Small or large sub for music

Subwoofers are a bad solution for inadequate speakers. They are mutually exclusive with high fidelity because they can never perfectly integrate. Some people and rappers don’t care about sound quality. Low-Fi is fine for them. For the rest of us, subwoofers only belong in the home theatre. 

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

Subwoofers are a bad solution for inadequate speakers. They are mutually exclusive with high fidelity because they can never perfectly integrate. Some people and rappers don’t care about sound quality. Low-Fi is fine for them. For the rest of us, subwoofers only belong in the home theatre.

Another clueless statement! Zero understanding of the importance of room interaction.

Many contemporary full-range speakers (very high-end) now have amps built-in to the cabinets - with EQ capabilities - to expressly drive the woofers. This design allows better implementation/integration with room issues.

Using separate subs with stand-mounted monitors or two-way floor standers have the advantage of moving the subs to the optimum location in the room - allowing the system to be full range.

sleepwalker6519 posts08-21-2018 8:22pmSubwoofers are a bad solution for inadequate speakers. They are mutually exclusive with high fidelity because they can never perfectly integrate. Some people and rappers don’t care about sound quality. Low-Fi is fine for them. For the rest of us, subwoofers only belong in the home theatre.

You know I always thought that Wilson, Magico, and Vandersteen were Low-Fi with their subwoofers blasting along with their statement products at audio shows.

Thanks for clearing that up.  

" The Swarm and Debra subs are an excellent example of using science and good acoustic theory to maximize the benefit for the minimum dollar. They have addressed the biggest issue, the room. It can be done with any 4 subs. You should see what some of the crazy home theater guys do, as the Swarm would never have enough deep bass for them (they want 120db @10 hz), things like quad JTR Captivators. Not to plug another forum, but AVSforums in the subwoofer section has some really great information on setup, tuning, and objective reviewing. The home theater guys have done more for good bass than just about anyone."

mcreyn,

Wowie Wow Wow McWoofer.....Testify!
You stated: " The Swarm and Debra subs are an excellent example of using science and good acoustic theory to maximize the benefit for the minimum dollar. They have addressed the biggest issue, the room. It can be done with any 4 subs."
What happened? Did you actually get a personal audition of a distributed bass array (DBA)? In any case, your quote above is an excellent summary of what the Swarm and Debra represent. And, yes, the DBA concept’s ability to transform a room’s bass response using almost any 4 subs is like magic but true, science really is like magic but real.

"You should see what some of the crazy home theater guys do, as the Swarm would never have enough deep bass for them (they want 120db @10 hz), things like quad JTR Captivators. "

I am familiar with the ’crazy home theater guys’ typically loitering at AVSforums and other a/v sites with their brute force approach to reproducing bass in a home environment. However, I have too much respect for the supporting mechanisms and other surfaces in my home to adopt this ’Bringing Down the House’ approach.  I can't recall ever desiring more bass listening to any source or content.  Besides, the supplied amp has controls for setting the overall level - I can recall tweaking that and the crossover frequency (currently the level is set at about half and cthe rossover at about 40 Hz)
     Loud and overpowering is not my conception of ideal bass. My version of ideal bass for my combo ht and music system is more nuanced, having the dual qualities of power and definition required for state of the art bass response reproduction of both.

Tim