In responding to "sean's" comments, i must say that I even used to believe what he recommends about "crossing over speakers, subwoofer's bass quality in general, and general approach to setting up a system properly...but my extensive(much more than his likely..as an edjucated guess) experience, and over 1000 systems, and 1000's of man hours under my belt, I EASILY DISAGREE!!!!!!
tHE REALITY IS, is that playing passive home audiophile speakers full range WILL GIVE YOU A WEAKER DYNAMIC PRESSENTATION, more bass mode challenges to overcome(especially in smaller/medium rooms!), distorted bass woofers(which are underdamped and controlled), lack of extension, weight, authority, impact, and effectiveness, as compared to what the mixing engineers of these block buster movies intened you to hear!!!!!..infact "sean's" recommendation wouldn't hold water for playing back through a speaker system in a large venue either!
People Like Lucas Film, THX, and other mixing authorities have set up the 80hz THX certified paramaters for a reason!.they work! I'm sure some people here(including all the "wanna-be" HT expert/2 ch audiophile "sales-people" I've worked with over the years in 6 stores) would like to think they've got it right, and the REAL AUTHORITIES/EXPERTS HAVE IT WRONG!!!!....YEAR RIGHT!
I'm not saying people can't run their speakers, or shouldn't do thier passive home audio speakers full range for HT!...you of course can. But don't fool yourself into thinking it's better for movies and heavy dyanmic dubties...IT AIN'T!!!
You'll indeed be blowing woofers, getting weaker dynamics, distorted high dynamic bass info, weaker pressence, lack of weight, extension, authority, and a generally lack luster HT playback system!!!!...that's the deal. Not to mention that most people are using very limited, and "iffy" power output from their receivers to driver many speakers full range!!!!!...they're starving their speakers for control!!!...and running into clipping problems!!!
I've seen/heard/done it all before, time and time and time again!
The list of high end and mid-fi speaker gear I've EXTENSIVELY PLAYED AROUND WITH (from my own custom/hobby experience, including 6 audio store I've worked at, and 1000's of hours of custom experience and 100's of clients)
Have included tryinig to run full range speakers of the like's of Willson WATT Puppie's, Large Dunlavy SCV's on down, All the Thiels, Martin Logan Prodigies,Monoliths, etc..., B&W's high end stuff(to 801's), NHT's gear,Mirage's, Snell's, Celestions, Audio Physics, you name it , and more!...and lots of other passive high end gear! I've also played extensively around with most mid-fi gear, including NHT, Paradigm, Def Tech's, Klipsch's, Polk's,M&K PSB's, etc!..and everything you can imagine!!!!
I've tried so many times at making these speaker offerings, using both receivers and separates, play ful range for HT!..it's not as good. YOu GOTTA GET THE SUB TO DO THE BASS!
eXCEPTIONS are, like I said, large full range speakers that have powered subs, like Def TEch's VT3's, Infinity Prelude MTS's(wich I've owned), Avantgarde horn speakers with powered subs', and similar!...also large passive horn pro audio and cinema speakers!
Now, adressing "sean's" recommendation that people simply buy an active crossover, and some passive woofers, and put it together,...well that' just not practical for 99.9% of everyone out there!!...So who's going to do that?..very few!
AS for clains that subwoofers offer generally slow, boomy, slopy, unacurate, "low-fi" bass, well that's also not so accurate!! The reality is that powered sub's do get a bad wrap becasue of larely USER ERROR!!!!!! MOST people don't ever get their sub(or speakers for that matter) set up correctly!...thus affecting the fidelity and quality of the bass they hear! They almost always have the bass turned up too high in level, placed in a bass mode in the room, in a corner, and out of "absolute phase" with their other speakers!!!...it makes getting anything more than cruddy bass mostly impossible! STILL, THE RESULTS THEY GET ARE STILL BETTER AND MORE EFFECTIVE FORE MOVIES USING THE SUB CROSSED OVER TO THE MAINS AT 80HZ!!!!
Again, movies are mixed with explosions, and gunshots, natural dissasters, monster footsteps, and other synthesized sound effects, and other very dynamic overall info! passive home audio speakers can't deal in the bass with this properly! I nkow, I've tried it all before, again and again!..year after year! That's what it is.
Also, yes, many subwoofer manufacturers out there are designing sub's with a built in low "Q factor". This makes for a more "loose", but extended, dynamic, and better power capable design for what movies are dishing out indeed. Still, using this option is still better, IMO, and THX's I think, than the alternative!...it does for movies what they need to!
Now there are companies out there which makes sub's that are more "audiophile" in their sonic qualities, and that pretty much negates all arguments once proper care is taken in setting them up for music/or HT. You can easily pic up subs that have good Q factor, as well as output capability!
M&K's larger MX series, Paradigms excellent, PS1000 to their world class Servo 15, NHT Sub 1, Veldyn'es higher end, Infinity's MTS subs's, Earthquake's dynamite MK1V 12 and 15" digital sub's, and many many others out there, provide not only tight control, but dynamite extension and output!!! Set these up correctly, for proper bass resonse and coupling with the room/speakers, proper phase and coherence with the other speakers, and you can have an extremely high end HT set up that's pretty hard to fault/surpass without getting too custom!!!!
But, to each his own. Still, give me the meat and potatoes over "pipe-dream" audiophile ambitions for proper HT set up, every time!!!!
I'll still put 99/100 people on my side in a set up comparison for a proper HT effort! I know what works...I've lived it, breathed it, and tried it all a bagillion times!!!!!!
peace
