A subwoofer is more than a bass monster. Set up well, it adds weight, depth and an electrifying pulse that lets you not just hear the music but feel it. Subwoofers are specially made to reproduce the lowest frequencies – the stuff that regular compact speakers often struggle with. And even if you have a pair of big floorstanders, a good subwoofer can add another layer of depth and scale.
The trick is getting it to work with your speakers rather than sounding like a separate box making bass in the corner. Luckily, you don’t need an engineering degree for that. Here are our favourite tips & tricks for getting the most out of your subwoofer.
So, What Does a Subwoofer Do?
There’s a rule of thumb when playing music with a pair of speakers and a subwoofer: you shouldn’t really notice the subwoofer. Until you turn it off.
Sounds strange, right? The point is that a good subwoofer shouldn’t dominate the sound. It should blend seamlessly with your speakers, making the whole system sound bigger, deeper and more effortless.
That said, bass is subjective. Some people want subtle, perfectly integrated low-end. Others want kick drums in the chest and movie night to shake the sofa. Both are perfectly acceptable. It’s your system. Play it how you like!
Which Subwoofer Should I Choose?
First things first: the right subwoofer depends on the size of your room, your speakers, how loud you listen and, let’s be honest, how much bass you want.
Our MALMÖ SUB series is the simple, plug-and-play option. You get adjustable crossover, phase and volume without a lot of fuss.
- MALMÖ SUB 6 is the compact one. Perfect for smaller rooms, desktop systems and apartments where space is limited but proper bass is still very much required.
- MALMÖ SUB 8 is the all-rounder. More punch and scale, while still being compact enough to fit comfortably into most rooms.
- MALMÖ SUB 10 is where things start getting serious. More room-filling impact makes it the better choice for larger spaces, bigger systems and anyone who believes the volume knob is there to be used.
Then there’s BERLIN SUB. BERLIN SUB 10 and BERLIN SUB 12 take things quite a bit further with more power, advanced DSP, Speakermatch™, Room EQ, adjustable delay, Real Time Bass™, XLR and built-in MATRIX Wireless™ capability. The difference between the two BERLIN models is mostly about scale.
- BERLIN SUB 10 gives you the full BERLIN experience in the more compact cabinet. It’s easier to place and a great choice when you want serious performance without letting the subwoofer take over the room.
- BERLIN SUB 12 adds more cone area, more headroom and more physical authority. Got a big room? Like playing loud? Want movie night to feel slightly unreasonable? Go 12-inch.
And remember: driver size isn’t everything. A MALMÖ SUB 10 and a BERLIN SUB 10 both have a 10-inch driver, but they are very different beasts in terms of power, technology and performance.
Subwoofer Setup Tips
Where should I place my subwoofer?
Subwoofers are much more forgiving when it comes to placement than your main speakers because very low frequencies are far less directional. A good place to start is somewhere along the same wall as your speakers. It keeps the cable run simple, looks tidy and often works well acoustically.
But – and this is important – every room is different.
Move the subwoofer 30–50 cm and listen again. Is it Better? Worse? Boomier? Tighter? Keep experimenting until you find the perfect place for your home.
BERLIN SUB gives you a little more freedom here. With the optional MATRIX transmitter, the built-in MATRIX Wireless™ receiver lets you send the audio signal wirelessly, so the best position for your subwoofer doesn’t have to be the position your cable agrees with.
There is a technique, though, that solves the positioning problem very fast: the subwoofer crawl!
BERLIN SUB also includes Room EQ, which can help reduce problematic bass frequencies caused by room resonances. For detailed Room EQ adjustment, we’d recommend heading to the BERLIN SUB manual.
Note: Try to avoid corners. This will help prevent standing waves and other acoustic issues that can affect sound quality and trust us, you don't want that. In fact, if you want a more accurate sound, consider positioning the subwoofer away from walls altogether.
The subwoofer crawl
No, this is not the newest dance move to bust out on the floor. This a technique to establish the best placement for a subwoofer in your exact room – and all you need is your ears and a little bit of time. Now, this isn’t the exact scientific way of researching the acoustics of a room, but it’ll do just fine if you’re simply looking to find a good spot for your new sub.
Here’s how you do it:
- Place your subwoofer at or near your most common listening position (like your couch).
- Play a bass-heavy track that you’re familiar with.
- Get on your knees and crawl around the room (yeah, we’re serious).
- Listen for spots where the bass sounds especially impactful, deep and loud.
- Once you’ve found a spot, place your sub as close to this as possible. If it’s not ideal, try another place.
- Stand up, set up your system and rock on!
If you’ve tried everything and your bass just isn’t pumping like you want it to, you might want to try two subwoofers. There’s no shame in needing a little help, and your room might just be too much for a single sub to handle. There are so many possible setups, just let your imagination run wild!
Connecting your subwoofer
Before connecting anything, make sure to switch off your equipment. If your amplifier or active speakers have a Sub-Out, that’s normally the easiest option. Connect it to your subwoofer using a subwoofer cable. On BERLIN SUB, use the left RCA input marked Mono.
Got a stereo Pre-Out instead? Connect both the left and right outputs to the corresponding RCA inputs on the subwoofer. BERLIN SUB also has a balanced XLR input for amplifiers and processors equipped with an XLR subwoofer output.
There are more connection possibilities if you need them, but if you’ve reached that point, the manual is once again your friend.
Crossover Frequency: where should the subwoofer take over?
The crossover frequency determines how high in frequency your subwoofer plays and where your main speakers take over. Set it too high and the subwoofer and speakers overlap too much, which can make the bass sound thick, boomy or disconnected. Set it too low and you can end up with a gap between where your speakers stop and the subwoofer starts.
The goal is simple: your speakers hand the bass over to the subwoofer and nobody notices the handover.
For MALMÖ SUB, a good starting point is around the frequency where your main speakers begin to lose bass output. Smaller bookshelf speakers will generally need a higher crossover while larger speakers and floorstanders can usually be crossed over lower. We recommend setting the crossover frequency to between 60-80 Hz for our 4-inch, 5-inch, and 55-inch speakers.
Got BERLIN SUB? Use Speakermatch
This is where BERLIN SUB makes life easier. Your speakers don’t suddenly stop playing below one exact frequency. Their bass gradually rolls off, and the way it rolls off depends partly on how the speaker cabinet is designed.
A normal subwoofer doesn’t know that but with Speakermatch™, BERLIN SUB does.
Selected Argon Audio speakers already have dedicated presets, making it even easier. If your speakers have a dedicated Speakermatch™ preset in BERLIN SUB, simply select that preset and let BERLIN do its thing.
No preset? No problem. First, find out whether your speakers use a sealed cabinet, bass reflex/ported cabinet or passive radiator. Then select the matching speaker type in Speakermatch™ and set the crossover frequency to match your speakers. That’s it.
BERLIN SUB then adapts its crossover and phase behaviour to the way your speakers naturally roll off, helping the two behave more like one system instead of a speaker plus a box in the corner making bass.
And yes, you can still tweak things afterwards. Your ears are still in charge.
Phase and Delay
Bass isn’t just about how much. Timing matters too. Your speakers and subwoofer should work together. If they’re fighting each other, bass around the crossover can suddenly become weak or disconnected.
With MALMÖ SUB, start with the phase at 0°. If the bass around the crossover sounds weak or thin from your listening position, try 180° and use whichever sounds fuller and more natural.
With BERLIN SUB, Speakermatch™ already takes the speakers’ phase behaviour into account, while the adjustable delay gives you another tool for getting everything properly aligned.
Delay is particularly useful if your subwoofer sits closer to you than your main speakers. A little extra delay can help their sound arrive together instead of slightly out of step.
For a straightforward setup, though, don’t change settings just because they’re there. Start simple. Fine-tune if you need to.
Volume Level
We recommend playing a song with a consistent bass signal and adjusting the knob until the volume of the subwoofer is at a similar level to your speakers. As a starting point, we recommend the middle position on the volume knob, or level 25 on the BERLIN subwoofers, but ultimately, it's up to you to create whatever vibrating monster you dream of.
Sometimes less is more, especially when trying to create a realistic sound of instruments. And sometimes more is more, especially when you want to have fun. There is nothing wrong with changing volume options depending on what you listen to!
That’s really it. Now press play.
