Subs with sound bars exist for three reasons:
- genuine bass rumble
- to fill in the midrange sounds missing from the sound bar speakers e.g. the lower registers of the male speaking voice
- fashion
Sound bars range in price from under £50 to well over £2,000. The single most popular brand is Sonos, and their cheapest sound-bar-with-sub package is over £1,000. The sound bar on its own is £450... no sub.
It might seem odd that a brand as big as Sonos feels it doesn't need to offer its customers a £450 sound bar with a sub. The answer to that is that the sound bar includes bass speakers big enough that they beat the contribution that a small external sub can make. They're not alone in this either. Companies which know a lot about making speakers also follow the same path; Dali, Yamaha, Harmon Kardon, JBL, Q Acoustics, B&W to name but a few. They've all taken the view that with some or all of their respective ranges it's better to make a standalone sound bar with really good speakers than compromise that by splitting the budget for the sake of fashion.
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Am I going to feel the T-Rex stomping about with a £200 bar + sub combo?"
The simple answer is no.
There's no point beating around the bush here. The production budget is just too small to make a commercially viable product where the sub has (a) a large enough driver in (b) a big enough ported box, and (c) with enough power to get sound reproduction much below about 50Hz. That's still within the subwoofer frequency range which is 200Hz down to 20Hz -
and incidentally why smaller sound bars and sound bases can claim to include a sub - but you're looking at bass response no better than a £60 set of Hi-Fi speakers.
To put the 200Hz subwoofer upper-frequency limit in to perspective, try playing this test tone on a a laptop or smart phone.
(4) 200 Hz Test Tone - YouTube I can hear that through the tiny half inch speakers in my laptop, and even via the much smaller speaker in a Samsung Galaxy. Wanna do another test? Here's a 20Hz to 20,000Hz frequency sweep.
(4) Sound Frequency 20Hz to 20000Hz - YouTube See where your speakers start to respond.
Back to the subs, even if budget wasn't a restriction, the sort of typical customer for this level of product has certain expectations. One of them is that the sub must be small enough to be hidden away.
The job of the subs at this level isn't to do fat bass. It's to fill in what's missing from the sound of the main bar.
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Why is there sound missing from the main bar?"
Look at the end profile of these sound bars. They're all fairly small because they have to fit in front of a TV that might be sitting on a stand. That means a limit for the size of speakers that can be incorporated. There are two solutions; one is to fit oval shaped drivers facing up behind the flat top surface of the bar, and then port the sound too in order to boost the bass further. These drivers not cheap, but they will get down to 40Hz.
Alternatively, take money away from the main sound bar budget and put it in to making an MDF box with a larger but cheaper driver, add a power supply and internal class D amp and a Bluetooth module. Also deal with the additional inventory and packaging and shipping costs, and not to mention the extra warranty support costs because there are now two distinct products in the package rather than one. That's how much impact it has on the total product budget.
I'm going to toss two products in to the ring.
The
Polk Audio Signa S2 is £220 and close enough in spec to compete with the Denon.
The
Yamaha SR-C20A is £199 and has no sub. Reviews comment on the depth of bass and how effective the clear voice tech is. It also maker a decent stab at music.
Both are available from RicherSounds. Arrange yourself a demo and do an A/B comparison away from the noise of the shop floor. RS has demo rooms for this, but you'll need to make an appointment. Hear for yourself what the bass is like from both solutions. Buy what you think best fits the bill.
