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35Hz - 25kHz -- A Partial 'Purist'?

It's amazing how much musical information can be found in the lowest bass regions say 30Hz down to below 20Hz, whether classical, folk, instrumental, pop, etc..

Yet, I'm purplexed to see some to many audiophile 'purists' refuse to even attempt to resolve the obvious deficiency in their systems which simply cannot reproduce any musical information in the lowest regions of the frequecy spectrum.

No matter how musical, how refined, and/or how infinite the configurations a good musical subwoofer can offer, the 'purist' simply will not consider adding a subwoofer to supplement their mains. There's too many good subs (you only need one) ranging from $1k to $30k that can be quite quite musical and allow for near-infinite configurations to adapt to most any system and listening preference. And, yes, I am aware there are many more bad subwoofers, but's that's another thread.

As a self-proclaimed 'fundamentalist', my quest is to ensure my 2-channel system is such that any musical information coming from the source stands an excellent chance of being faithfully reproduced for my listening pleasure.

And by adding a musical 18 inch subwoofer, I don't believe I've given up anything.

I would enjoy hearing what others think.
stehno
viggen
838 posts
 
I believe your speakers ought to produce the entire audio spectrum, for you to fully enjoy music as it ought to be heard and felt.

That being said, my speakers only go down to 50hz according to manufacturer specs. Yet, I fully enjoy my system.

Someday, I might add a subwoofer. Until this day, I still haven't heard a subwoofer that sounds better than a Velodyne ULD 18 or 15. Although, the early 90's production Klipsch subs works wonderfully with my speakers, KEF Referecnes.
ultrakaz
187 posts
 

I'm in Tireguy's camp, I've never heard a sub that seamlessly integrated with the satellites. This is not to say that I've never heard a satellite/sub system sound good (like Pipedreams and Airfoil), but there was always a discontinuity and or muddiness between the low bass and everything else.

It's a matter of degree and priority. Some are more than willing to compromise seamlessness for low bottom end. I'm happy at 35 hz. In 18 years of listening to sub/sat systems, my experience has been "honeymoonish." That is I hook the sub up and it sounds fantastic, but after awhile (one week or two) something is amiss, like a muddiness or an afterthought. And, low and behold, once I take the sub away the music gets its' life back. Then the cycle repeats, though a lot less now than before.

I think that if the speaker system was designed around using a sub, then it may have a better chance of sounding more seamless or less discontinuous depending on how you look at it.
stehno OP
1,453 posts
 
Is it not entirely possible that some of you never had a good quality sub to work or with and/or you simply were not able to configure it properly with your mains and/or room acoustics?

If we assume that a few of the deficiencies you mention do exist and hypothetically, there's no way to correct them even if you had the very best sub, the very best room acoustics, and the very best system. Wouldn't the minor deficiency or two be worth overlooking rather than throwing the baby out with the bath water?

And that was kinda' my point of this thread.

Because the cannon shots in the 1812 Overture are not reproduced exactly as you anticipated (which itself is subjective) or there was a little hump, you therefore censor the cannon shots altogether?

To me, this simply defies logic. You'll treat your room for deficiencies with the mains. You'll upgrade your amp to solidify and pronounce the bottom regions, you'll bi-wire, etc.. In other words, you'll (IMO) apply band-aids to every other aspect but simply will not entertain the one possible cure that could resolve most concerns in this region.

It kinda' puzzles me I guess.
stehno OP
1,453 posts
 
oops
oahuan
39 posts
 
I'm with you Stehno. If you enjoy music in which low bass content reproduced in proper scale and dynamic balance with the rest of the music's content is important, I think it is better to have the bass and put up with a some discontinuity than to forsake the bass altogether. However, I would not (and do not) compromise the output quality of my main speakers by using the crossovers in powered subwoofers. Adding more bass "underneath" my main speakers' output is the path I have taken (using RELs), and I am much the happier for it. Yeah, I can hear the subwoofers, now and then, but for me the good far outweighs the bad.
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