A subwoofer is essentially required to make any sound system up to par by reasonable audiophile standards. A larger subwoofer can get maximally low and create full bass in a way that a smaller midrange driver can’t. A subwoofer also relieves mid range drivers from having to reproduce bass – this allows them to focus 100% on mid range reproduction, which they’re intended optimized for.
FAQ: Is Adding A Subwoofer To My Home Sound/Theater System Worth It?
Furthermore, sound – longer bass waves in particular – doesn’t carry as well outdoors, so the issue becomes all the more pertinent.
It wasn’t too long ago that non-commercial outdoor subwoofers didn’t really exist, but in just the last few years (and since this article was originally published) a variety of viable equipment options has come about, and we fully expect even more to come as the outdoor home audio market continues to get more popular and grow.
This article will review said options and tell you what you need to know about augmenting outdoor speakers with a subwoofer.
Special/Particular Considerations With Outdoor Subwoofers
Adding a subwoofer to a conventional indoor sound system is actually very easy since most home theater subwoofers are active/powered – you simply need to plug them into the wall, connect them to the sub-out line of your receiver (which almost all decent ones will have), and you’re good to go.
Outdoor subwoofers, however, are generally passive, mainly because having a built-in amplifier and other electronics in a speaker that’s sitting outdoors obviously opens the door to problems. This means that the standard sub-out connector on most receivers probably won’t be compatible with any given outdoor subwoofer.
Placing an outdoor subwoofer is a little trickier too. While most indoor subwoofers can simply be tucked away in a corner, that same relative corner outdoors might not work for placement or wiring. Centering a subwoofer between a pair of speakers on your deck or the lawn also won’t work either because it will probably be right where people are walking.
How to Connect An Outdoor Subwoofer
Until quite recently there was only one practical way to do this, but now, thanks to some recently released specialty equipment, there’s a second easier/simpler/cheaper way.
The first way: use a separate amplifier with your regular receiver
If you want to connect an outdoor subwoofer to your standard receiver with a sub-out connector, what you’ll need to do is run a standard subwoofer cable from that to a separate amplifier, then run the same outdoor speaker wire you’re running to your outdoor speakers from that to the passive subwoofer:
This obviously implies that you’ll need to buy an additional amplifier and cables to connect it. The added expense doesn’t necessarily have to be huge – you can probably do it with less than $100 – but it’s there nonetheless.
The second way: get an amplifier with a passive subwoofer output
You don’t see passive subwoofer outputs on a standard home theater receiver very often, and if it has one, it’s probably really expensive. However, plain amplifiers with passive subwoofer outputs have recently started to come out – presumably to in fact target this market niche – and are a great option for powering an outdoor sound system. They effectively simplify the diagram to this:
Fosi Audio has recently become the notable pioneer in this audio sub-market – they now make a variety of these types of amps. Check them out here (affiliate link). They also now make several dedicated passive subwoofer amps if you want to go the first route. Check those out here (affiliate link).
Is An Outdoor Subwoofer Actually Necessary?
What ultimately matters is that you like how your speakers sound, and that’s ultimately subjective. A pair of decent outdoor satellite speakers don’t *need* a subwoofer to function and could sound perfectly decent on their own. If you’re budget is limited as well, say less than four figures, it probably make senses to save the cost of a subwoofer and necessary ancillary equipment and just instead invest the saved money into the nicest possible speakers your budget permits.
You can always just try out standalone speakers and see if they sound satisfactory, then decide to add a subwoofer later. Good audio companies of course realize more than anyone that outdoor subwoofers are often unfeasible, and many current outdoor speakers now have quite respectable power and bass response on their own.
On a quick digression, here are two such recommendations for outdoor speakers that particularly excel with bass, both of which are currently on the list of our overall favorite powered speakers:
In the budget-tier category we strongly recommend the Dayton IO655s (reviewed here) – they have great power specs and an excellent response range floor for their modest price.
Moving up we also have the Definitive Technology 5500-6500 series (reviewed here) – very powerful, highly sensitive, and the lowest response range floor that we’ve seen in outdoor speakers. Not exorbitantly expensive either.
And with that, lets now get to discussing the viable options if you’re still interested in adding an outdoor subwoofer:
The Overall Best Outdoor Subwoofer: The TIC GS50
TIC is an interesting company that solely makes outdoor speakers, and their GS50 on-ground omnidirectional subwoofer (affiliate link) remains our overall winning pick in this admittedly sparse category. It has nice low response floor and high continuous power handling at a reasonable price. It also has an elevated woofer with a floor built in, so this doesn’t necessarily need to rest on a hard surface like some outdoor speakers do. TIC also produces our favorite budget omni-directional outdoor speaker, the GS3 (reviewed here), and the GS50 is the perfect complement to that. OSD audio used to produce the OMSUB200 which looks exactly the same, and is likely sourced from the same manufacturer, but is now discontinued.
Notable Competition
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The OSD Audio Forza8 – OSD is a good company and this speaker is very close to the GS50. The Forza8 has the same elevated woofer design and power handling. While Forza8’d response floor isn’t as low, their 50 – 250 Hz response range lies within the standard +/-3 dB variance while the GS50 makes no such claim. Weather the GS50 can really get down to 25 Hz solidly or if there’s enough drop off to make the difference unnoticeable is hard to say and will be situational to a degree. One advantage of of the Forza8 is that it has an official IP65 weather resistance certification while the GS50 does not. That doesn’t mean the GS50 isn’t sufficiently protected, but the reassurance is nice. All in all the Forza8 is a solid alternative and might be the best choice if/when the price is right.
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The OSD Audio BOM4.1.2 – The powered/active option. Same design as the Forza8, except this one has a built in amp and Bluetooth capabilities. You can forgo the amping and wiring with this one, and all you need to do is plug it into a standard wall socket. The tradeoff is that it has significantly less power handling and is almost twice as expensive. And you’ll still need a power cable that’s graded for outdoor and/or underground runs if you want to leave it permanently connected. Still, if all you want to worry about is plugging it in on a deck and you don’t mind bringing the cable in/out, this is definitely an attractive easy option.
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The Dayton Audio IOSUB10: Dayton is a great company and has very competitive prices. They in fact produce our favorite budget powered subwoofer. The IOSSUB10 was released in the 2019 season and offers a large 10 inch woofer, but it doesn’t have the power handling or response floor that the GS50 has while also being less expensive. It also has a 4 ohm impedance which means you’ll need a specialized and likely more expensive amp to power it.
