Q Acoustics 3020i woofer

A Comprehensive Guide to Woofer: The Explainer


A woofer is a technical term for a loudspeaker driver designed to produce low-frequency sounds, typically from 50 Hz to 1000 Hz. The most common design for woofers is the electrodynamic drivers, which typically uses a stiff paper cone driven by a voice coil surrounded by a magnetic field. But, as you know, woofers can be mounted in many different ways, and they’re not just limited to speakers.

What is a woofer?

A woofer or bass speaker is a technical term for a loudspeaker driver designed to produce low-frequency sounds, typically from 50 Hz up to 1000 Hz. The most common design for woofers is the electrodynamic drivers, which typically uses a stiff paper cone driven by a voice coil surrounded by a magnetic field. There are also other materials to make the woofer—for example, woofers made out of aluminum produce a clear and loud sound.

Focal Chora 826 woofer

The woofer is a crucial part of any speaker system. However, it’s essential to know that woofers are not just limited to home or car audio systems but can also be used for other uses such as workplace sound systems, etc.

The woofer or bass speaker is a technical term for a loudspeaker driver designed to produce low-frequency sounds, typically from 50 Hz up to 1000 Hz. The most common woofer design is the electrodynamic driver, which typically uses a stiff paper cone driven by a voice coil surrounded by a magnetic field.

Nowadays, the most common materials used in woofers are aluminum, paper pulp, or polypropylene foam. Their unique properties allow efficient reproduction of low-frequency sounds without adding heavy weight on top of your cabinet, making it difficult to transport these speakers around.

Modern technology has allowed woofer companies like boss audio systems & Boston acoustics to create highly lightweight woofers that deliver excellent quality sound at affordable prices.

Why do woofers use magnets?

As you know, woofers can be mounted in many different ways, and they’re not just limited to speakers. Their primary purpose is to produce low-frequency sounds from electric bass instruments such as an electronic keyboard, synthesizer, digital piano, etc.

Most woofers use magnetic structures because it allows them to generate more power than other types of drivers while keeping their size small enough, so they fit inside a cabinet without any issues.

DALI SPEKTOR 2 woofer

What are woofers made of?

Woofers can be found in many different shapes and sizes. Some have a giant magnet, while others do not use any magnets at all. There are even woofer designs that don’t include cones or drivers but instead, they move air through tubes to produce sound.

Nowadays, the most common materials used for woofers are aluminum, paper pulp, or polypropylene foam. Their unique properties allow them to efficiently reproduce low-frequency sounds without adding heavy weight on top of your cabinet, which would make it difficult to transport these speakers around.

Modern technology has allowed woofer companies like boss audio systems & Boston acoustics to create extremely lightweight yet powerful models that deliver excellent quality sound at affordable prices.

Now that woofers use different materials, it can be challenging to determine which ones are the best for you, but there are a few things to consider before making your decision.

What material should I choose?

As we already mentioned, woofers come in many different shapes and sizes. Some have a small magnet, while others do not include magnets at all.

There are even woofer designs that don’t include cones or drivers but instead, they move air through tubes to produce sound. Nowadays, the most common materials used for woofers are aluminum, paper pulp, or polypropylene foam.

Their unique properties allow them to efficiently reproduce low-frequency sounds without adding heavy weight on top of your cabinet, which would make it difficult to transport these speakers around.

Modern technology has allowed woofer companies like boss audio systems & Boston acoustics to create extremely lightweight yet powerful models that deliver excellent quality sound at affordable prices.

dynaudio evoke 30 woofer

As you may already know, woofers can be mounted in many different ways, and they’re not just limited to speakers. Instead, their primary purpose is to produce low-frequency sounds from electric bass instruments such as an electronic keyboard, synthesizer, etc.

If your woofer doesn’t include magnets, it means it’s probably designed for indoor use only because this model wouldn’t work well on a car subwoofer box without any issues, which brings us back to our first question: “what material should I choose?”.

We suggest choosing either aluminum or paper pulp woofers because they’re lightweight and can produce both clear and loud sounds depending on how much power you’ll be giving to them.

Why woofers are important?

Woofer speakers (for music specifically) allow you to listen to your favorite songs with high-quality audio. As mentioned above, woofers can be mounted in many different ways, and they’re not just limited to speakers. For example, woofers for cars make the bass sound more powerful or woofers made out of aluminum that produce a clear and loud sound.

What does a woofer look like?

A woofer typically looks similar to an average speaker but without the tweeter on top of it. Instead, there’s only one cone where all sounds come from, called “woofer”. The difference between regular speaker cones and woofer cones is size – woofer cones are much more significant.

jamo S803 woofer

What do woofers sound like?

Woofers can have different sounds depending on woofer speakers. For example, woofers made out of aluminum that produce a clear and loud sound or woofers for cars make the bass sound more powerful with low frequency. In general, woofers create deeper sounds compared to high frequencies from regular speaker cones (tweeters).

How do woofers work?

A woofer is a speaker driver that reproduces low-pitched audio frequencies. The woofers use an electromagnet to generate the magnetic field and attached diaphragm, which moves with the alternating current of supplied power, creating sound waves as it vibrates back and forth. The woofer cone is made of a lightweight yet strong material such as paper or polypropylene.

The woofer works by the woofer’s diaphragm moving back and forth to create sound waves in response to an alternating current from a power source. The voice coil attached to the diaphragm forms the electromagnetic field that causes it to vibrate at suitable frequencies depending on the supplied signal frequency, creating sounds ranging from deep bass tones (low frequencies) into higher pitch sounds (high frequencies).

How to match woofer and tweeter?

Woofers can’t reproduce high frequencies from the sound range, so they need tweeters to create a complete frequency spectrum. Woofers also vibrate at extremely low levels when playing back music, making it difficult for them to push out anything above 200 Hz without distorting the sound.

dynaudio emit m20 woofer

Tweeters typically solve this by producing sounds up to 20 kHz+ where woofer vibration is significantly reduced or almost nonexistent entirely.

However, when woofers and tweeters work correctly, you can get amazing-sounding music that includes great bass responses without sacrificing clarity.

What is the difference between woofer and subwoofer?

Woofer and subwoofers are two types of speakers that find their use in home theatres, car audio systems, etc. Let us look at the features and variations of both these speakers to understand what purpose they fulfill.

  • Woofer: Woofer is a speaker used in home theatres and car audio systems with a large cone. It gives off frequencies that are lower than humans can hear, but it is felt when played.
  • Subwoofer: Subwoofers have a cabinet containing an amplifier and a driver unit. Woofers do not have cabinets. Instead, the subwoofer cabinet is used to strengthen the low-frequency audio signals, which are then released from the front or back of the cabinet using a port called a bass reflex port.
edifier S1000mkii woofer

The main difference between the woofer and subwoofer is that the woofer does not have a cabinet. On the other hand, subwoofers have cabinets that strengthen low-frequency audio signals.