If you have a subwoofer in your home theater, stereo, or car, you probably know how tough it is to get the bass levels just right. Here’s a trick to setting it up in just a few seconds.



I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been to someone’s house and the subwoofer was so loud that it just made everything sound boomy and awful. Of course, sometimes this is personal preference—maybe they just like big bass—but even as a basshead myself, I’ve learned that more is not always better, and the optimal level is probably lower than most people think.



  1. First, set the crossover. This is the frequency at which your subwoofer starts playing bass notes. You generally want your crossover set to where your speakers start to roll off—for example, my speakers can’t go much lower than 80Hz, so my subwoofer’s crossover is set to about 80. You can find this in your speaker’s specs, or just slowly turn it up until it “rounds out” the sound on your speakers (so that your speakers and subwoofer aren’t both playing the same notes). Note that if you have a home theater with surround sound, this can get more complicated, and you can find instructions here.
  2. Next, adjust the gain (or volume). This is the important part, and the part that I’ve done incorrectly oh-so-many times—but it’s also the easiest. Start playing a song, and turn the subwoofer down until you can’t hear the subwoofer anymore. Then, turn the gain up until you can just start to hear it start to fill in the bass. Then stop. You’re done.
  3. If you have a phase switch, switch it between 0 and 180 degrees and see if you hear a difference. One may sound better than the other depending on your room and gear. You can read more about what phase is here, but in practice, it’s pretty simple: pick whichever one sounds better.

That’s it. The whole process shouldn’t take you more than a minute, and shouldn’t take too much fiddling. I’ve tried this on a number of different stereos and it’s worked like a charm. If you want to do some extra tests, you can have a friend try and adjust it for you while you sit on your couch (or wherever your listening position is), but this should get you 90% of the way there with almost no effort.


Check out the video to see Joe from Parts Express demonstrate the process and you’ll see how easy it is. Fast forward to 2:53—the rest is a showcase of a specific subwoofer model.
