@olfac87 Firstly, I wish to express my condolences to you on your loss.
I also have just inherited a pair of B&W 801 Matrix S2s of roughly the same era from my uncle who is moving to senior living.
Agree 100% with elliottbnewcombjr and simonmoon
And what danager said is absolutely correct. In particular:
The good news is that doesn't require the most expensive subs and they really only fill in for room acoustics.
I will add that they can also vary in size, manufacturer, etc.
I hear that active subs can also be thrown in to the mix.
So I put the 801s in my 15' x 19' (9' ceiling and wall to wall carpet) where I have a multi-sub swarm. I wanted to listen to these wonderous new speakers by themselves for a while. Haven't owned speakers anywhere near this big in decades and these 801s just brought back many found memories.
After turning on the subs and some minor gain and frequency adjustments there was a very noticeable improvement as others have mentioned.
The bass had more detail and finesse. But this improvement extends upward into the midrange as well. Bigger and more enveloping soundstage. Everything was just more convincing.
But for lack of ways to further (better?) describe the experience, I will just say that I really enjoyed listening more with the subs on.
Definitely worth your while to consider.
Good luck and have fun with your search!