How important is bass to you?

Nope, nothing missed Tostadosunidos. Just trying to clarify what people mean by "lowest bass", and make the point that many systems just barely play the lowest note of the bass, which at 42Hz is sure not the lowest bass. I asked Inna if by lowest bass he meant the bottom octave (20-40Hz) precisely because 40Hz is about as low as many loudspeakers play. Inna said no, that was too great a range, defining lowest bass as "below, say, 25Hz". Well, VERY few systems have much output below 40Hz, let alone below 25Hz. And you're right, subwoofers do provide those low frequencies, but they seem to be still out-of-fashion amongst Audiogon members. Inna's question asks about a frequency range that many (most?) Audiogon member's systems don't reproduce, not well or poorly, but at all! Or am I mistaken?---do many Audiogon members have a system with loudspeakers or subs that provide substantial levels of bass reproduction below about 40Hz?

Being a planar loudspeaker enthusiast, I've long accepted the fact that in my system subs are required to get full-range reproduction, or even to reach down to 40Hz or so, at adequate SPL and with low distortion. I'm not sure dynamic-speaker owners feel the same, though there is a case to be made that they should!

For chamber music and vocals bass isn't important.

It's important to note that response to 40hz doesn't necessarily come anywhere close to bass definition at 40hz. Response into the 20's will much more likely give actual bass note clarity down to the bottom. Big difference between usable response and flat response.

With the human voice musicians are readily classified as tenors, sopranos, bass, altos, etc., but in popular music combos only the bass player gets a specific mention for the range of their instrument. The conclusion is unavoidable -- the bass is the most important element in popular music (other than the vocal).

Can you imagine the great Larry Graham singing "I'm gonna add some upper midrange to make it easy to move your feet"? Maybe in you're alternate reality, but not in mine!

if bass really matters, why do so many people buy stand-mounted "monitor" speakers? They don't sound much like real music, to me, because of the lack of bass.