Your sub experience: Easy or hard?

initial set up to sound good, was quick and easy...took some time to make fine adjustments, but not difficult, just listening and adjusting...then having a friend over so that one could listen while the other adjusted was a great help...all subs were REL...speakers were floor standers, monitors, and Magnepans (each in different systems)...

I am one of those DBA devotees and I feel that a distributed bass array, by its very nature, mitigates a lot of the difficulties inherent in single subwoofer integration.

Unlike single sub placement, it is almost impossible to screw up a DBA.

I didn't think it was to bad. I have a dedicated treated 11.5 x 14 room.

I have a pair of subs, moved them around the room while using REW to measure each position. Once I got the placement close to my liking I then used the on board adjustments of the sub and my Anthem ARC to dial it in. 

Getting them placed was a couple hours and tweaking them took longer but you'd expect that.

I have two systems employing subs, one with DBA and one without.

The one with the DBA set up the fastest. I didn't have to mess with the sub locations and setting the amplifier controls was a breeze.

The other uses a single sub and I had to move it around quite a lot to find a spot that it could be heard at the listening position that was not also in the way. Where I wanted it and where it needed to be were quite different.

In both cases the subs are set to be operational below 50 Hz so no integration problems at all.

I am on the side of they are a pain in the butt… well, were. I hear they are much easier to deal with now.

I bought four B&W 800 series (2 for audio) 25 years ago. Adjusted by ear and analytically using test tones and SPL. My system always sounded better with them but never did they sound perfectly integrated… I am sure my fault. But when I bought my current speakers I did so with the intent of not needing subs. I am very happy with the perfectly integrated sound.