I think the problem of getting natural-sounding bass in a small room is primarily a room acoustics issue.
Let me give an example. There is one path from the subwoofer to the listening position, and another path length from the subwoofer to the wall behind you then reflecting back to the listening position. At the frequency where the path length difference is equal to one-half wavelength the energy reflected off the back wall arrives 180 degrees out of phase with the direct energy, and a cancellation dip results. At the frequency where the path length difference is equal to one wavelength, the reflected energy arrives in-phase and you have a reinforcement peak. These peaks and dips will move around somewhat as you change the listening position and/or subwoofer location, but they're pretty much inevitable. And they are audible because they are far enough apart to be distinct. At higher frequencies we'll have path-length-difference peaks and dips, but they are bunched much closer together and the reflected energy arrives many wavelengths later than the first-arrival energy so it's part of the reverberant field rather than part of the initial sound.
Equalization can help a lot, but only for one area in the room at at time. Equalization will probably make the response even more lumpy for listeners well outside the "sweet spot".
In my opinion the intelligent solution is an acoustic one. Suppose you had three or four small subwoofers scattered around the room. Now the path-length-delay-generated peaks and dips from the scattered low frequency sources would never be peaking and dipping at the same frequency anywhere in the room. The result is much smoother bass throughout the room.
I don't have any relevant information up on my website yet, but at T.H.E. Show I demo'd with a patent-pending compact four-box subwoofer system (four scattered boxes driven by a single plate amp). The same basic thing can be accomplished with several small independently-powered subwoofers.
Anyone interested in details on the system I showed in Vegas, shoot me an e-mail. I'm out of town right now but will try to check e-mail every day or two.
Duke
