The Transmission Line Subwoofer

Listening to music can be a very serious thing for many people. In fact, many hard core music listeners go to great lengths to produce high quality sound for their homes and cars.

Purchasing subwoofers is one option for those interested in a lot of bass. Music is made up of treble and bass and how the sounds are divided and then transmitted through stereo equipment is a major fascination for many audiophiles. The sound can be altered substantially in either a good or bad way, depending on personal preference more than anything else. Distortion is usually not something that anyone seeks when building a high end stereo system, it mostly what everyone is trying to avoid. Bass can be difficult to add however, without creating a great deal of additional noise that disturbs the overall quality of sound attempting to be portrayed. That is where an enclosure for your woofer comes in to play, as this is what controls the overall amount of bass and quality of bass that emerges from the subwoofer. There are several options for such a box, such as: sealed subwoofer enclosures, 4th order bandpass enclosures, 6th order bandpass enclosures, isobaric subwoofer enclosures and transmission line subwoofers.

A transmission line subwoofer is comprised of a waveguide system. The waveguide system guides the phase of the driver’s rear outputs in reverse order, which reinforces the frequencies near the F drivers. The transmission line subwoofer produces a very characteristic and unmistakable bass that many people enjoy. It is an extended low end response that those who desire a more realistic and tight sounding bass would not appreciate the transmission line subwoofer as much as those who cannot seem to get enough of that heart thumping, head pounding bass present in most rap and hip-hop music of today. The transmission line subwoofer is really only designed for specific types of drivers, primarily those that have low Qts, somewhere between 0.25 and 0.4, Qes of only 0.3 to 0.4 and Fs values. Other drivers are not considered to be suitable for transmission line subwoofers; another type of enclosure would be better.

One drawback to a transmission line subwoofer is the size of the enclosure as it is typically quite large to accommodate the waveguide system. This makes the transmission line subwoofer a bad choice for small spaces, especially in cars where a lot of people seem to desire the characteristic bass in their automobile. Unless of course, you have a Hummer or other huge sport utility vehicle to accommodate the large size enclosure, you should consider another option for your bass enclosure needs. Or there is always the option of buying a larger vehicle to fit your transmission line subwoofer in if you just cannot live without that unique style of bass pumping down the road as you drive. Consider an Escalade or Yukon, as both are huge sport utility vehicles that provide a lot of space in the back for your subwoofer. Most people however, would just design a box that would fit in the car or truck they already own, rather than buying an entirely new vehicle to fit their sound system needs.