Dual subwoofers; must they match?

[gcmarshall]

if one wanted to use two subs in a home theater, does it matter whether or not the two subs are identical make/model? i was thinking that in order to achieve a balanced low bass effect, it would make sense for them to match. is that correct or does it not matter?

 

[sivadselim]

Yes, it's supposedly best, but obviously not always conveniently or necessarily doable.

 

[tomd51]

They don't necessarily need to be the same make/model, however you would likely want to use some sort of equalization to make sure they don't cancel each other out.

One other thing to note is that if one sub is vastly better than the other, you may not necessarily benefiting from the additional sub as the bass it produces could be more sloppy than the other, degrading the output.

It is likely easier to use smiliar models, but shouldn't be a necessity. As I noted earlier, though, regardless of whether they are identical or not, their frequency levels should be evened out to work in parallel with each other. -TD