Can I add a subwoofer to lowerend monitors that have weak bass?

[brand0nized]

I'm on a super budget, and am looking to save up for monitors one day.

A lot of the extremely lower end monitors (I'm looking at Behringer MS16)

I have desktop speakers that have a subwoofer connected via 1/8". Can I add that on, or only if there's a jack for it?

And before anyone tells me to save up more for nicer monitors, this is if i were to get these monitors. I do prefer to not spend so much money if i can make it work for me, but I'm not entirely set on a specific model.

 

[Massive Master]

I can understand and appreciate your situation - But this would be throwing good money after bad (actually, throwing bad money after ridiculously bad). You will not get the performance you're looking for, sub or not. You'd be better off with a half-decent home stereo system.

 

[grimtraveller]

Can I add a subwoofer to lowerend monitors that have weak bass?

Absolutely not. This is not permitted in our law. Don't attempt this or the Queen will have your head. It's her diamond jubilee, you know ? She's getting tired of holding up traffic.

 

[kip4]

I had a similar set of speakers to what your using now when i started out and to be honest my mixs never translated on to other systems partly because of the use of a sub woofer.
Save up mate and buy some better monitors it will make your life easier in the long run.
Go look at secondhand monitors on evil bay or even Preloved (secondhand classifieds)

To the tower and off with his head.

massive has a good point too. my next set up after the computer speakers was a rotel amp (dirt cheap stereo amp 30watts) connected to a nice pair of technics speakers.
It still didnt translate to other systems as well as i would have like which meant a lot of revisiting mixs until i had something that would work reasonably well. It was still a lot better than computer speakers though.
My advice beg steal and borrow save up and get something half decent.

 

[nsterken]

Kip's problems may not have been 100% speaker related. You could spend thousands on speakers and still never get a mix to translate, not even once. It's all in the acoustics of the room. If you're simply mixing to get a sound or rough demo, use a woofer and the most decent speakers you got available to you. I reccomend this to get you used to mixing. But if you wanna get serious about mixing, get some decent active monitors for around $200 for the pair. Use the subwoofer ONLY to support the low end, not accentuate it. This is tricky to do.

The rest is your room. Save the money you wanna spend on super expensive speakers and put it into treating the room. Do research on setting up the room properly. A nice place to start is deaden the wall behind ur monitors and diffuse the wall behind you. If you're area/room is less than ideal, simply do ur best to absord and diffuse as much as possible. DO NOT deaden the room completely. Rather, try to CONTROL the room with well placed absorption, diffusors and bass traps. Corner traps are good too. The main goal should be to simply try and stop the standing wave patterns which are most likely causing you some cancellation or accentuation: perhaps, in ur case, ur acoustics may be accentuating certain frequencies so when ur mix sounds full in your working area, grat. But when you listen to it elsewhere, it sounds empty or hollow or not as full. The speakers ur using may be coloring the sound, as well, hence the need for flat response, decent monitors, which I see you said you are saving up for.

I see no problem using a subwoofer to support the low end but you have to know what you're doing AND treat the room first. If you simply want the woofer to strngthen the low end, that's silly, becuz the low end may be getting cancelled out at the point in the room where you listen or enhanced fraudulently, so when you listen elswhere to the mix, it lacks bass defention or low end altogether.

Worry more about addressing the acoustic problems in a room BEFORE montior quality and ur mixes will translate EVERY time. For some good help on acoustic treatment, I suggest "Hal Leonard's Recording Method- Book 2: Instrument & Vocal Recording" for a good introduction to the whole acoustic concept.