Do you think you need a subwoofer?

Drummermitchel, did you mean to say "our living room is NOT really big(11X12)"?

Your post is a bit confusing. You reference buying a 900 sq. ft. home, then you say "So I have been buying gear suited more for a bigger room."

Now if you are happy with your sound, that is what really matters. It is just surprising to me that if your room is really 11' x 12' and you installed a pair of Revels and two DD-15 that you have room for the system to breath and image and you are not blown out by the bass. But maybe that was your point?

Dear Pryso: Yes, I agree with you: not really big.

This is the real " magic " of sub's alternative: it does not matters ( almost ) on the room because we are talking in the subs alternative mainly about low bass quality more than quantity.

In my experience two sub's always perform better than one in a room, two sub's makes the response be smoother.

Jloveys and Halcro point out that the ideal number is four sub's and there is the link to a scientific studies about made by Harman International elsewhere in this thread. Anyway the best way to go is when you listen it in your own system: you can't believe what you are hearing and the huge improvement in the quality system performance.

Btw, Dgob ( He posted in this thread ) has a very small room and he integrate two sub's in true stereo fashion with very good results too.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

It's kind of a joke as our living room is 11'X12",and yes that was my point.i tend to buy the best I can(to enjoy),and hopefully this year we'll add on or aquire a bigger house.
i know my system would love more breathing space,I can only imagine what she'd sound like in a bigger room.The room does give me some idea of what to expect,perhaps the calm before the storm.

Dear pryso: My " ask " to M.Levigne was because ( if I remember ) in their last three speakers in his audio system ( including the today ones ) he owned and own speakers that handle the low bass by self speaker powered woofers ( well I think that with his Kharma's he used the separate Kharma sub's ), so he already has a wide experience on the advantages to reduce the IMD on the speakers and the advantage to have dedicated drivers/amplifiers working in the low bass.

I hope he can read this and want to share his experiences about.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Dear Pryso: I want to add ( a little late!. ) that even if the main speakers cross-over is at 160hz like you say and other benefits that the ones I posted earlier one advantage using separate self powered subs is that that separate subs can more easy be integrated on the room due that you can move it anywhere you need where in a full range speaker you can't because the woofer driver is an integrated part of the speaker and when you move the " whole " speaker to " tame " the bass response you " alter " too the full frequency speaker response .

In other side when you have separate self powered subs ( in true stereo fashion conection. ) using an external electronic crossover always your main amplifier will be liberate it for the low/deep bass response/handling and this means thet that main amplifier will perform better than full range, everything in benefit of an improvement in overall quality audio system performance.

Pryso from my experiences IMHO it is very very hard to beat a satelite/subs main system ( I support/recomended this kind of approach. ) against a non powered/passive non-separate full range speaker and even a self powered non-separate system.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.