Budget bookshelf system for acoustic bass

Peter (I presume):

A speaker that really is 3-5 dB down at 40 Hz is going to give you very good bass performance. That's not the point. Speaker measurements depend very much on who's doing the measuring and how they're doing it. Manufacturers will always try to put their products in the best light. John Atkinson's measurements tend to be pretty generous, as well. If you look at the NRC measurements at http://www.soundstage.com, you'll see they're a bit more conservative. Tom Nousaine's measurements in Sound & Vision are even more conservative. None of them are wrong. But none of them really tell you what you will hear in your room. (And, obviously, they aren't comparable.)

I'm not anti-measurement, far from it. I'm just saying that what you want to know can't be known based on the information you have. What you want to know is, will I miss the bass with these monitors? And the only way to know that is to try one or two out.

Full size acoustic 4 string basses share the same low/open E string primary with that of full size electric basses (a bit higher than 41 HZ).

A full size 5 string bass (low/open string tuned to B) goes down to 31-32 Hz.

Other bass designs exist (a sub/concert bass to name one), but I doubt they come up often.

This is easy.

For a bass loving, acoustic music fan on a budget I highly recommend the Nola Minis, around $700 and a wonderful speaker. If you must have a sub you can always add a used Alon Centris or a Nola Thunderbolt to the system, but with the Minis (formerly called Lil' Rascals) you won't miss much without the sub.

They're in a whole 'nother league compared to small boxes from PSB, NHT, Paradigm et al.

www.nolaspeakers.com

Lot's of good responses and choices here. I pointed out the B&W's because of the recent good write-up, meets the price point, gets pretty close to the frequency response goal and has sufficient sensitivity for the Linn. (Published sensitivity for the B&W is 90dB, same as the Triangle Titus-ES.)

I have absolutely no axe to grind on behalf of the B&W. (I run Vandersteens in my main system.) I heard them briefly and they are not unworthy of consideration at this price point IMO. In fact, I thought bass dynamics to be one of their strengths. That said, I think all of the choices pointed out here are good. Try and listen to a few of them and maybe some others, if you can, to see if the bass is satisfying. If not, then you may want to go with a sub and some truly small monitors.

As several have pointed out, the Linn has relatively low power output. Sensitivity is a spec to be looked at more closely in your case, although some mfrs seem to cheat a little on that number. Probably depends on the measurement technique.

Enjoy the hunting . . . .