Are a woofer and Subwoofer the same type of speaker?

Question

Are people just using the words wrong and using "woofer" to explain both or are the words interchangeable. and if they are different , what frequency range do they generally play in?

Answer 1

A woofer handles low to mid-range audible tones.  When you hear bass in music it usually comes from a woofer.

A sub-woofer handles low-range inaudible tones. Tones that you feel rather than hear.  Thus, a sub-woofer handles sub-audible tones.  Tones that are too low for you to hear, but that will make your room or car shake.

Subs usually have a range of 20hz to 180hz.  woofer usually have a range of 85hz to 2000hz.

Answer 2

Sub-woofers handle frequencies down to 150 Hz as far as 20 Hz.

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Woofers handle 40 hertz up to about a 1000 hertz.

They are not interchangable, especially if you are putting the signal through a low-pass filter.

Answer 3

Davids answer is correct, but I would like to add, that most woofers are in regular speakers and are passive, which means the receivers built in amplifier drives the woofer (along with the midrange and tweeter) all together to give you a wider frequency response.  the speakers built in crossover will tell the speaker which speaker driver handles which frequency.

With subwoofers, they are their own separate speaker with built in amplifier.  The subwoofer normally has a more rigid woofer to handle the real deep (low) frequency response and normally can handle far more power (amp) to help fill a room.

A woofer in a speaker is more directional where a subs woofer is more omnidirectional with deep bass.  You can use both to get great bass all around.  Use the woofer in the speaker to handle the upper bass frequencies (40-80Hz) and use the subwoofer to get the real deep bass (10-80Hz) it is always good to have some crossover in the bass frequency range, so that it blends more smoothly.

Answer 4

Both are same I think.........

Answer 5

A woofer is generally a full range, or mostly full range, cone driver. They can have frequency outputs that are fairly low (ie: 35Hz). They are typically under 10" in diameter. They are normally included in a box with a high range and possibly a mid range driver.

A subwoofer is a cone driver that is specialized at reaching very low frequencies (under 30Hz). They typically have woofers that are 10" or larger and their enclosures (the box) are specially designed to enhance frequencies between a certain range (ie: 20Hz-80Hz).

The actual speaker components are the same. The only difference being that "subwoofer" woofers are generally quite a bit larger.

EDIT:

All low frequencies are omni-directional whether it comes from a woofer or subwoofer. It's just the physics of sound.

There are active (powered) and passive (nonpowered) subs. Active are more common though.

The THX standard is that all frequencies below 80Hz go to the subwoofer and above go to the rest of the speakers.