much of this depends on room size and musical genre. imo using l/r monitors that on their own can't do a pretty good job on fairly deep bass, say @50 hz is not logical. depending on who you rely on for info, most bass is non directional below @150 hz. a speaker so small that it cannot produce lower harmonics without relying heavily on a sub is gonna sound off without some incredible fine tuning. if you know of a small spkr that plays flat down to 30 hz let us know because unless you have a BIG listening room or crank pipe organ and tuba you have eliminated the need for most subwoofers. i love my sub but just set it at low x-over...monitors with no decent bass just do not cut it in the realism dept with me.