Separate subs for music and HT/surround

Hello DB,

     Oh ye of little faith.  The goal is to use all four subs for both stereo music and HT to have near state of the art bass performance on both.  Run all four subs in mono because none of your music recordings were recorded with stereo bass below about 100 Hz anyway, they all have the bass summed to mono.  
     But don't worry, you'll perceive the bass as stereo.  Even though the fundamental bass tones below 80 Hz,  that you're not able to localize (tell where they are coming from), are reproduced in mono by the four subs,  the higher frequency harmonics or overtones of the fundamental tones that reach to frequencies above 80 Hz and are reproduced through the pair of Ref1s in stereo, are able to be localized.  Your brain does the rest by associating the harmonics or overtones to the fundamental tones and this allows you to perceive where the tones below 80 Hz are coming from within the soundstage image.
     Just trust me and give it a try, it works like a charm and you're going to love it.

Tim
     

noble100

... Run all four subs in mono because none of your music recordings were recorded with stereo bass below about 100 Hz anyway, they all have the bass summed to mono.

We’ve been through this before, and you’ve been provided with authoritative references to dispel your notion that all LF is monophonic/non-directional. I’m not sure why you choose to reject the science on the directionality of LF. In particular, 100 hZ is not especially low bass, and it pretty easily localizeable.

That many recordings have mono bass certainly doesn’t mean that all recordings have mono bass, as Richard Vandersteen noted.

Of course, if you connect your system so that all bass is mono, then it will not allow you the benefit of stereo bass. And mono bass can sound very, very good, especially in some rooms. Perhaps that’s the source of your confusion.

I don't have a separate music room, so my main music system is right in the family room with my home theater/general TV watching setup that my kids are using all the time.

But the music and HT systems are completely separate (electronics, speakers, subs) and kids not allowed to touch the music stuff.

Regarding subs, I use a REL S5 for music and unwilling to each time HT/Tv being watched by me or family to disconnect/reconnect the sub from my integrated amp to my receiver behind the rack, so I prefer to just use an older Energy sub that I had for HT, and it does a fine job there.

This way never have to reconnect anything, kids are clear on what they can operate and what they cannot, and I get highest quality music in general area of house.

Would 2 subs perhaps sound better for either application?  Maybe, but unwilling to go to that amount of effort when listening time is already short in a busy work/family/spouse filled week.

I'm not sure how this applies to the gear that you have, but my system initially started out more for home theater and over the years the focus has shifted to two channel listening.  I have 4 subs plus a HSU MBM-12 (12" "mid-bass module").

The four subs are connected to one pair of outs on my preamp, which has a home theater bypass option.  Each pair of subs are connected to one output using a Y splitter. 

The MBM-12 is connected to my Marantz pre-processor, which is only engaged for home theater.  The four subs are located throughout my living room in the fashion of a "distributed bass array" as best I can given space limitations.  

I have the subs optimized for music, but they also work great when I watch movies and the MBM-12 adds some visceral grunt to explosions, gunshots, etc.  It's easy to switch back and forth between music and home theater and both sound great.

My primary concern is keeping the stereo and HT setups separate even though there is only a single pair front LR speakers.  For stereo I want the link to be Ayre DX-5 DSD and QX-5 sources going to KX-5 preamp and VX-5 amp, with a Marchand passive high-pass filter between the preamp and amp.  An output from the KX-5 would go to a Velodyne SMS-1, and the output from the SMS-1 to the HGS-10s would be equalized not LFE.

For HT, the DX-5 sends audio via HDMI to the Bryston SP3 that delivers LFE to the other SMS-1 and use its LFE output to the HGS-15s.  My understanding is that the spectrum of LFE is modified to produce more spectacular sound effects for HT.

db