Subwoofer makes the difference!

[Bruce Breen]

WOW! A subwoofer makes a lot of difference...!!!
I have been scaling down my amp system to make a lighter load for myself when travelling to gigs (I'm getting older).
I have an old 60 lb amp (lots of power and a good bass end), and two box speakers (about 30 lbs each), and telescoping stands for them.
They always did me well, regardless of the venue.

So, I bought an (cheap) ION 200 watt speaker/amp unit (with blue tooth & LED lights if I want them).
It weighs a mere 28 lbs (new lightweight D style amp inside). It has lots of power, but I was missing the bass end from it, regardless of the EQ settings available on it.

I then (finally) used my head and figured out what all the DJ's, the "boom" cars, the Bose line array systems, and all the Tyros speaker systems use - a subwoofer! That's what I was missing!

Well, I happened to have an old Lansing computer speaker system laying around that includes a subwoofer.
The subwoofer has 20 watts RMS (as per the online manual I found for it - the little speakers for it only put out 7 watts RMS).
I plugged it in to the ION's line output and was totally surprised at the difference it made to the bass sound and the clear bass lines punching through (regardless of it's 20 RMS limitations). I didn't loose any of the extra bass punch even though I turned up the ION all the way!

I am happy to announce that last night I used my new "system" with fantastic results.
It was a venue I have been playing at for several years (100 to 125 people) with the majority of them being the same people each time.
Throughout the evening I was constantly being complimented on the 'new' sound - they noticed the difference!

So my take on all of this - if you don't have one already, add a subwoofer to your system! You won't regret it!

[Toril S]

Fantastic, Bruce It's all about the base, no treble

[Bruce Breen]

Ha! Ha! Ha! - love your wonderful pun! They're so much fun!

[Normanfernandez]

So it was the ION + the subwoofer??

[Normanfernandez]

Do you mind taking a Picture???

[Bruce Breen]

Yes, it was the ION (but could be any of the powered, mountable speakers out there) and a separate, powered subwoofer.
Again, mine happened to be an old computer's speaker system which has a subwoofer as part of it.
Now that I know it worked, I'll probably go out and buy a new powered subwoofer, since the one I used is very old.

I think my main point is - no matter what amplification system you use, adding a powered subwoofer really lets the low bass end shine!

(And I'll work on getting a picture and posting it for you.)