it puzzles me why individuals buy speakers with poor bass response
Let’s convert the word "poor" and say "deep." The smaller the speaker, the less likely you are to run into room mode problems, not to mention matching the decor (yes, this is important) and finding the ideal place for them.
Pretend physical size is not an issue. Say you have a 6" cube speaker that is flat 16Hz to 30kHz in a test chamber, with infinite dynamic range.
That could be a terrible sounding speaker in a lot of rooms. Speakers that measure anechoically to a -3dB point at around 40-60 Hz may end up being a lot better balanced in a room.
So the purist, who eschews equalization, if having to choose the best balanced speakers in his room, may end up with a speaker with limited bass.
I’m going to argue, again, that a lot of issues people attribute to subwoofers and ported speakers have less to do with speed and distortion and a lot more to do with how many dragons they wake in the depths.
If money is no object, build an acoustically ideal listening room with giant speakers.
If you don’t really care about boutique DAC’s and preamps, then a pre or integrated with DSP room correction is going to be your drug of choice.
In the middle of this are a variety of interesting opportunities:
- Room treatment
- Speakers with built-in sub and EQ a-la Vandersteen
- Speakers with built-in sub w/o EQ like GE which at least let you set the bass level separately.
- Separate subs with their own DSP
- Multiple subs
So, to answer the question, it makes perfect sense to me why audiophiles would choose speakers with limited bass response. Getting deep high output bass is complicated, and expensive, and for a lot of music lovers not in their field of expertise. A high quality two way is often their sweet spot.
