Are big subwoofers viable for 2 channel music?

Hi tyray,

There’s just one caveat, My subs do not have phase (switchable or continuously variable). My PSA subs have 2 pots for:

Time Delay from 0ms to 16ms and
Room Size from small to large

In your case the time delay pot is your phase control.

I do not know what the room size pot controls. I will try to find out and get back to you.

What other controls does your PSA have?

@tyray

The room size pot appears to be a low frequency attenuation filter with 0 attenuation when set to large room and maximum attenuation when set to small room. I do not know if the pot adjusts the slope of the attenuation, the frequency where the attenuation starts or both.

+1 millercabon
+1 big_greg
+1 erik_squires

Yes big sub woofers are viable for 2 channel music.

I am also of the belief that quantity of subs is more important than which brand of sub. I believe any decent brand will work well.

Currently in my system I am using 2) SVS SB4000, 1) Rythmik  F12SE and 1) REL S5/SHO

All three subs cycle low enough and they are all equally loud enough. The differences between them is in how they sound. The REL has a passive radiator and delivers what I call very fat or thick sounding bass. The attack and decay of the notes or beats last a little longer giving the music a little warmer feel. The Rythmik and the SVS are both sealed and are much punchier and have more impact and I would guess that a ported sub would fall somewhere between the sealed and the passive radiator. Which is the correct style for you would depend on what you like to listen to. If you like percussive, highly dynamic music I would lean toward the sealed style sub. If you prefer more of a lush or softer style of music I would lean more toward the passive radiator style. In the interest of full disclosure my room is substantially smaller than yours at 14 x 10 x 9 so these findings may vary from yours.

You have a very large room (at least to me) and somethings that I haven't seen mentioned yet depending on how many and where in the room the subs are placed you may have some very long cable runs and from my experience single ended cable runs of more that 10' - 15' are a no-no so you might want to check into gear that has balanced input and output capabilities or if you are using passive subs you might want bump up the gauge of your speaker wire.

Integration in your case maybe more challenging than for most of us. Again depending on the location of your speakers in relation to your listing position there may not be enough delay in your basic phase control pot built into the subs amps. Tyray mentioned his PSA sub had a 0ms to 16ms range. I do not know what that equates to in relation to 0 to 360 degrees of phase delay, but if that is equal to 360 degrees of phase delay and your listening position is more than 16' away from some of your speakers than you may not have enough compensation to cover that distance and you will have the signal from from your drivers arriving at your listening position at different times which would make a royal mess. That is also assuming that there is no other delay caused by the cabling and that the delay the signal experiences going through all of the amps is equal. I believe that one foot of distance is approximately equal to 1ms of time.

Normaly I would say that a multi-sub system would be much much  easier to integrate than the a one or two sub system, but in your case it may not. Duke being a much, much, much smarter person than I and if he sees this will hopefully chime back in set me straight if I am wrong.

Good luck and happy listening

@noble100 
@big_greg

 Just like you, I'm most surprised by the extremely high crossover frequency of 120 Hz, which is generally considered upper bass, is well above the 80 Hz threshold at which bass tones become localizable. Most individuals should be easily able to discern that 120 Hz tones are originating from the 2 subs which normally negatively effects good imaging.
  
    I cannot explain why the very high 120 Hz crossover setting in your 2 sub audition didn't significantly and negatively effect the sound stage imaging in the room. Can you?

If the two subs are inline or very close in proximity to the main speakers, I would think that imaging would be maintained.

I've tried a high crossover setting with my subs. It didn't sound bad, but it bothered me that the sound was localized. I could "hear" the two behind me.

There are speaker management devices on the market that allow you set different crossover points for your subs so you could set a high crossover frequency for two subs placed near your main speakers and a lower frequency for the subs located far from your mains. DBX makes a very economical one and XTA makes a very expensive one and there will be others in-between.

@audiorusty I think you're right about the placement of the subs.  I can adjust the crossover on each of my subs, so might play around more with the crossover point on the two front subs.