Subwoofers With Separate Amps?

[Peter P.]

Why do you suppose subwoofers come with integrated amps? Is it convenience? The result of marketing?

 

I imagine a good percentage of subwoofer amp failures are caused by the large vibrations of the operating subwoofer affecting components on the amp. There's a good reason manufacturers glue down the capacitors and other components to the board and vibration must be it.

 

I mean, what's the difference-you have to run signal cables from your equipment to the subwoofer anyway so why not a short RCA from your stack to a subwoofer amp then a single or double speaker cable to a passive sub? With the amp in the rack, all your controls would be front mounted for easy access, and add to the cool factor of all the knobs and switches on your stuff?

[jason str]

Worst place possible mounting the amplifier in a earthquake machine.

[001]

agreed the sub is not the best place for the amp & its mostly for convenience.  however, the main reason for failures in most subs is most these amps & components are china made crap. some are better quality than others but most "mid level" subs, regardless of brand, are built with very cheap parts. 

 

even higher end sub amps are usually china made, but many use better quality parts & are held to higher quality control.  china can & does make some good stuff but most companies have their parts made there to boost their profits & quality/reliability suffers. 

 

 

[Arominus]

I repowered my RT-10d through the power socket because the amp died, until i can get it repaired its working pretty well, though it took some tuning in the AVR to get enough gain for it to work well. I had to drop the rest of the channels volume in relation to the sub while cranking that up. 

[jjptkd]

8 hours ago, EpicKlipschFan said:

 the main reason for failures in most subs is most these amps & components are china made crap.

Yep there's still a ton of SW subs from the mid to late '90's going strong, RSW's too from early '00's back when Klipsch used quality sub amplifiers. 

[wuzzzer]

Probably because most people don't want to mess around with where to put the amp, running extra wires, etc.  Plus generally speaking the amp is built for the sub so it has EQ and other features that may control it better than a generic external amp.