When it comes to stereos, acoustic jazz fans have it easy. The deepest tones in traditional jazz come from the double bass, which in most cases goes down as low as 41 Hz, and the kick drum, which usually has a fundamental tone around 50 or 60 Hz. These notes aren’t deep enough to challenge most speakers.
Fans of R&B, rock, and hip-hop need bigger speakers—or subwoofers—to reproduce the deep tones of instruments such as five- and six-string electric bass guitars (which play down to
