Separate subs for music and HT/surround


My stereo setup is comprised of Ayre 5/20 series digital hub, preamp and amp that drive KEF Ref 1s through a passive Marchand high-pass filter. For HT and surround, LR side and rear surround from an SP3 go to NAD Class D amps that drive LS50s. The SP3 receives HDMI from an Ayre DX-5 DSD, and its front LR output goes to a balanced by-pass input of the KX-5/20. I have two Velodyne SMS-1 bass managers that provide acoustic room correction, two HGS-10 subs, and two HGS-15 subs.

Question: Should I use one SMS-1 with the two HGS-10s for stereo and the other SMS-1 with the two HGS-15s for HT and surround music? I realize there are advocates for using 4 subs, and I could daisy-chain the SMS-1s, but separating the SMS-1s seems a neat way to keep stereo separate from HT.

db
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cleeds:
"We’ve been through this before, and you’ve been provided with authoritative references to dispel your notion that all LF is monophonic/non-directional. I’m not sure why you choose to reject the science on the directionality of LF. In particular, 100 hZ is not especially low bass, and it pretty easily localizeable."


Hello cleeds,

      I think you may have me confused with someone else, you never provided me with authoritative references to dispel my notion that all LF is monophonic/non-directional. Please provide those references again.
    In rechecking my references, I noticed that the threshold of human localization of bass sounds, due to the results of the most recent scientific research, has been lowered from 100 to 80 Hz, meaning humans are capable of localizing bass soundwaves above the updated 80 Hz threshold but are not capable of localizing bass soundwaves below this 80 Hz threshold.
    One of my references is the owner of Audio Kinesis and designer of the 4-sub Swarm DBA system, Duke LeJeune, who I recently asked on another thread to verify my understanding of in-room bass dynamics and multiple sub solutions. Below are his responses that I believe are relevant to this thread:

"@noble100 wrote: "Duke... I was hoping to get your honest opinion on my thoughts on how I understand multiple sub systems function in general as well as my understanding of how bass is recorded on CDs and vinyl."  

In general I agree with what you wrote, so let me just toss out a few comments.
" We all are unable to localize deep bass frequency soundwaves..."  

My understanding is that’s generally true in a room. The figure I use is 80 Hz, rather than 100 Hz. I think Floyd Toole uses 80 Hz. This doesn’t necessarily mean that one cannot detect the location of a sub which is crossed over significantly lower, say at 40 Hz, because crossovers are not brick walls, so upper bass/lower midrange energy can give away a sub’s location if it comes through loud enough. Therefore in my opinion a steep lowpass filter on the sub helps to hide its location.  

"the bass is summed to mono on frequencies below 100 Hz on all vinyl and cd recordings."  

I wouldn’t say "all", but I would say "almost all". (If we’re talking about a Swarm/DEBRA system, a second amp can be added to give you true stereo bass).

"Our brains are able to associate the fundamental deep bass frequencies reproduced by the subs, that are not able to be localized, with the deep bass’s higher harmonic frequencies, that extend well beyond 100 Hz, which are reproduced by the main speakers that are able to be localized. This psychoacoustic association allows us to localize the deep bass in the soundstage, for example the kick drum is located in the rear center and the upright bass is located in the front to the left, which would not be otherwise possible without this psychoacoustic association our brain’s are capable of."

I agree.  

Duke"






Here's the thread link:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/searching-for-matching-subwoofer-solution?page=2

Tim
Post removed 
I'm rethinking the sub woofer setup.  I plan to use the Bryston SP3 to manage the subwoofers, the Velodyne SMS-1 to provide acoustic room correction.  An output from the Ayre KX-5/20 preamp will go to the SP3; managed output from the SP3 will go to the SMS-1.

I don't know if Roon does surround, but the setup will be there if it does.

db
Hello DB,

     Okay, I trust you know what you're doing.  At this point, I'm mainly interested with your impressions of using your custom 4-sub DBA system on music and TV/HT.

Tim
Tim,

Of course I don't know what I'm doing.  I'm vacillating with the idea of using daisy-chained Velodyne SMS-1s for both bass management and acoustic room correction.
db