We spend significant time pondering helpful content that will educate consumers about the options available to upgrade their car audio system. We’ve written dozens of articles explaining how various features and designs can improve a subwoofer’s performance, and we realized that this would be a perfect time to summarize all that education in a single document. Welcome to the ultimate guide to subwoofer performance technologies!

Subwoofer Performance Means Different Things to Different People

We’ll review several design elements that affect a subwoofer’s performance, linearity, accuracy, efficiency and cost. Some features make a subwoofer more accurate. Others make it more efficient. Most add to the cost. We’ll simply define the benefit. It’s up to you to determine whether a particular feature or design element suits your application. Do you crave having a kettle drum or low-C piano note sounding as accurate as possible? Do you want to shake the mirror off the front window? Both are valid goals for a car audio system.

Basket Materials and Design

Let’s start with the foundation of a subwoofer: the basket or chassis. A subwoofer basket aims to align the components like the motor, voice coil, spider and cone. The least expensive subwoofers will have a simple stamped basket with little reinforcement in the form of curved features. Moving up from there, baskets with embossed or rounded-over edges are much stronger and more rigid. These designs can support heaving magnet structures without the risk of bending. Finally, we have cast baskets, which are the strongest designs and can support very heavy motor structures.

The tools required to create a basket, be it stamped or cast, are expensive. If the speaker manufacturer wants to reduce the cost of developing the product, they can use an existing generic design, though it can’t copy another product’s intellectual property.

Years ago, a fad involved adding mass to stamped baskets to increase their rigidity or reduce potential resonance. Installers and enthusiasts would add layers of Dynamat to the back of each spoke. The forces on a basket are in two directions. Gravity is by far the strongest force on a subwoofer basket. Imagine the force a 10-pound magnet, T-yoke and top plate exert on the basket as your vehicle hits a pothole. If the basket is too flimsy to support this, it will bend permanently. This results in a misalignment between the voice coil and the magnet assembly. The voice coil winding will contact the top plate and damage the woofer.

Forward and rearward forces from the magnet are also pushing and pulling on the cone. In comparison, these are minute, except perhaps for some extreme power SPL products. Even then, the magnet structure is a more significant concern.

The reality is that most car audio enthusiasts perceive cast-basket subwoofers as being better purely based on their physical appearance. Many products use stamped baskets shaped to look like their cast brethren. Ultimately, proper motor structure support is the goal.

Shallow-Mount Subwoofers

With the popularity of pickup trucks came the need for subwoofer solutions that could fit into extremely shallow areas. Historically, these subwoofers sacrificed excursion capability for minimized mounting depth. Today, many shallow 10- and 12-inch subwoofers offer just as much excursion and power handling as full-size ones.

Basket Cooling Features

The design of a subwoofer basket or chassis can affect its performance and longevity. A prime example is venting under the spider mounting plateau. The top plate can get warm, so allowing hot air to escape from the top surface can improve power handling. Many stamped subwoofers use vents stamped into the basket, while cast basket designs may include either slots or a design that uses a perforated plastic spacer for the spiders.

While we’re on the topic of cooling, Rockford Fosgate includes its Inductive Damping Heat Sink on its Power Series subwoofers. This finned copper element mounts on top of the top plate and improves heat transfer for enhanced power handling.

Magnet Materials

One of the heaviest components of a subwoofer is the magnet. The least expensive quality options might have a 10-ounce magnet, while some high-power options might have ceramic magnets weighing over 25 pounds. On its own, the weight or even the size of the magnet isn’t a feature that directly correlates to quality. However, a stronger magnet can improve efficiency. A larger magnet can help with power handling.

Most subwoofers use ceramic magnets, which are also known as ferrite magnets. These magnets are relatively simple to produce and not too expensive. They can put up with the high temperatures that large subwoofers have to endure. Rare earth magnets, made from neodymium, are much smaller for a given magnetic field strength. Depending on their quality, they can lose some of their magnetic strength when exposed to high temperatures.

We’re seeing more speakers and shallow-mount subwoofers using neodymium magnets inside the voice coil winding. This reduces size and weight at the expense of increased cost.

Speaker Wire Terminals

We should talk about electrical terminals while we’re on the topic of subwoofer baskets. The least-expensive option is a non-conductive cardboard or plastic tab with a pair of spade connectors attached. Your installer can crimp connectors onto the speaker wires and slide them onto the terminals.

Moving up, we find spring-loaded terminals. These are usually attached to a plastic tab or integrated into a custom-tooled mounting solution. While these are a seemingly simple design element, they cost a little more in terms of the raw components and the expense to tool the injection molding for the mounting solution.

At the extreme end of the terminal world are fully custom connection solutions. They can include unique spring terminals or terminal blocks with set screws. Once again, invoking these designs adds cost to the subwoofer as the parts are often one-off designs unique to that brand. When massive amounts of current need to be delivered reliably, these are often the best choices.

Mounting Gaskets and Hardware

It might seem like nothing, but including a mounting gasket with a subwoofer is essential. The seal between the enclosure mounting surface and the underside of the subwoofer basket is crucial to noise-free operation and maximum performance. Many subwoofers, even some that cost a lot, don’t include a mounting gasket. Ideally, the gasket should come already installed on the subwoofer. Yes, this process adds manufacturing expense but saves time and cost during installation.

Once again, something that seems insignificant but can save time during installation is for a subwoofer manufacturer to include mounting hardware. A little plastic bag with eight mounting screws that are sized perfectly for the subwoofer in mind will make getting your subwoofer system up and running quickly a breeze. Yes, it adds a few cents to the cost of the product, but it saves your installer time searching for the ideal hardware.

Subwoofer Grilles

As an extension of the discussion about mounting solutions, we should talk about subwoofer grilles. Protecting a subwoofer from damage when it is exposed is crucial to ensuring that it will last. If an object runs into the cone, it can be permanently damaged. Many subwoofers include perforated mesh grilles, or the manufacturer offers them as accessories.

Whether a manufacturer-provided grille is used or you have your installer construct a protection solution for your subwoofer, make sure it won’t interfere with operation. If the surround rubs on something, it will be damaged. This interference can also cause distortion.

Vented Pole Piece Designs

The most popular cooling feature has been a vented pole piece. This design element involves an open channel that extends from the base of the T-yoke upward to underneath the dust cap. This vent allows hot air to escape from the inside of the motor assembly.

There is a situation where a pole piece or T-yoke vent can be an issue. For subwoofers designed for shallow mounting solutions, leaving room behind the subwoofer for air to enter and exit a pole-piece vent requires a gap between the back of the enclosure and the deepest portion of the motor structure. Some companies forego this vent to minimize mounting depth requirements.

Surround Designs and Materials

Let’s talk about subwoofer surround designs and materials. The least expensive subwoofers will use foam surrounds. These function well, but they can dry out and crack or degrade after a few years of exposure to the sun. A better solution is a synthetic rubber. Pure rubber also has issues with UV degradation, so materials like Santoprene or IIR-butyl are better options. It’s crucial, however, that the material doesn’t change dramatically in cold weather. The subwoofer won’t perform properly if the surround becomes stiff when temperatures go below freezing.

If you’ve ever stopped to consider the motion of a subwoofer cone relative to the shape of a surround, you’ll recognize that features built into the surround might improve linearity. Because the inside of the surround is smaller, it can, even at a microscopic level, compress laterally as the cone moves inward or stretch when it moves outward. Many subwoofers use ridges in their surround designs to improve linearity at high excursion levels.

You’ll find a few companies that stitch the surround to the cone. This connection is less likely to fail than the connection to the basket. So, while it can’t hurt, it’s often a cosmetic feature rather than one that improves reliability.

Cone Materials

A more controversial topic when it comes to subwoofer features that improve performance is cone material. Subwoofers are designed to play frequencies below about 100 hertz. As such, issues like cone and dust cap resonance aren’t the concern they are with midrange speakers. The only requirement is a subwoofer cone that can handle the forces exerted on it without being damaged. As such, a 10-inch woofer with a half-inch of excursion ability doesn’t need to be as strong as a 15-inch woofer that can move over 3 inches. So, polypropylene, paper, carbon, layered composites or even metals perform the same, as long as they can handle the forces exerted by the motor assembly. The same applies to dust caps, whether they cover the center of the cone or its entire surface.

There are some environmental considerations in terms of cone materials. Pressed paper cones could absorb humidity in extremely damp climates without a moisture barrier. Better designs will include a clear coating. All materials and designs should use materials that don’t degrade under prolonged UV exposure. Drying, cracking or fading are signs of ultraviolet degradation. If you aren’t sure about a product, ask to compare a new unit that was freshly removed from the package to one that has been on a display board for a while.

Designs That Increase Cone Area

Several companies have developed subwoofers that fit a specific dimension but include features significantly increasing cone area. Let’s look at three of the most popular examples.

First, Rockford Fosgate’s Vertical Attach Surround Technique moves the outer edge of the surround closer to the outside edge of the driver. In some applications, this can increase the driver’s effective cone area by as much as 25% with no changes to the mounting requirements.

Another area-optimized subwoofer would be the JL Audio W7 series. These drivers use a unique surround design that attaches to the outer edge of the basket after it’s secured to the enclosure. In keeping with the 8-inch theme, the 8W7AE-3 has an Sd specification of 245 square centimeters.

The king of effective radiating area for a given driver size goes to square subwoofers. Made popular by KICKER, their L-Series woofers make better use of the available space on the front of an enclosure. For example, the L7T82 8-inch woofer has an Sd value of 269 square centimeters.

Voice Coil Sizes and Winding Layers

The voice coil is the heart of any subwoofer. If it fails, you won’t hear anything. Voice coils are nothing more than a length (or two or four) of wire wrapped around a former. The wire might be pure copper, copper-coated aluminum or aluminum. The choice of material doesn’t affect power handling or sound quality but might be chosen to add resistance to hit a target impedance.

The size of a voice coil affects performance in the context of power handling. A 2-inch winding that’s an inch tall won’t dissipate as much heat as a coil that’s 4 inches in diameter and 2 inches tall. The physical volume on the coil winding is a key contributor to power handling. If it overheats, the varnish on the wire will melt, and the coil will short or unravel.

While additional windings add more thermal mass to the voice coil, they have a negative effect of increasing the inductance of the winding. Added inductance opposes changes in the flow of alternating current. If the inductance is high enough, it can affect the midbass performance of a subwoofer. So balancing size, power handling, mass and midbass performance is crucial to the design process.

One design element that can improve voice coil performance is the use of flat-wound conductors instead of round. The flat conductors eliminate the gaps between round conductors to strengthen the magnetic density of the winding. This can translate into increased driver efficiency. There is also increased mass for a given set of outer dimensions. This can be beneficial or detrimental, depending on the goals for the subwoofer and the rest of the materials chosen. One thing is certain: Using a flat-wound voice coil will increase the cost of the subwoofer.

Voice Coil Former Materials

Another area that can affect the reliability of a subwoofer is the material used for the voice coil. We’ve seen everything from cardboard tubes (not unlike a paper towel roll) to anodized aluminum or synthetic materials like Kapton. These materials have different physical properties in terms of heat management and mass. The most efficient car audio subwoofers might convert two percent of an amplifier’s energy into sound. The rest is wasted as heat. As such, the temperature of a voice coil former might reach hundreds of degrees. It needs to remain dimensionally stable and rigid for the subwoofer to function correctly. Different materials help extract heat from the voice coil winding. Aluminum that’s been anodized black is a popular choice for high-power handling designs.

Some voice coils have vents at the top between where the winding ends and the coil attaches to the cone. These vents allow hot air to escape from inside the winding and improve power handling.

Voice Coil Winding Length

If you want a subwoofer that will play loudly, especially at low frequencies, the cone assembly needs to be able to move forward and rearward linearly. This specification is called Xmax. It describes the mathematical cone motion limit by subtracting the top plate’s height from the voice coil’s height and dividing it by two. So, if a driver has a 2-inch-tall winding and a 0.5-inch-thick top plate, the Xmax specification would be 0.75 inch or just over 19 millimeters.

Unfortunately, the motor structure is just one component in determining the usable excursion limit of a subwoofer. The second, perhaps of more importance, is the position where the driver becomes nonlinear. This could be caused by the spider or surround reaching its limit or when the voice coil starts to leave the gap. The Xmax10 specification is where a subwoofer reaches a distortion level of 10%. This is considered the upper usable excursion limit.

Bumped Bottom Plate

Part of designing a subwoofer with significant excursion capability is ensuring that the voice coil former doesn’t smash into the bottom plate (or T-yoke). If you’ve ever heard this, you know it sounds like a small hammer hitting a bench vice. In drivers with aluminum formers, it can roll over the end of the former and cause it to jam up in the gap when it tries to move upward. Subwoofers with fiberglass or Kapton formers can crack, causing the assembly to change shape and bind.

Using a bumped bottom plate is a straightforward design element that helps prevent this condition. Rather than being in line with the magnet bottom, a recess is cut or molded to add additional space. Subwoofers with bumped bottom plates were “cool” in the ’80s and ’90s, but it’s a common feature now. This feature is more likely found on a subwoofer with a single magnet than one with double- or triple-stacked designs.

Triple-Joint Reinforcing Designs

The joint where the voice coil, spider and cone are glued together is often called the triple joint. In many subwoofers, all three components are at the same point, while others have the spider mounted lower down the former. The exact location of everything depends on the design. As we’ve mentioned, the woofer cone needs to be strong enough to withstand the forces applied to it where it meets the former. Many companies will include injection-molded components at this joint to increase gluing surface area and add strength.

Pressure Relief Features Improve Linearity

A high-power subwoofer may be capable of moving forward or rearward over a range of more than 2 inches. As such, if pressure or a slight vacuum were to build up in the area, the driver would be less linear at high volume levels. Venting under the spider mounting plateau and the dust cap can prevent pressure changes, making the subwoofer more linear when pushed hard. Some drivers even have vents in the cone under the dust cap to release air pressure.

Suspension Component Selection

We’re starting to talk about implementing components that affect the Thiele/Small parameters of a subwoofer. There is no perfect subwoofer. Some are designed to be well-damped, while others have some intended resonance to increase output. The spider’s stiffness is the main component in determining the Equivalent Compliance (Vas) for a given subwoofer size. A stiff or narrow-diameter spider will typically result in a smaller Vas number. A soft or large-diameter spider will result in a higher Vas value. The compliance also affects the driver’s Qms or mechanical Q. Of course, no single parameter on its own serves as the final determining factor in the suitability of one subwoofer over another for a specific application.

A subwoofer’s Qts value (Total Driver Q) considers the electrical and mechanic Q factors. Low-Q drivers will have a smoother response, as the driver is less likely to resonate after the signal is removed. A high-Q driver might produce a little more bass, but this comes at the cost of a slightly less accurate sound with more ringing or overhang. Subwoofers designed to be more efficient and offer a little boom will usually have a somewhat higher Q, between 0.5 and 0.65. Low-Q drivers would be in the 0.3-0.4 range. Drivers with Qts values over 0.7 are typically designed for infinite baffle applications.

Some subwoofers use dual spiders to help keep the cone and motor assembly from rocking at high excursion levels. Implementing dual spiders usually increases Vas and Qms, but two compliant spiders might improve longevity. If the designer knows the cone will remain centered in the gap, they can tighten the gap to the top plate, which will improve efficiency.

Linear Versus Progressive Spiders

Two spider geometries are commonly available for car audio subwoofers. Linear spiders exert similar amounts of resistance to motion through a range of excursion levels. Progressive spiders have more compliance (move more easily) at lower excursion levels and then provide lots of control when the cone moves a lot. In reality, a spider will have a specific compliance curve that depends on the materials used in construction and the overall shape. The spider should prevent the voice coil former from bottoming on the back plate. While it seems counterintuitive, most high-end subwoofers have progressive-rate spiders. These days, “small-box” subwoofer designs are popular. As such, the compliance of the air in the enclosure plays a more significant role in the control cone excursion than the suspension. There are, of course, exceptions.

Tinsel Lead Management

Tinsel leads provide a flexible electrical connection between the subwoofer terminals and the voice coil winding. Finding tinsel leads sewn loosely to a spider is common practice to control their motion. There should be enough flexibility so the lead doesn’t affect compliance but enough control to prevent the leads from slapping into the cone. Other manufacturers will coat the leads in plastic or rubber and cut then to a very tight length tolerance to ensure that they don’t make noise. Tinsel leads floating around without proper management can short together or make a ticking noise as they bump into the cone.

In the early ’90s, a popular subwoofer line used carbon fiber woofer cones. The uncoated tinsel leads would run into these electrically conductive cones and, in extreme cases, burn a hole through the cone. The design also resulted in damaged amplifiers.

Shorting Rings and Copper T-Yoke Caps

Several options are available to help reduce changes in inductance based on subwoofer cone position. When a subwoofer moves outward, less of the voice coil might be inside the pole piece. As such, its inductance goes down, and higher-frequency performance improves. The opposite happens when the woofer cone moves rearward, and the midbass response worsens. A designer can add a shorting ring under the top plate or a copper cap on the T-yoke to reduce the overall inductance of the subwoofer coil and make these changes in inductance less significant.

Subwoofers with inductance management can play higher frequencies better, making them sound tighter and more dynamic. These drivers are also typically easier to blend with the midbass speakers in the front of the vehicle as the driver’s and the filter’s overall response is more predictable. Induction management is necessary for any subwoofer to be considered a high-end, sound-quality driver. Shorting rings can be made from aluminum or copper, with the latter being more expensive.

Dual Voice Coil Designs

Many subwoofers have two voice coil windings and two sets of external terminals. These windings can be wired in series, parallel or driven by different amplifier channels. Combining the suitable subwoofers with a particular amplifier will ensure that the system can play loudly and efficiently. From a performance benefit, dual voice coil subwoofers don’t sound or work better than their single coil brethren. They may, however, provide flexibility in optimizing available amplifier power.

Voice Coil Series or Parallel Switches

Getting the wiring on dual voice coil subwoofers right can be tricky for amateurs. Some companies include switches or plugs that make selecting between series and parallel wiring easy. The drawback to these features is an inability to feed each voice coil from a different amplifier channel. It’s rarely an issue, but it does come up with low-quality, non-bridgeable amplifiers.

JBL has a feature on some higher-end subwoofers called Selectable Smart Impedance that allows a single driver to present an amplifier with a nominal 2- or 4-ohm load, which can be selected with a chassis-mounted switch. SSI uses three 6-ohm voice coils to allow this level of flexibility. Of course, SSI is a patented design, so no companies outside the Harman group can use it without proper licensing.

ANSI/CTA-2031 Compliance

Just as the power specifications for car audio amplifiers got out of hand, so too have some subwoofer specifications. The ANSI/CTA-2031 standard describes testing criteria for car audio speakers and subwoofers. These specifications include continuous power handling, sensitivity, frequency response, excursion limits and dimensions, to name a few. Companies that confirm that the information they publish about their speakers complies with this standard have invested significant time and effort into ensuring that you get a quality product that functions precisely as described.

Suitable Thiele/Small Parameters

The last topic we’ll discuss is the suitability of a specific subwoofer for a particular application. Attempting to use a large speaker in an undersized enclosure is a recipe for weak bass and high distortion. When deciding which subwoofer will sound best for your car audio system, work with a reputable mobile enhancement retailer with the tools and experience to measure, model and design a subwoofer solution that will deliver the performance you want. We suggest working backward from the available space in the vehicle and then choosing subwoofers that will provide the most possible low-frequency output in that space. If your goal is maximum SPL, the criteria are similar, but rather than tuning the enclosure for maximum extension, it will be tuned higher or more efficiency.

For someone to design an enclosure, they need specifications that allow software applications like Term-PRO or BassBox Pro to simulate the frequency response, power handling and vent performance at different drive levels. These specifications are called Thiele/Small parameters. Each value describes a distinct characteristic of the cone assembly, suspension components and voice coil windings. With accurate data, an expert designer can create something that will perform well in your vehicle.

Thiele/Small parameters all work together to describe a subwoofer. As such, no single one stands out from the others as needing to be a specific value. As they say, there can be many ways to reach a destination. The right combination of design elements can provide impressive efficiency, but this often comes with a loss of low-frequency extension. Nobody, and we mean absolutely nobody, has found a way to defy the laws of physics regarding subwoofer design.

It’s crucial to note that the accuracy of the specifications is tied directly to the quality control standards of the manufacturer. If there are variances in cone mass, suspension compliance or adhesive application, the resulting subwoofer will behave differently from another sample. Consumers underestimate the importance of proper quality control during manufacturing.

Get Help Choosing the Best Subwoofer for Your Needs

Choosing the best subwoofer for a specific application depends on many variables. You might be on a budget and select something inexpensive with a foam surround, stamped steel basket, polypropylene cone and a single ceramic magnet to warm up a factory-installed audio system. Alternatively, you may want a subwoofer that can play as loudly as possible, so you’d choose something with a much larger double-stacked magnet assembly, a cast basket, enhanced cooling features, dual flat-wound voice coils and a strong cone to put up with more than 1,000 watts of power and high excursion levels. Lastly, you may want a driver with features like a shorting ring and copper T-yoke cap, a flat-wound voice coil, a progressive spider, a rubber surround and a compliant suspension to deliver highly accurate bass with very low distortion.

Adding a subwoofer to your car audio system is one of the best upgrades to improve its performance. Whether inexpensive, fancy or loud, this guide will help you work with a local specialty mobile enhancement retailer to pick a product that offers an excellent balance of value and performance to suit your expectations.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

We recently saw someone ask how many subwoofers they should use in their car audio system. They qualified the question by adding that cost and space weren’t issues and that their goal was to get the best sound quality from the system. This is a great question, as it ties together many considerations. Let’s look at a few benefits and drawbacks of using a single versus multiple subwoofers in a car audio system.

The Purpose of a Subwoofer System

We should spend a moment talking about the purpose of a car audio subwoofer system before we get into the details of how many subwoofers might or might not be required. Subwoofer systems are designed to reproduce bass frequencies. While the vast majority of music only has bass information down to about 40 Hz, many genres have information well below that. Ideally, a subwoofer should play down to 20 Hz with good efficiency. In reality, achieving that goal is extremely difficult.

If you’ve ever watched someone design a subwoofer enclosure and look at the simulations, you’ll know that providing significant output down to 20 cycles will be very difficult. Playing that low requires a subwoofer or several subwoofers with massive excursion capabilities. In addition, the subwoofer will need to be in a large enclosure. The resulting lack of cone control might cause problems at higher frequencies. In all, it’s a complex challenge.

Subwoofer Systems Need Space

We’ve invested significant time researching these so-called “small box” subwoofers to determine what makes them “work” in enclosures with limited airspace. After almost 100 simulations, it became clear that nearly all modern subwoofers are “small box” designs, compared to some offerings from the ’80s that needed massive enclosures.

The simulations confirm that the amount of deep bass a subwoofer will produce depends directly on the effective cone area and the enclosure size. Cram a 12-inch subwoofer in a 0.5-cubic-foot cabinet, and you’ll likely get less deep bass than if you use an 8-inch subwoofer in the same space.

No matter what size or how many subwoofers you choose, they will need to be installed in an appropriately designed enclosure. Undersized enclosures limit low-frequency output, as we’ve shown above. You can’t get deep bass from a pair of 12-inch subwoofers if you don’t have room for a relatively large enclosure.

To put the capabilities of the 30-inch M-Force subwoofer shown above into perspective, it needs an enclosure that is about 4 feet square and 2 feet thick. With bracing and so forth, that’s around 25 cubic feet. That’s the entire cargo area of a full-size SUV – for a single driver.

Decide how much room you have for your vehicle’s subwoofer system before deciding how many subwoofers you want. The best systems are designed backward from the space you have available.

Subwoofer System Output Expectations

The second criterion in determining the number of drivers in a subwoofer system is to quantify the system’s output expectations. An 8-inch driver in a vented enclosure is likely enough for a low-cost subwoofer upgrade to add warmth and kick to a factory-installed sound system. If you want to drive around town with the windows down and shake the rearview mirror, you’ll likely need a pair of 10- or 12-inch subwoofers, at the very minimum. If your goal is to set SPL competition world records, technically, the number of subwoofers depends on the sanctioning body you’re competing in. However, you’ll need as many as you can fit with as much power as you can feed them if you want to be the loudest.

Expectations must be reasonable. Trying to get a single 10-inch subwoofer to play louder than it’s designed to typically results in its destruction. If you want the bass to be louder, you have three options. First, work with a product specialist at a local mobile electronics retailer to pick a subwoofer with greater power handling and excursion capabilities. Second, you can use larger subwoofers. Finally, you can use more subwoofers. The second and third options require a significant increase in enclosure volume. It’s also worth noting that the high-output subwoofer in the first option will need an enclosure with a larger diameter/area vent.

Subwoofer Sound Quality Considerations

Here’s a factor that very few consider when it comes to subwoofer system design: All speakers and subwoofers, no matter their brand, design, cost or features, add more distortion at higher excursion levels. Yes, a well-designed subwoofer might be clearer at higher volume levels than one that doesn’t have features like a shorting ring. However, both add more distortion as the cone excursion increases.

Suppose we have a goal of a subwoofer system that can deliver 114 dB of output at 50 hertz. For this discussion, we aren’t going to consider cabin gain/transfer function. If we have a single 10-inch KICKER L7S102 subwoofer in a vented enclosure, we’d need about 600 watts of power. The driver excursion at 50 hertz would be 1.5 mm in each direction. While this isn’t a lot of cone excursion, the driver is at its upper power handling limit.

What happens if you have room for a second subwoofer and an enclosure twice as large? Two of those drivers could produce that same output with only 300 watts of power, and each driver only needs to move 0.75 millimeter in each direction. That’s half the excursion, which means less distortion from the same drivers. Further, the subwoofers won’t get as hot, so power compression becomes less of an issue. If you have the room, an enclosure with more drivers is the best choice.

Speaker Longevity

We’ve touched on speaker longevity in both of the above criteria, but it’s worth highlighting on its own. For a subwoofer system to produce more bass, the subwoofer needs to move more air. This means it needs more power. Assuming the subwoofer has the excursion capabilities, every time you double the power to a subwoofer, it gets 3 dB louder. If you’ve chosen a subwoofer that’s too small or inefficient because it’s in a small enclosure, you’re far more likely to push it and the amplifier to their limits to get the amount of bass you want. The result is usually a destroyed subwoofer – something that isn’t covered by a manufacturer’s warranty.

If you want to listen to your system at high volume levels, you need as many subwoofers as possible in your vehicle. A side benefit is that the system won’t require as much power at lower volume levels. This eases the load on the vehicle’s electrical system. While that might translate to some fuel savings, the added weight of the subwoofers and the enclosure will offset that benefit. The reduction in the current draw will extend the life of the alternator and battery, though – so it’s quite worthwhile.

Subwoofer Size Makes a Difference

While the number of subwoofers in a car audio system matters, so does the size of the subwoofers. A 12-inch subwoofer will produce much more output for a given amount of power than an 8-inch driver. All the same, criteria we have already discussed come into play. An 8-inch driver might need 0.8 cubic foot to hit a specific f3 target. A 10-inch driver would likely require about 1.25 cubic feet to hit the same cutoff frequency. A 12-inch driver will need around 2 cubic feet for the same output target. You pick up efficiency as the driver gets larger, meaning the amplifier doesn’t have to work as hard.

Because of space restrictions, you might find that a combination of smaller subwoofers better suits your application. A single 12 might provide the ideal amount of bass for your needs, but if the enclosure can only be 11 inches tall, then a pair of 10s could be a better choice. As we said at the beginning, it’s best to have the shop you’re working with suggest subwoofers based on your available space.

The Myth of Subwoofer Speed

One thing to ignore is the myth that small subwoofers produce tighter, faster bass. This isn’t a concern unless you’re trying to use them as a midbass or midrange speaker. Between 60 and 100 hertz, most car audio subwoofers are the same regarding response. You might get a little more deep bass from one versus another in a specific application. Many people confuse this with the presence of more upper bass content. Scientifically, so long as the cone isn’t extremely heavy and the voice coil inductance isn’t significant, an 18-inch subwoofer is just as “fast” at 80 hertz as an 8-inch sub. Those crazy 3,000-watt plus SPL subwoofers are different.

How Many Subwoofers Does My Car Stereo Need?

The physics of using moving coil subwoofers to produce bass frequencies is carved in stone. No magic design will defy the relationship between subwoofer cone area, enclosure volume and low-frequency output. As such, you need to work with a local specialty mobile electronics retailer to quantify your expectations, determine your available space and choose a subwoofer solution to provide the amount of output you want in that space.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

Social media conversations are often a great source of content ideas here at BestCarAudio.com. We were recently talking to someone about why loading down an amplifier isn’t an ideal solution. As we’ve demonstrated in our Test Drive Reviews, lower impedances result in more distortion in most cases. In all cases, lower impedance loads reduce amplifier efficiency. Let’s discuss why amp efficiency is crucial to audio system performance and reliability.

What Is Amplifier Efficiency?

Every electronic device consumes more power than it can put out. It might take 50 watt hours to charge a power bank for your cell phone, but you may only get 48 watt hours out of it. That’s an efficiency of 96%. The same applies to mechanical systems. Friction and heat losses mean you must put more energy into a device than you get out. Comparing the power capabilities of an engine on an engine dynamometer to the power at the wheels on a chassis dynamometer is an excellent example of a system with substantial mechanical losses.

The circuitry in car audio amplifiers consumes some of the energy provided by the battery. Most good amplifiers we’ve tested draw about 1 to 2 amps of current while idling and not playing music. At the other end of the spectrum, a great amplifier might be about 83% efficient when driving a 2-ohm load at its maximum output capability. This efficiency specification means that the amp would consume 100 watts for every 83 watts it fed to a speaker. These efficiency numbers only apply at full power, as efficiency drops quickly at lower output levels.

Where Does the Wasted Energy Go?

What happens to the extra energy that an amplifier consumes if it isn’t sent to a speaker? Well, the circuitry that processes the audio signal requires a little bit. If there is a digital signal processor in the amp, that will consume a little power as well. For the most part, however, the energy is wasted as heat. Heat is caused when current flows through a resistance. The formula to calculate the power a resistor dissipates is I^2 x R, where I is the current in amps and R is the resistance in ohms.

Even small increases in current result in significantly more energy being wasted. This is obvious because the current value is squared in the equation. For example, if we have 5 amps of current flowing through a 1-ohm resistor, that resistor will dissipate 25 watts of heat. You need a reasonably large resistor to dissipate that much energy. If we increase the current to 8 amps, the resistor dissipates 64 watts of heat. A 75-watt resistor is quite large.

Whenever you see a tiny car audio amplifier, ask yourself, how efficient is the design? Small heatsinks have a tough time dissipating large amounts of thermal energy.

Amplifier Efficiency Comparison

The good amplifier for this article will be the Rockford Fosgate T500-1bdCP that we subjected to a full test drive review in early 2024. This is the amp with the larger footprint mentioned above. The amplifier is rated to produce 500 watts into 2- and 1-ohm loads, but it actually delivered 554 and 697 watts, respectively. Those power production numbers were at 83 and 68% efficiency.

The other amp is rated to produce 700 watts to a 2-ohm load and just over 1,000 watts to a 1-ohm load. On our test bench, it could only muster 338 and 664 watts using the CTA-2006-D standards for power testing. For argument’s sake, we’ll call that half of what it’s rated for. We did push the amp harder to see if it had any more output, and it managed 660 watts and 935 watts when our D’Amore Engineering AMM-1 indicated clipping.

Understand Tool Limitations

This is a crucial reminder that the clipping light on the AMM-1 is NOT a 1% THD+N indicator. As such, power measurements taken with the AMM-1 are not comparable with CTA-2006-D-compliant manufacturer specifications. You’ll need another tool to measure distortion to determine when to stop increasing power. Of course, we suggest the QuantAsylum QA403 for this task, if you can manage to get your hands on one. Nevertheless, the guest amp was 69 and 58% efficient in delivering these higher numbers, which is abysmal. No, this isn’t some no-name flea market or internet brand. It’s something that many “high-end” shops sell every day.

Let’s crunch some numbers to determine how much current each amplifier draws to produce the measured power. Then, let’s add a column that looks at how much power these amplifiers can produce per amp of current they consume. For fun, we’ll add another column to show how much power they waste as heat.

It’s easy to see that the Rockford Fosgate amp is significantly more efficient when you break down the numbers this way. It produces almost 10.8 watts per amp of current compared with just under 9 watts per amp for the other unit. That’s 20% better efficiency than the guest amp. When driving the 1-ohm load, the RF is 17.2% more efficient.

Reason One Why Car Audio Amp Efficiency Matters

Every part of the power supply chain in a vehicle has some efficiency losses, from the battery and alternator to the power and speaker wire, amplifier and speakers or subwoofers. Let’s use our efficiency numbers above to compare a pair of hypothetical 1,000-watt amplifiers. We’ll call these the RF1000 and the G1000. The chart below shows how much current each draws to produce 1,000 watts of power to a 1-ohm load and 750 watts into a 2-ohm load based on the above measurements.

Now, let’s do some math on how much power is wasted in a 16-foot run of 4 AWG power wire and on the return path of a vehicle chassis with the same resistance. For the math, we’ll use the ANSI/CTA-2015 standard for 4 AWG power cable resistance.

The difference in voltage drops between the two amplifiers isn’t massive, at 0.12 and 0.167 volt, respectively, in favor of the theoretical Rockford Fosgate amplifier. However, if the amplifier has less voltage, it will reach its maximum output at a lower level. Neither amp would likely produce 1,000 watts of power as they would only see about 12 of the 13 volts provided by the electrical system.

What’s more of a concern is the heat wasted in the power connection. As we mentioned, the power dissipated in a resistor is based on the square of the current flowing through the resistor. As such, small changes in current flow produce moderately significant changes in how much heat is produced. Looking at the Power Wasted column in this chart, the less efficient amplifier results in a 50% increase in wasted energy in the power cable and ground return path. This increased heat will increase resistance, further increasing the amount of heat wasted, and so on. It can turn into a runaway condition if you’re trying to deliver maximum power for an extended period.

Amplifier Cooling Capacity

The amount of power an amplifier wastes as heat, combined with the size and efficiency of the heat sink, determines how long the amplifier can play before it overheats. In the case of the T500-1bdCP, we played it at full rated power for more than an hour without the amplifier overheating and going into protection. On the other hand, the guest amplifier lasted less than two minutes, playing at full power.

The guest subwoofer amplifier measures roughly 12.5 by 6 inches and is 2 inches tall. That’s a volume of 150 cubic inches. The second amp is much larger at 11.5 by 9 by 2.25 inches, which is just under 233 cubic inches. While this isn’t how heatsink capacity is calculated, it does give you a rough approximation.

The size and design of an amplifier heatsink matter significantly. Yes, the Rockford Fosgate amplifier is much larger. This is a conscious design decision that the Rockford Fosgate engineering team made to ensure that it would continue playing under the most extreme conditions. You should be wary when you see high-power compact amplifiers. It’s unlikely that these companies have developed a magical solution to improve heatsink or amplifier efficiency. As such, you sacrifice thermal stability and amplifier longevity for size. We know we’d rather have a larger amp that will last for decades than a small one that might dry out the thermal compound and capacitors in a few years.

Amplifier Quality Means Many Things

While we focus a lot on content that explains the sound quality and performance of car audio amplifiers, understanding their efficiency characteristics is crucial to choosing a solution that will perform reliably and stand the test of time. Not all manufacturers publish accurate amp efficiency data, making it harder to purchase the best solution. One tip is to look at some brand-specific Facebook groups to see who still uses equipment from decades ago. Those companies likely understand how to deliver a total package that checks all the boxes for performance. Drop by a local specialty mobile electronics retailer today to discuss your high-performance car audio amplifier needs. Hopefully, they will have details on the most efficient products they offer.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.