Upgrading To Better Speakers!

[richteer]

Originally Posted by mdabb

With talk about two subwoofers - got me thinking.

It is rumored or thought that bass is non-directional (mono) however some recordings use stereo bass. In order to even hear bass in stereo wouldn't it require your receiver or preamp to have left and right subwoofer outputs?

Sure you can use two subwoofer on a single output but wouldn't it null and void the idea of stereo bass? Being that it only represents one channel.

Having two subwoofers would only reinforce that mono channel and still wouldn't sonically benefit bass in stereo. The bass wouldn't match up and was artificially put there. What would be the point of having the same bass signal on two different channels?

Having one great sounding well placed subwoofer, wouldn't it sound sonically sound the same with just less bass?


Can anyone clarify and care to add to this and are there preamps that have L/R sub outputs???

Correct: for stereo bass, you either need a pair of full range speakers, or a pair of subs. Most receivers have only one sub output, for the LFE (the .1 in 5.1 or 7.1), so connectiong two subs would be beneficial, but still only mono.

There are a few pre/pros with dual sub outputs, but I think they have the same signal. The only proper ".2" amp that comes to mind is Yamaha's 11.2 channel monster.

All of the preceding assumes that you use the LFE (sub) output. If you connect your subs up to the same way you connect your speakers, then yes, you can have proper stereo bass from them.