One big subwoofer or two weaker subwoofers?

Thank you very much for all responses.

The main speakers are Kef Q5. They are not very good speakers, but I wish I could exchange it. If so, I would like to use high quality monitors, or maybe electrostatic panels.

The sub-bass system would help anyway. And it is quite cheaper to build a system this way than buy (reallly) full rang speakers, which are out of my budget (now, and probably always).

Now I use a Kenwood subwoofer. It is slow in the sense that it can not follow the rhythm of the music. It sounds delayed. And of course it can not produce musical notes. Just boom-boom.

My system is 7.1 Kef Q series home theater, but it is mainly used for music DVDs. While my actual boom-boom subwoofer is fine for films, it is not right for music. Therefore I can expand the bass of my main speakers.

I know that neither my actual main speakers (which are said to go down up to 40Hz, but I am sure that it is not true), nor any future speakers will sound very deep, so I am afraid that a bit of low-midrange frequencies should be present from the subwoofers always.

Thanks again. I am going to begin a new thread just to know the differences you feel (not only the specs) when listening to different Rels.

Thanks a lot once again.

Mavilla: Try filling the interior volume of the sub with a varied density of foam ( or polyester fiberfil as a second choice ) and turning the crossover point as low or almost as low as it will go. This should get you a lot closer to something musical rather than something that goes "boom boom". You can fine-tune the quantity i.e. how "tight" or "loose" you want the bass by varying the amount of stuffing in the box. This shouldn't cost you more than about $10 or so to try and will probably make you a whole lot happier. Don't forget to try various placements for the sub once you get things dialed in reasonably close to where you want them with the stuffing.

El: As far as motor structure and mass goes, my Brother's 5" mids and 9" woofers both have 3" voice coils. The 9's have less than 30 grams of moving mass. How's that for "transient response capability"? From what i can tell, this is equivalent to having a fully massaged "big block" bolted into a shopping cart : )

Even with this much "motor structure" and lack of reciprocating weight, these drivers don't demonstrate the high "force factor" aka "slam" that many larger and heavier drivers are capable of. The bass is very tight and punchy, but it just doesn't have the "weight" or "impact" that one can achieve by using a larger driver. Even though my Brother is using two 9" woofers per side, he knows that he's missing bottom end. That's why he's also running two larger sub-woofers per side : ) Sean
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PS... Many folks confuse large quantities of bass and / or bass over-hang with deep bass extension. Since it is easier to obtain greater output at higher frequencies than it is to go deep and maintain high levels of linearity, many manufacturers substitute "bloom" for bottom end. Once one gets rid of the "artificial boost", you can really hear the lack of extension. I am going through this right now with my Father and his system. After rebuilding / modifying his system, he thinks he's missing deep bass. Since we effectively made his cabinets larger, which extends bass response, there is NO way that this is possible. What he's doing is confusing the lack of upper bass "bloat" for deep bass extension. While he's VERY happy with the improvements in bass definition and tonality, the lack of 80 Hz bass makes him think that the system is "lean". That's why i'm working on a 15" sub-woofer for him now : )

Sean, don't you think that TWO 15"ers in stereo (i.e. one per channel) would do the trick for yr Dad?
- You would still have definition (not the single-note pulsating muddiness)
- There would be better spl so, bass will be more perceptible
Cheers

Sean...Those small drivers with big voice coils wouldn't be Dynaudio by any chance. I have a set of Dynaudio MTM boxes with 5inch "woofers" that have 3inch voice coils. They bark furiously, but no bite. Very nice close up in a small room.

Size matters.

My next direction is going to be in a really good subwoofer. I am beginning to think that this is one area where i will probably try a number of home auditions before deciding.

Long live the local brick-and-mortar shops!