range of 27Hz-150Hz and a peak power of 500W being sold for under $600 is considerable.

Quick Recap of the Top Subwoofer Brands

• Polk Audio
• BIC America
• JBL
• Yamaha
• Sony
• Cyber Acoustics
• Pioneer
• Klipsch

Hope you enjoyed this article, now go get yourself some deep sounds with your favorite subwoofer! 

How To Choose The Best Subwoofers

With so many subwoofers in the market its perfectly understandable if you get confused trying to choose. There are many good types, but the best way to choose is to know exactly what you are looking for. Since you probably have some questions as you shop for the best subwoofers, we’ll try to answer them right here so you can end up with the best sound possible.

Loudness

To get the correct level of loudness, you have to have 3 things all coming together correctly: sensitivity, the casing that the subwoofers come in and how much power they have. Think also about the size of the room they are required for. A set of subwoofers that is not so powerful in a small room will sound much louder than if they were placed in a larger room. If you want them for a small room, go for less power but keep the sensitivity and the casing the same.

Bass tones

You want a variety of bass tones and the only way to achieve it is with reduced frequencies. The casing is of topmost importance here. The best bass tones come in a large subwoofer that comes in a sealed box. Big subwoofers are usually designed to do a range of good bass tones. You also want to think about wattage here – the more the better the bass sounds you’ll get.

Power

To find out the power that a subwoofer will need, check the spec sheet. The lowest power is the one that will give you barely acceptable results. Remember that the bigger the subwoofer the more the power it uses so the better the sound.

Shape and design

These are really a question of taste. If you’re looking to spice up the look of your equipment, round ones or triangular ones will add the jazz. Most people go simply for square or rectangular one. It really doesn’t matter so long as they are the right size, have the right power and are encased in the right material.

Cone material

Subwoofer cone material can be derived from paper, synthetics or composites, but paper is by far the best because it responds very fast. To know the best subwoofers, you would need to test the sound of a set made of each of these materials because they greatly vary depending on their manufacturer. Paper ones, because they sound really good, are more expensive but also have a shorter lifespan. If you can afford them, go for it.

If you want to design an entertainment system that’s top of the range, subwoofers are a must. True, they may sound complex and you might not understand a lot of the jargon that surrounds them, but talk to an expert about the best subwoofers on the market. Remember that someone talking about one particular kind may not be giving you all the information – there are many types that are really good and all you need to do is take into account the above mentioned.