Will a subwoofer add depth and clarity to my system, or just bass?

I sold REL when they first came into the US. They are still a wonderful product, but one of the most Overlooked subs on the market is Paradigm.

Depending on budget, The Defiance X10 for $1k is a great value. It has Anthem Room Correction and an app that allows you to control the sub from your phone. The X Series is built in Canada and the woofer’s surround (ART - Active Ridge Technology) on the cone holds two US Patents = It increases the output +3dB (which is the equivalent output of two woofers) and cuts the distortion in half - those are the two patents. It’s incredibly musical and will pressurize your room improving the harmonics of music you listen to just like the REL does.

Pressurizing the room is something very few talk about. When you’re at a concert (in a venue/hall/auditorium i.e. an enclosed space, when the orchestra plays, or the band plays, the room becomes pressurized and this helps the harmonic detail unlike going to a concert that’s outdoors. So for avanti1960 to say that subs don’t add clarity to a system, that’s not really true. A great sub can add a lot.  I would also recommend doing one sub over two lesser subs.  There is not strength in numbers with this, only room for more problems.  So if you're going with more than one, they need to be good, not average or just ok.  Always get the better thing.  

Also, the Defiance Subs have the kind of output required for home theater that the REL’s don’t. Check out the Defiance Subs on YouTube and at Paradigm.com Want to go higher end, look at the Prestige Subs by Paradigm.

Thanks,
Chris

Most full-range speakers can benefit from adding a subwoofer (ideally two - one each for the L/R channels).  You will definitely get increased bottom end, greater ambiance, and improved soundstage.  The trick is blending them with your mains - you really don’t want to know they are there other than hearing the perceived benefits.  This takes some time and experimenting to do it right (phase/low-pass filter/volume).  Worth the effort.  Jim Smith’s book/DVD “Get Better Sound” into the details/process very nicely.  Good luck!
Gorm

Hello gormdane,

     I generally agree with your statement that "most full-range speakers can benefit from adding a subwoofer (ideally two - one each for the L/R channels).  You will definitely get increased bottom end, greater ambiance, and improved soundstage.  The trick is blending them with your mains - you really don’t want to know they are there other than hearing the perceived benefits".   I agree with using 2 subs if your goal is smoother bass response at your listening position but not if your goal is 'stereo bass'.  
     I believe advising "ideally two subs-one each for the L/R channels" is very misleading since it implies that positioning a sub beside each of the L/R main speakers will provide smoother, or even stereo, bass response. Two subs can provide smoother bass response at the listening position but the bass will be mono and it requires very specific positioning of each sub in the room that will likely not be a sub located next to each L/R speaker.
     I read Jim Smith's book and watched his dvd on Getting Better Sound about 20 years ago.  I think it's very useful for anyone assembling a home audio system for music or ht but would not recommend it for advice on achieving good in-room bass response.  Perhaps he's updated his section on good bass and subwoofers since I read his book, but I remember him emphasizing the proper positioning of full-range speakers in relation to the listening position for smoothest bass response and making no mention of a distributed bass array system consisting of 4 subs at all.  
     In retrospect, he seemed to take a very traditional and conservative approach to achieving good in-room bass response that stressed obviating the need for any subs with high quality and properly positioned full-range speakers and completely ignored alternative approaches. 
     I think such a highly renowned 'good sound expert' should have been aware of critical scientific research and conclusions reached on the use of dbas about this time (20 years ago), the fallacy of true 'stereo bass' along with any other alternative methods of achieving good bass response via the use of 1 or more subs in a room and mentioned this in his book.
     A shortcoming that was a shame for me in particular, since it took me another 15 plus years to discover the revolutionary effectiveness of dba systems thanks to James Romeyn and Duke Lejeune.

Tim 

Dear @noble100  : """  Two subs can provide smoother bass response at the listening position but the bass will be mono..... """

Why " will be mono " ?, I can't understand that. Coud you explain about?

Thank's in advance.

R.

Hello rauliruegas,


     The bass will be mono because there's no such thing as true stereo bass below about 80 Hz and there are virtually no vinyl or cd recordings that have separate bass recorded for the L/R channels.  The recording engineers sum the bass below a certain frequency and evenly distribute the combined bass on the L/R channels so it is located to the center when played back via a stereo system through a pair of speakers.

     In my opinion the best sounding solution, if you're going to use 1 or more subs, is to run them in mono mode and position them at positions in the room that sounds the best to you (smoothest and most natural) at the listening position.  

     The major benefit of this approach is that the deep bass will be perceived as stereo (even though it's not recorded in stereo) from your listening position.  This is a result of the higher frequency harmonics or overtones of the fundamental deep bass tone being recorded and played back through the L/R stereo speakers since they generally extend above the approximately 80 Hz frequency that the bass is typically summed in the L/R channels in mono.  
     These higher frequency harmonics/overtones give clues to our brains.  Our amazing brains are able to process the non-directional inputted deep bass fundamental tones, along with the directional higher frequency harmonics/overtones or clues,  determine  that they are related and assign a specific room location the non-directional deep bass tone originated from.

     This is generally referred to as a psycho acoustic effect but it is consistently perceived as sounding very real to us humans.

Tim