How important is bass to you?

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.

Enter the ubiquitous subwoofer.