To truly experience all of the train crashes, explosions and numerous background noises from rainstorms to thundering hooves, you need a speaker capable of providing deep bass. This is the only thing subwoofers do—and they’re designed to do it well.

A subwoofer’s main purpose is to move air. The bigger the driver size, the more air it will move. Woofers range in size from about 5 to 18 inches in diameter, with the majority falling in the 12-inch category. That’s why many subwoofers look like big black cubes. But today’s “subs” are getting hip new designs, from spherical and rounded models to slim in-wall, on-wall and even in-floor versions.

Some of the subwoofer enclosures are ported, meaning they have a hole on the side or the bottom for the intake of air. The port helps add a thump to the bass. Subwoofers can be either active (with their own internal amplifiers) or passive (without internal amps). Power can be rated in the amount of continuous power (designated RMS) or in terms of dynamic power (the amount by which the amplifier can exceed its continuous power rating). Subwoofers also employ magnets or voice coils (wires attached to the cones through which a magnetic field is produced).

Since bass is nondirectional, a subwoofer can be placed anywhere in a room. It is often placed in a corner, under a coffee table or behind a piece of furniture. In a home theater setup, only one sub is normally necessary. If you have stepped up to Lucasfilm’s certified Home THX components, however, two subwoofers are required.

Subwoofers Featured in this Slideshow

• 1. Infinity Cascade Model Twelve ($999)
• 2. Mirage OMD S10 ($1,200)
• 3. B&W PV1 ($1,500)
• 4. Klipsch RT-12d ($1,999)
• 5. JL Audio Fathom f113 ($3,200-3,300)
• 6. Speakercraft Tantra TS12 ($1,500-2,000)
• 7. Sonance The Sub ($825)
• 8. Audioaccess AAS99 ($499)
• 9. JBL HTPS400 ($2,000)
• 10. Polk Audio PSW1000 ($1,200)
• 11. Sonance subwoofer system ($1,400)
• 12. Artison RCC 600 ($2,000)
• 13. Triad Gold PowerSub ($2,050)
• 14. Canton Ergo AS 650 ($2,000)
• 15. Atlantic Technology 10 CSB ($899)
• 16. Parasound C-1002 ($250)
• 17. Outlaw Audio LFM-1 Plus ($679)
• 18. Jamo C 80 Sub ($999)
• 19. BG Radia 210i ($1,499)
• 20. Elan THP1200SW ($725)
• 21. Russound Complement R12DT ($650)
• 22. NHT Classic Series Twelve ($850)
• 23. Thiel SS1 ($2,900)
• 24. Boston Acoustic XB6 ($679)
• 25. Yamaha Soavo-900SW ($1,299)
• 26. KEF HTB2 ($799)
• 27. REL T-Series Sub-Bass ($798)
• 28. Sonus Faber Cremona ($3,995)
• 29. Bang and Olufsen BeoLab 2 ($2,495)
• 30. Energy S10.3 ($500)
• 31. TruAudio TC-SUB.1 ($1,200)
• 32. Cabasse Santorin 21 ($525)
• 33. PSB Alpha SubSeries 1 ($349)
• 34. Pinnacle UltraSonic ($1,895)
• 35. Paradigm UltraCube 12 ($999)
• 36. Niles Audio StageFront Pro15 ($1,799)
• 37. Genelec HTS4B ($3,750)
• 38. Velodyne passive SC-IW ($999)
• 39. James Loudspeakers EMB-1000DRP ($2,995)
• 40. Meridian SW5500 ($4,995)
• 41. MB Quart Alexxa SW-12 ($999)
• 42. Sony RHT-G1000 ($1,299)
• 43. AudioSource S10SW ($169)
• 44. RBH MS-10.1 ($899)
• 45. Snell Acoustics Series 7 Basis 300 ($1,500)
• 46. Definitive SuperCube III ($699)
• 47. Artcoustic DFS-100-75 X2 ($4,500)