WHAT ARE THE DESIGN GOALS FOR OUR POWERED SUBWOOFERS? - We want to bring great bass into your home theater or home audio system regardless your budget or the size of your room.

Bass truly is the fundamental of one's home theater or audio system. There was a time in the world of audio that a good subwoofer was something only the bass-obsessed audiophile owned. Home Theater has changed all that, and now it is expected that a home theater system will have a subwoofer.

Many people - perhaps you - have never understood what a subwoofer's real job is. Yes, it is to make bass. More importantly, it is to make DEEP bass which immerses you in the movie/music performance rather than leaving you a mere viewer or listener.

Pitches that are an octave apart are eight diatonic degrees (notes) above or below the other. The higher pitch is exactly double the frequency of the lower. This refers to the Hz (number of vibrations per second) that is required to produce the pitches. So, a pitch vibrating at 110 Hz (110 vibrations per second) is an octave above a pitch vibrating at 55 Hz and an octave below a pitch vibrating at 220 Hz. To find the octave below a given frequency, cut that frequency by half. For an octave above, simply double the frequency.

Most subwoofers cover the range from 25 to 80 Hz. The better subwoofers extend down to below 20 Hz, and some can even hit 10 Hz or below (caution - this is also room dependent in many cases). This is where things can get complicated. Remember when we said a subwoofer has to reproduce signals starting at 80 Hz and ending up at possibly 10 Hz? The difficult part is this: the deeper the bass, the harder it is to reproduce.

Let's look at the math for a minute (keeping it as simple as possible). This 10 Hz to 80 Hz range represents 3 octaves of sound. Let's name these octaves Ultra-Deep (10-20 Hz), Deep (20-40 Hz) and Mid (40-80 Hz).


The ultra-deep bass is much harder to reproduce than is the mid bass. Why? Each time we drop an octave, we have to move 4 times as much air in order to deliver the same Sound Pressure Level (aka SPL or volume). SPL is measured in decibels, or dB.

Let's say we had a single 18 inch driver in a sealed cabinet: This driver requires the ability to move 0.25 inch "peak to peak" (farthest point forward the driver moves to farthest point backward the driver moves) in order to deliver 115 dB of SPL at 80 Hz (measured at one meter outdoors). This same driver would need to move 1 inch at 40 Hz in order to deliver the same 115 dB SPL. At 20 Hz, it needs to move 4 inches and finally, at 10 Hz, it needs to move 16 inches. It's now clear why a subwoofer that needs to deliver high output at 10 Hz is typically a very expensive thing to do, isn't it?

THE GOOD NEWS IS YOU DON'T NEED 10 HZ TO HAVE GREAT BASS: Yes, an ideal subwoofer WILL have the ability to deliver high levels of bass all the way to 10 Hz in one's room in order to have the "ultimate." Most sound tracks (i.e. - movies) don't have all that much bass in the 10-20 Hz range. In fact, most bass is in the frequencies from 25 to 80 Hz. It is this range that we must first deliver with ample power in order to truly experience excellent theater quality bass. At Chase Home Theater, this is where we will start with each customer - let's make sure you have the 25 to 80 Hz region covered .

Our SS-18.1 will handle this in all but the largest rooms, and can do so for under $1000 delivered to your door. There will be many rooms in which a single SS-18.1 will deliver all the bass you crave to below 20 Hz, and sometimes to 10 Hz, with just a single SS-18.1!

For those of you with a smaller room, or who don't require 115 dB in bass output, we can start you with our CS-10.2 for an entry level price of $400. In many smaller rooms, a single CS-10.2 will deliver these high output levels of bass in a compact, affordable package.

WHAT IF I WANT THE ULTIMATE? A CraigSUB subwoofer package can be designed to take your theater into the thunderous bass known as single digits (meaning below 10 Hz). We can also do this for an investment of far less of your hard earned dollars than you thought possible.

In terms of what is needed from a subwoofer system in order to deliver this great bass, each room has its own challenges. Many rooms have a lot of what is called "room gain." These rooms are normally rooms which can be closed off from the rest of the house. For now, consider room gain a good way to get "free bass" starting somewhere between 25 and 35 Hz in most rooms. Send us your room dimensions, and we can let you know whether or not your room is able to yield the above mentioned "free bass."

We can offer you several options to help you pick out the perfect subwoofer system for your home theater. These options include multiples of our SS-18.1 subwoofers placed properly in the room in order to deliver the smoothest, most powerful bass; singles or multiples of our VERY powerful SS-18.2 subwoofer; and our VS-18.1 subwoofer which delivers our highest power levels in the all important 16-80 Hz range.

Our VS-18.1 subwoofer is ideal for the person who needs the most powerful subwoofer available (from 16 to 100 Hz) anywhere near its price range. The "V" stands for vented, and this series of subwoofers uses a slot loaded vent, tuned to 20 Hz, for both high output and deep bass.