What is wrong with a sub?

David, very few speakers do deep bass well. Those that do have what amounts to a built in sub. So, many of us add dedicated subwoofers to our systems to get the bottom octaves. I love my subwoofers. There is no way I could get realistic bass without them. I would think at my age I am anything but a bush leaguer. Enjoy your bass and your system subwoofer and all.  

@elizabeth Exactly!  Seems like most people with subs just want to hear the thump, thump, thump.   


Used correctly a sub should just extend the lower range of your mains linearly within a few dBs.    At least that's the "audiophile" answer.

But lots of people like subs so they can turn them up and thump away.   I have also been known to do that on occasion when my kids were watching a movie.

Maybe "guys are bass crazy" because bass makes music as physical as it is. A lot of music systems sound anemic to me, lacking the physicality of live music. Dames listen to music from the waist up ;-) .

I like subwoofers because they help me achieve more of the visceral experience that I get listening to live music. 

Most speakers can't do that on their own or they may not produce an even bass response.  Maybe if you have a perfect room.  I don't.  In my main system I have Legacy Audio 20/20 speakers that have  combined total of 6 12" drivers and they can come close to "pressurizing" the room, but the quality of bass is better when subwoofers are added into the system.  I have 4 very large and powerful subwoofers in my system, but they are not set up to "thump", they are there to add body to the music and smooth out the bass response throughout the room.  They are barely noticeable unless I play techno or something else with really deep bass, then they come alive.

In my smaller computer system I have Focal Electra 1008 BE stand mount speakers and a single small 12" sealed subwoofer.  The sub just fleshes out the bottom end, it's not there to thump or pressurize the room.  It's a fairly small room and it just complements the Focals by producing the lower frequencies that they can't.