Finally Learned: Subs serve much larger role than adding more low bass

My first experience with subs was memorable. I got a used pair of Vandersteen 4’s, large 4-way speakers with a powerful integrated sub built into the base of each speaker. Each sub (located in its own enclosure with a slotted port) consisted of 2 x 12" metal cone woofers linked together with a steel bar. That design produced the best bass I ever heard from floorstanders. And FWIW, I would never have a modern ported sub in my system now, but those Vandy ported subs sounded incredibly musical.

Years later my audio system is desktop, all crammed into a 13’ x 13’ home office; the speakers are nearfield. I’ve learned to go with all sealed/acoustic suspension speakers & subs here. I can only fit 1 sub: currently it’s the excellent JL Audio e110, a powerful 10" design. The mains are vintage KEF 103.2s, 2-ways with a strong low end courtesy of the 8" woofers. I have the sub crossed over slightly above where the mains start dropping off. It sounds like one big pair of speakers.

I’d never want to be without a sub...

Added 2 REL S/5 SHO with their longbow wireless to Maggie 3.7i's.  I don't have to worry about placement except for the AC power, no speaker wires to the subs.  Opens up the soundstage, very clean and detailed bass.

The wireless SMPS's are noisy and I had to take them off the dedicated lines as they were injecting a lot of noise.  Made much worse by upgrading to iFi Power X, now I know why iFi sells DC power purifiers.

@desktopguy

I use Vandersteen 4As in my third system and the provision for low bass goes further with them than with most speakers - a separate crossover to control volume of low bass, a couple of high quality capacitors to roll the bass off from the mid/.high drivers and separate amplification - once properly set up it does work very well.

Not many of those speakers out there and a great bargain today if you can find them.

@wspohn

Correct on all points. I didn’t want to try to explain that stuff, which gets tricky.

In conversation with Richard Vandersteen, he admitted that the electronic crossover, while sonically ideal for the subs, was less than ideal for the mid & upper drivers. I asked if he could mod mine to make it sound better, and he said, "It makes no sense for me to drop everything to mod a crossover, which would cost a lot to do anyway." I liked the direct way the man spoke...

If I still had the 4s, I would get a high-quality aftermarket crossover by Marchand electronics and purchase 6 dB/octave slope frequency boards set at 80 Hz, high pass and low pass. That would be perfect. I have a different Marchand crossover in my desktop system (this model has variable frequency crossovers and uses 24 dB/octave slopes), and I can tell you it's very transparent. 

Anyway, that’s the way I think of it now. Back in the ’80s I ran my 4s exactly as you describe and was in love with that sound...all aspects of it were ideal for me.

I think Richard was on the right track - roll the bass off for the mids and highs, which won't be affected by frequencies they can't reproduce well anyway, and use the electronic unit simply to adjust gain on the bass frequencies to suit the output of the mids and highs.

Nice to hear of other 4 or 4A owners - pretty thin on the ground today. I've owned mine for many years and they are just too good to sell despite my having two other systems more current and also giving excellent sound.

My Vandersteen system is over top 1990s vintage - amplified by a pair of PSE Studio IV monos on the bass, and twin mono Classe DR-3 VHC (at around 110 lbs each), biwired for mids and highs (with Classe DR7 preamp and Classe DAC1 D/A).    A 'high Classé system  ;-)