To Sub or not to Sub...?

I like the advantage to be able to add a level of bass response as the music moves me ( I got the music in me ).
While I enjoy my small monitors and I will never part with them. Sometimes when I am playing some Beck ( Jeff, I can't take the other )or Etta James I just want to get a little more romp out of it. But when I listen to Antonio Forcione or/with Sabina Sciubba, it is much more satifying to hear the bass that my Dynaudio 1.3 Se's do have instead of taking 20 minutes trying to match the levels only to give up and just listen.

I would like to nominate this for " best" 'most informative threads I've ever read.It really fleshes out the "sub/or not" theorys. For what it's worth;I enjoyed reading everybody! Different opinions"are" necessary. Congrats/y'all- and thanks.

Well,I took the plunge! My third sub / not the sandwich/ I previously had a Velodyne and an Infinity. I got the REl storm 3. I got mine from a dealer. Got all the advice I needed from them. The first one that works,and you can't tell it's there / where it is.This may or may not help. I got new speakers. Went from Aerial10ts to Montana ESPs. The Montana, is better, by a large margin in the treble/mid. But the bass is not near as clean or low. This is what promped me to look for either bi amping; or a sub. The sub is the way to go. Thanks again everybody.

I think the real low bass add nuances and detail. I also think that sub set up is as important as the sub itself.

I was always suspicious over addition of subwoofer into the two channel system. Now, after connecting the ACI Titan along with ACI Sapphire's monitors, i am wholheartedly
going along with the suggestions of the majority. Placement of the is probably hardest thing, but if you have a time and patience it will be worth experimenting with it. Well, i 'talked' to much and haven't said nothing new. As usual.

Is it the case that some sub owners tailor their setup to leave a hole or depression at a problematic room resonance frequency? Say you've got a monitor that goes down to about 45 -50 Hz, and you've got a room resonance at about 40 hz. Do you dial out the sub below 40 to avoid that frequency? Does that create any audible anomaly? Or, maybe that's a bad example; is this strategy frequency dependent... e.g., works if the hole is closer to 30 than 40? Thanks.

jayboard, if this worked, it'd be purely coincidental - what if your room resonance was @ 120hz? i don't tink ewe wood wanna raise the monitors' x-over point to, say, 140hz, and the subs' to 100hz, yust to deal w/this, if better integration between sub-monitor were, say - 60hz. ideally, ewe set the x-over point as low as possible... there are good (& expensive) room-equalizers awailable that are designed to tame room-dependent frequency abberations...

one feature that my marchand x-over has, that makes it easier to integrate my subs w/my monitors is a separate wolume control *at* the x-over point, as well as wolume controls for the subs & the monitors. i have it set at -2db, which works best, w/my speakers, in my room. this was verified w/a pink-noise generator & spectrum analyzer.

regards, doug s.

thanx, Doug, I wasn't thinking of this as a general, primary strategy for setting up a sub. However, I was thinking that many minimonitor users might have rooms large enough that their speakers would not excite the fundamental (if that's the right word) resonance frequency of their rooms, and that going full-range might introduce this new problem. Equalizers and room treatment aside, what I was actually thinking was that I had read mentions or recommendations about people dialing in subs so that their sub and main speakers bracket the problem resonance frequency. I think REL may suggest this. So, I was wondering if any Agon'ers had set up with this as a factor, how the discontinuity between sub and mains affected integration of sound, etc.

I went with Watt/Puppy 5.1 (used), and boy am i disappointed in puppy bass performance! Can U ad Sub to already subwoofer designed system? Or should i look into Monitor/activeSub combination. My new amp is Sonic Frontiers 3. Detlof, Lindemann....?