Best Subwoofers Under $500

Shopping Amazon for the best subwoofers under $500? Cut through the clutter with this focused list that brings you great choices for your budget.

Shopping for a new subwoofer can be a challenge, especially when you want every dollar to count. There are tons of brands available, with hundreds upon hundreds of models to peruse. There are the common cube-shaped subs, from sealed to ported to passive radiator designs, and many more varieties (like in-wall, infinite baffle, horn-loaded, etc) beyond what you typically see in a store. Still, for most subwoofer shoppers, the standalone, amplified “box and a driver” design is what they seek, and usually we're talking either sealed or ported subs.

In an ideal world, there would be a store that specializes in subwoofers for home use, where you'd go and choose from all the different options out there. Sadly, no such utopia fos bass lovers exists. Indeed, comparison shopping subs at stores can be a challenge to pull off. Typically, brick & mortar stores will not have an extensive selection of subs, set up properly and ready to compare. At best, you'll find a handful of options, and likely they are in different systems, making comparison difficult. But there's another challenge: With deep bass the room is the dominant factor in terms of what you hear. Your seating position and the position of the sub and the room itself are not going to reflect your own home, your own system. Because of this, what you hear at a store demo will not be the same as what you get in your own home. I'm not saying it's better or worse, but it's going to be different.

The upshot here is you are free to shop for a subwoofer online, because the best approach is to try a sub in your system and if it does what you wanted, keep it. If it does not, back it goes! Try again. The point is, the best place to judge a sub is in your own home, even if you did demo it in a store.

This list highlights various subwoofers available to purchase on Amazon, with sale prices under $500. The first thing you'll notice is most of these subs are ported models. The reason is simple, ported subs are the most common subwoofer type, and they typically deliver maximum "bang-for-the-buck" bass.

The Benefits of a Good Subwoofer

There are multiple benefits to adding a good sub to your speaker system. First and foremost, you get a sub to extend the bass response of your speaker system. But there are benefits beyond more, deeper bass. If you use bass management, which is standard on AV receivers, you can set a crossover point. This is the frequency where anything higher gets sent to speakers, anything lower goes to the sub. Because bass takes more power than midrange or treble (there's more air to move) by handing bass off to a self-powered sub, you relieve your speakers and amplifier of reproducing that bass. This will often allow a system to overall reach higher output levels before they begin to distort.

One thing that needs to be stressed, is that you need not fret over concerns that a subwoofer will overwhelm your system with too much bass. Subwoofers offer adjustability, and while getting a good blend takes a bit of work, the end result is worth it.

Sealed vs. Ported Subwoofers

When you shop for consumer (as opposed to pro) subwoofers, these are the two most common designs you will encounter, each one having benefits and weaknesses. For example, with sealed subs the cabinet is usually very compact, so if space savings is a goal, a sealed model is worth looking at. Sealed subs are able to play clean, deep bass notes, but at limited output levels.

Ported subwoofers rely on a vented cabinet that helps naturally amplify output near the port's tuning frequency. Although this is an effective way to get more bass out of a given driver and amplifier combo, physics demands an overall larger design than you'd find with a sealed sub. The cost savings relative to performance comes from the more efficient use of a driver/amplifier combo of a given capability.

With ported subs, the increase in output near the tuning frequency is notable. As long as its a good design, the extra bass offered by ported subs is a better "dBs for your dollar" value.