side firing woofers

[ogp]

Are side firing woofers in your mains meant to replace a seperate subwoofer? Or do you just use them to allow your mains to go lower?
If I am planning to make them powered, can I just use a plate amp like most subwoofers use? If so, how exactly do you hook this sort of thing up? Split the subwoofer out on your receiver?
Thanks for any replies.

Dave

 

[GRollins]

Making a woofer side firing is mainly so that the cabinet can have a narrow frontal aspect. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's a built-in subwoofer.
If you want to power one, all you have to do is approach it the same way you would if you were going to biamp any other speaker.

Grey

 

[Super]

IMO, its generally intended to be a subwoofer, or at least for use in sub 80 hz bass. Any higher than that, and you get into the argument over when bass starts being directional.

Yes, you can use plate amps, and yes, you can use a Y cable coming from your reciever's subwoofer out. You can also use the left/right channel outs from your receiver; thats what I do. Many plate amps have also have line outs, so you can go from receiver, to plate amp A, to plate amp B, without presenting any impedance problems to your receiver.