Maggies and subwoofer integration

My understanding is that the more distributed bass sources you have, the smoother the in-room bass.

To a first approximation, a dipole can be thought of as two monopolar bass sources 180 degrees apart in phase, and separated by a path length. Thus, to a first approximation, two dipoles are comparable to having four monopolar sources, distributed in phase as well as spatially.

Therefore, imo, a single monopolar bass source - a single subwoofer - is unlikely to be as smooth in-room as two dipoles. I think the discontinuity is likely to be audible.

Imo you need more than one subwoofer in order to approximate the in-room bass smoothness of two dipoles. Two subs intelligently distributed are approximately twice as smooth in-room as one, and four subs intelligently distributed are roughly twice as smooth in-room as two. Imo they do not have to all be identical.

Duke

dealer/manufacturer and distributed multi-sub advocate

Never but never use a sub with magnepan i have all mine live magnepan the mg20 the 3.7 the lrs and now the 1.7i. magnepan have the most natural instrumental low you can imagine. The most people wants a pump low and thats full the complete room thats the most wrong low you can get. There is a video at youtube from wendell he explains exact what bass must shoot be. The amp is the most important equipment with magnepan there it go's wrong in the most times.

@margaretha         You hit your head on the nail.

What's the worst speaker or stereo set-up you've ever seen? Intergrate a subwoofer with maggies ;)

I’ll counter that 90% of the time I’ve heard subwoofers they were not well integrated, so of course I’m not surprised that adding a subwoofer to a maggie by most sounds bad.

The issue IMHO is the TCO (total cost of ownership) of a sub is a lot higher than expected. Placement, measurement and EQ as well as acoustic treatments are often all needed to get to done. Most consumers want to drop the subwoofer in a convenient place and set the volume and call it a day.

I will say though, that subwoofers are often the last step on a list, not the first, that audiophiles should consider. Make sure your room is as well treated as you can stand. Often this tilts the balance towards the bass and makes a lot of speakers sound much larger. THEN if you still want a sub go get one. You’ll be in a much better place. Be prepared to get bass traps in the corners or soffits, and have a flexible EQ solution for the sub, whether built in or by using a miniDSP.

I can’t repeat enough that good room treatment will make most speakers sound much larger and more dynamic.