High pass quality to mains uisng Velodyne DD subs

I tried it out both ways last night with my (very) old Vandersteens and the high pass had obvious benefits in both cleaning up the midrange integrating the sub.

I also found that my plans to improve room acoustics are badly needed because quite bit of equalization was needed to flatten out the LF.

I had some noise/degradation, but I was using extremely crappy interconnects (hardware store quality) because that is all I have in long lengths.

The benefits look big enough that if I end up with speakers that like the HP this much, I will probably subtitute a high quality HP like the Vandersteen 5m-hp for the Velodyne HP. Then, I can use my shorter current higher-quality cables (with one addition) also.

I guess that what I am saying is that I am not going to throw in the towel if it turns out that the velodyne HP is not up top snuff. Another advantage of skipping the Velo HP is that I can then attenuate the input to the Velo - I'm running at volume 3-5 out of 100 now with 2-channel.

All of this won't matter if I end up with the Merlins since they have a built-in HP at 28 Hz as part of the Super BAM and others have had good lucking integrating them full range as they stand.

Please keep adding comments. I consider this to be an important discussion since we probably can't buy a floorstander that is clean to 15 Hz for less than about $20,000, if that. Personally, I also value the ability to use the sub for HT with a totally different set-up.

Also, I could not identify the source of the bass whatsoever with just one sub. I was using a very steep crossover, though. I am perfectly happy to add a second if it can be demonstrated that I am missing something.

Jerrym303,

With a second sub, the sound stage had much more dimensionality . It was night and day better in my system.

I have been a fan of subwoofers ever since they weren't mainstream because having clean 20Hz reproduction is much more than just getting deep bass; it also does wonders for soundstaging and imaging since most of the ambience of the original venue is hidden in the very low frequencies. Jerrym303 is also right in that there is no "full range" speaker at a reasonable price and, on top of all that, Velodyne's digital bass correction is the state of the art and too good to pass. I would try ACI's high pass filters(only $29), plus plugging the satellite's reflex ports (if any).