are subwoofers anti-audiophile?

Here is why I decided to loose the sub I had in my system. I found I lost both midrange and highs causing my system to sound less intmate and natural are more impressive for a short listen.

Every time I turned off the sub I immediately hated the loss of bass impact and quickly turned it back on.

Well I recently decided to let my ears endure a longer time period with the sub off and my music collection came to life with better imaging and much more midrange and highs detail.

The music was more involving and less impressive.

My sub was carefully set up to only play 40 htz and below. The volume was set very, very low as to not make the use of it apparent

I found that a sub will/can rob some life and transparancy from my system. I owned an SVS PB12 Plus 2.

This is my recent experience with a sub.

My main speakers are Silverline Bolero rated down to the mid 30's.

Aldavis,

Thanks for the input. The volume setting on the sub is 2 out of ten in a room 24X18. (Very low)

I have bass traps and other room tuning devices properly set up. I have run various room set-up CD's from the likes of RIVES etc. I really do think it was set up pretty close to perfectly.

The sub seems to have a great reputation by owners and the industry.

I simply found it did "mess with" both mids and highs in my home. A good audio friend also went through the same situation and turned off the sub for better sound. I heard his sytem with and without the sub and agreed with him.

Proper set up and room interaction etc... all serve up a very tricky situation , at best, with a sub.

All I know is when I played the sub all by itself I was amazed how how little it was actually doing. One would think a sub set-up to be so tame could never negatively impact mids, imaging, highs etc.. However,it did.