Why I'm not adding a sub to my 2-way monitors for music

Actually Thiel made a number of subwoofers to go with his speakers.  Apparently really excellent and made specially to blend with Thiel speakers, especially.

So it's not like Thiel speakers were "subwoofer proof" or something.  I know that a number of people found great satisfaction pairing their Thiels with subwoofers.  I happen to not be one of them, that's all.

And I was not critiquing people who use subs.   Why would I?  Tons of people have found subwoofers enhanced the enjoyment of their system.   I was only talking about my personal experience and reaction to subwoofer systems I've heard, and in regard to my own attempts to add subwoofers.

I've seen very elaborate subwoofer threads (e.g. on AVSforum and elsewhere) and it amazes me how much effort some have gone in to integrating subwoofers - even building them DIY, measuring room response, lots of experimenting with room correction, treatments etc.   If that's their bliss, more power to them.  I just feel I have only so much time I want to devote to such a project, especially given how much I like the sound of my speakers as they are.

Dear @prof  : I don't know ofr read somewhere that a CS7.2 owner used subs integrated with liberating the Thiel woofers for that low bass range posted.

Yes, I know and heard once thge Thiel sub. My post was specific for your Thiel model but I have to say that my last listening to that model was several years ago and " things " change over time as our " mind " too.

R.

P.S. - I just added distortion measurements to the original blog. Honestly, the numbers seem low, about 2% at 20 Hz???

I’m in the middle of a HT install (with a sub!) so I may not be able to get back to it, but I wanted you all to know I did in fact do more on this but that it probably deserves more exploration before I stand by the distortion numbers.

Best,

Erik

Sorry gang, I dropped this thread due to being busy at work, and busy re-working the HT part of the living room.  I'll try to catch up on the questions by this weekend.

Hi @rauliruegas 

Couple of things.  I meant that I would expect a 6.5" woofer to have a -3 dB point around 40 Hz. That doesn't mean that there is no output below that.  In fact, upon reflection I realized that when I made these speakers I cheated in a couple of ways.  I already had bass traps, and I always intended these speakers to be used near the rear wall, so I designed the crossover accordingly.  This flies in the face of "best practices" for speakers which is to make speakers that are measured as if in an echo-free world.  My measurements and test location were HUGE cheats and I'm sure the good Dr. Joe D'Appolito would be very unhappy with me.

What I mean by subwoofers being tone controls is that there is by merely introducing a subwoofer we are altering the tonal balance of our system, and that the end result must be set by personal preferences. There is no such thing as an objectively neutral subwoofer installation.