Do you think you need a subwoofer?


Why almost any one needs subwoofers in their audio systems?

I talk with my audio friends about and each one give me different answers, from: I don't need it, to : I love that.

Some of you use subwoofers and many do in the speakers forum and everywhere.

The question is: why we need subwoofers ? or don't?

My experience tell me that this subwoofers subject is a critical point in the music/sound reproduction in home audio systems.

What do you think?
rauliruegas
Dear Halcro: Yes, I already read it.

What I want point in my last post is that ( at least in my system/room ) the wall subwoofer reinforcement position help to smooth the bass response against an " open " subwoofer position.

The other subject was to re-confirm that the use of subwoofers has to be in true stereo way.

I already point it out that IMHO the most important improvement that we can/could have adding a pair of true stereo way subwoofers is to lower the intermodulation distortion on the main spekaers, in this way you don't only have ( for the first time ) true undistorted low bass response ( that when you hear it for the first time it will be extremly hard to live with out it. ) but you clean up all the whole system frequency response: mid bass, midrange and high frequencies, that give to us several advantages : lower distortion response, lower coloration, higher accuracy response, better dynamics, improve over all the sounstage/imagin/focus, improve on inner detail perception, etc, etc that at the " end of the day " can(could take us nearer to the recording and nearer to the live event.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
Dear Stringree: Well a not easy room. Adding two subwoofers in real stereo fashion will be help you in many ways but additional to that that room could need some kind of " treatment " trying to even its frequency response and kill those echoes.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
Sorry Raul I am a bit late to respond, a while back you asked what I cross over my VMPS woofers at on the outboard cross-over and I believe I am at 135HZ as the midrange takes over a bit lower than that.
Since posting my original reply I added a HSU sub but only for HT and it is not tied into tube preamp, I just wanted to roll off woffers at 40hz to not worry about an expensive error just for watching a silly movie.
Thanks Raul. Actually, I had a sound engineer come up. He did a frequency response check of the room which included reflections, and phasing. He suggested putting a soft island suspended from the ceiling the whole room through. Although the room is box-like, he suggested a very large oval shape. He also suggested accoutic floating soffets with indirect lighting, and some kind of treatment for those very large windows (not draperies or anything - they look great as is, but perhaps an accouticaly impenetrable window with 5 thicknesses of glass and a near vaccuum between them. This and other ideas sound good to me - the price is about 30,000 dollars. I suspect that I'll do it in stages.