does a subwoofer kill stereo sound?

woith some speakers only going down to ,,say 50 hz, your missing alot so maybe a sub is right in some systems.

sounds real audio; I am with you. Subs exagerate the lower end. Watching a movie great use a sub. Listening to music, NO THANKS! Take a good/great full range speaker over a sub any day.

Respectfully disagree that subs necessarily exaggerate the lower end. In my experience, the only time this happens is when the crossover is not properly set and/or the output is too high and/or the sub is not properly positioned.

Seamless integration of a sub-based system is not always simple, but once achieved, the end result is absolutely musical.

I use a passive sub so I could cherry pick the best matching amp , cables , cords , ect . I have used many different subs and set ups and found them all hard to integrate , many folks will never get it right . As to the original question , I don't feel a sub will kill stereo sound and if set up right can give a much fuller sound stage . Happy listening .

Disrespectuflly disagree that "subs exaggerate...."

Until someone has set up a subwoofer using RTA (and/or digital room correction), they should probably refrain from sweeping generalizations about what a sub does or does not do. A properly set-up subwoofer will produce measurably superior bass performance vis a vis the vast majority of full range speakers in the vast majority of rooms. Not a sweeping generalization - a fact.

There is a pretty simple reason: Most full range speakers are designed for placement out in the room. If this is where you generate your bass response, you will virtually always get serious cancellations at frequencies which can be calculated by their distance to the nearest wall and (to a lesser extent) further boundaries. A properly placed sub will mitigate those cancellations.

If a sub is exaggerating the low end, it is a poor sub and/or it has been improperly set up.

This doesn't mean that you have to prefer a sub to a full range speaker - merely that you can almost always get the sub to measure better, if you do it right.

Marty