Designing and building your own subwoofer for your audio system can be a great way of improving its sound. Building your own subwoofer is really not that difficult (especially if you get a relative or friend to do the woodworking for you!), and makes a great starting point for the beginning DIY speaker builder.

Why should you build a subwoofer? Well, frankly most loudspeakers, particularly the smaller ones, are simply not capable of reproducing the lower bass frequencies (no matter what the specifications claim). If the loudspeakers are relieved from trying to play the lower bass frequencies, they will sound better at higher volume levels. Finally, a subwoofer can be located anywhere in your listening area, which provides you with much more flexibility in positioning your main loudspeakers for good sound.

Several types of subwoofers systems are covered in this site, including sealed, ported, bandpass, passive radiator and transmission line systems. Also included is information that will help you to choose the system that would best suit your needs, design and build a subwoofer that meets your needs, and techniques to use to get the most out of your build. Several projects are also covered on this site, just in case you are looking for some ideas. Also covered in this site is the designing of subwoofers for car audio use.

Not interested in building your own subwoofer?  Well, the information on this site can still help. The more you are familiar with subwoofer design concepts, the better position you will be in shopping around for a subwoofer (or subwoofers) to suit your stereo or home theatre system.

Note: To use any of the equations or spreadsheets given on this site, you MUST provide the T/S parameters for the driver that you want to use.  If these parameters were not provided when you purchased the driver, or you believe that they might be incorrect, it best to measure them before choosing what to do with the driver.

Brian Steele
31 January 2019