I see many new subwoofers at present don’t have the high-pass filter for main speakers. The engineer seems to want the main speakers to be driven in full range and subwoofer be the double of bass. Isn’t it unnecessary to use the high-pass filter now? Please help to clarify me. Thanks in advance
Ideally, the main speakers would be fed via a highpass filter. However, that's not always easy. A passive (speaker-level) filter would be large and complex, especially if it needed to be load-invariant. An active (line-level) filter can be difficult to integrate into the typical HiFi setup with a 2-channel amplifier and a pair of speakers.
So, it's a compromise that leans towards ease of use. I guess that's as much of a marketing decision as anything else.
Chris
So, it's a compromise that leans towards ease of use. I guess that's as much of a marketing decision as anything else.
Chris
Also a lot of subs are expected to go into home theatre setups where the filtering is done in the amplifer.
Not high-passing the main speakers is the most cardinal sin of all in this setup. The magic to be had from relieving them of lower bass signals is significant, reducing the excursion and hence many forms of distortion at a stroke. It also increases the total system output capability.
The 'Sub and Satellite' idea's hifi credibility has been largely destroyed by lifestyle speaker systems such as Bose and a nearly infinite number of home cinema systems, but when implemented sensibly and properly it is an exceptionally good concept. Equally important is the bandpass filtering of the subs themselves to reduce excursion at the low end beyond their useful output response, and higher frequencies which can localise the sub. It's all basic stuff that so many get so wrong, including Big Names who should know better...
The 'Sub and Satellite' idea's hifi credibility has been largely destroyed by lifestyle speaker systems such as Bose and a nearly infinite number of home cinema systems, but when implemented sensibly and properly it is an exceptionally good concept. Equally important is the bandpass filtering of the subs themselves to reduce excursion at the low end beyond their useful output response, and higher frequencies which can localise the sub. It's all basic stuff that so many get so wrong, including Big Names who should know better...