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are subwoofers anti-audiophile?

I have been into this hobby 25 years now and have noticed not a lot of us use Subwoofers in our systems.

I have 2 systems, one which is a Celestion SL700 with their Celestion System 6000 subwoofer pair with a outboard crossover-----my other system has changed quite a bit, but with always large floorstanding speakers. I have also always had adequate power to the speakers.

My floorstanding system cannot match the realism i get from my Celestion/subwoofer system. In my floorstanding system, it is almost like the bassist is backstage playing, while the rest of the band is front stange and center. This leads me to my question. Why don't most of us use subwoofers? I am a member of an audiophile club and we do system hops and no one has a subwoofer in their 2 channel systems.
justlisten
aldavis
191 posts
 
Well grannrig I'm stumped. I guess I'd have to hear what your hearing to be of any real help. What ever sounds best to you is all that counts. - jim
gunbei
2,327 posts
 
What one person might perceive as weight, another might perceive as bloat.
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
04-01-10: Gunbei
What one person might perceive as weight, another might perceive as bloat.

That sums it up pretty well Gunbei. Some folks enjoy the additional bass weight, which is fine. Whatever gets your toes a' tapping.
nandric's avatar
nandric
3,263 posts
 
The designer Joachim Gerhard (Virgo,Caldera,Medea) keep away from 'enything' below 40Hz in the mentioned loudspeakers. But for those that parsist on organ music he produced some subs...
Maybe that the 40 Hz 'bondary' was some kind of 'idee-fixe'
for him but this is realy hard to belive.

Regards,
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
3,575 posts
 
Lowest bass string is 41.2Hz. 5 or 6 string bass guitars are used for easy of playing only. Piano goes down to 27Hz (A) but it is not very often used. There are organs and big drums but there are also neighbors.

My speakers go down to 30Hz while my room amplifies 38Hz (1150/15'/2=38Hz) - no problem with 41.2Hz. If I decide to get sub it will be one like JL Fathom 113 that self adjusts/equalize itself with microphone.

My speakers could possibly go lower but most likely were tuned for lowest distortions and not for the extension. Quality of bass (attack, decay, tone etc) is more important than quantity or extension.
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