Small or large sub for music

Large subs go deeper, better and louder.

HOWEVER! Larger subs are harder to match to the room. The lower they go, the more room modes you are likely to find. 

With proper room treatment, and good EQ, a good 15" sub will do music or movies absolutely superbly with any speaker. 

Without those two .... a small sub is far less dangerous and more likely to work for you.

Two quibbles:

1 - Room modes ARE ringing
2 - Once bass traps are in place, DSP helps with ringing and nulls. .

Not going to argue this, plenty of professional acoustics literature out there. The bass traps help de-energize the rninging, and make DSP’s possible. You can even clean up nulls this way.

The combination of sub placement, room acoustics and DSP all contribute. Well done, they are lightning fast and completely organic sounding, and bigger = better.

However, poorly done, limited placement, no bass traps, no EQ, a small sub may often sound better.

Best,

Erik

"More important, IMO, is to have a SEALED sub for music."

Can anyone provide a supportable reason for this, or is this just an ad nauseum repeating of inaccurate information?  

It's a myth, with a completely different issue coming on. Sealed have higher f3, and fewer problems with the room. If you know what you are doing you can make a ported sub work fantastically. If you don't, get a sealed 10" sub and leave it alone. :) 

They are mutually exclusive with high fidelity because they can never perfectly integrate.

<< cough >> bs << cough >>

Just because you have never known how doesn’t mean it is not possible. However, it takes high degrees of skill and experience. It is quite closely related to speaker crossover design. This is why I often believe that avoiding the sub is a better option for many. That’s not the same thing as saying it cannot be done. It is glorious when done right, but few live to hear it.

Best,

E

TBC, having the space and money to have 4 subs is not the normal music lover's situation. 

@mapman  was talking to that. He was not discrediting the use of 4 subs. 

I too will never be able to have more than 1 sub in my listening area so to me, the 4 sub array point is moot.

That doesn't mean I don't see the merits. From a cost/performance space situation, the bass traps + eq are the far better and cheaper option, but hey, I make my own loudspeakers so the measurement and calibration is waaay easier for me than the average music lover.