A case for running speakers full range - Tekton Double Impact SE w/ SVS SB16 subs

@uberwaltz    thanks...  I feel I've read a lot recently about how relieving your amp/speakers from the low freq's opens things up and things are overall more dynamic, but I'm totally not seeing that. If anything, I see it as less processing and thinking your amp has to do.  

Now, this is as long as your speakers are up to snuff.

Go crank up Rod Stewart's song "This" really loud on both settings.  Those kettle drums or tympani's will pound your chest. In my system, much more so with my speakers on full range. 

Its better to run full range, for the simple reason that the more bass sources the better. This is the principle on which Distributed Bass Array is based, that more subs is better than few. This is another one where people have repeated something that looks good on paper (relieve amp/speakers) even though it works poorly (if at all) in practice.

My Tektons and subs performed much better when the speakers were run full range.The dynamics especially suffered.

The Absolute Sound recently ran two interviews with leading subwoofer designers.  One strongly advocated for running full-range, one strongly advocated for *not* running full-range.  Go figure.

@dtximages --

I see zero effects less dynamics, in fact i feel much more. I feel like the narrative of relieving the amp of the low freq creates more dynamics is probably just a theory created by people who have their speakers set up wrong or are using very small speakers.

It can be a theory-laden approach, for sure, but the outcome depends on several factors that should disprove absolute statements either for or against. In your case the specific combination of the Tekton’s and SVS’s (two of them?) as well as the (similar) cross-over frequency chosen in both configurations, could have significant say here. I’ve previously owned the SVS SB16-Ultra, and it’s a fine sub. Where I find it may impress the most is <30Hz, whereas further up through the midbass it’s a less lively affair. High-passing your Tekton’s at 50Hz may be a way of exposing this weakness of the SVS subs (a range where the DI’s are likely stronger, especially in tandem with or overlapping the SVS’s here), hereby robbing the sound of some impact and "presence" in this region. If you’d really want to feel the effect of relieving the amp (and mains) a HP should be set no lower than ~80Hz, but in your specific set-up it mayn’t matter much - or, rather, enough. Try it out, though, high-passing you DI’s even at 100Hz or so (the SVS’s easily go this high), and see how it fares to your ears. I suspect you’ll prefer the configuration of running the DI’s full-range, but hey, it’s only turning some knobs, and you may be able to optimize the placement of you DI’s even more once they’re relieved of central to lower bass duties.

High-passing the mains (preferably not much lower than 80Hz) can work wonders, and if it doesn’t in your case, well, that’s made you the wiser - in your particular context.

EDIT: as Miller points out running your DI's full-range could make for what's practically a DBA set-up with a pair(?) of SB16's placed away from your mains. Is that how you've placed the subs (i.e.: spread out, away from the DI's)?