What is the norm? How many of you use the subsonic filter with your turntable?


I am trying to figure out the norm. If you own a turntable, do you use the subsonic filter on your phono preamp to keep from woofer excursion? 

dman777

Nope, and I have full range speakers, plus a six-pack of REL S/510 subwoofers in a smallish room. I tried using the low-cut filter (-3db at 10Hz) on my phono-stage and have never heard it improve anything, so I leave it off. I also don’t see any difference in woofer excursion with it on vs off.

I think there is no norm for using low pass filters, etc. It varies by setup, gear, isolation, etc.

I’ve come upon individual LPs that cause very low frequency woofer pumping.  A subsonic filter would be useful for these.

Sometimes I’ve observed the pumping due to a warp, but this is not always true.

I’d be surprised if any Audiogoner has a record playback system that consistently generates “rumble” that requires a subsonic filter to be on all the time.

I asked Ron Sutherland if my KC Vibe had any type of rumble filter and his response was

" no subsonic filter.   to add would require another stage of amplification to get a steep cut off.     didn't want to add that complexity to the signal path."

I had no rumble, was just curious if the unit employed it.