Do you think you need a subwoofer?

Rauliruegas:

As a matter of fact, I HAVE been contemplating two subs with a higher crossover point, but haven't worked out the logistics of where to put the second sub. Plus, setting the subwoofer crossover to a higher frequency would seem to mandate the use of high quality capicitors to block the lower end output of the mains from the same point on downward, both to avoid midbass boominess from frequency response overlap and to free up the midbass driver of the mains (which in my case are the Intuitive Design Summits) to function as more of a pure midrange driver. This would likely obviate the "Doppler issues" that Dale Pitcher had referred to, but which I honestly haven't been able to hear. Nevertheless, maybe their already outstanding midrange could be made even better by doing so.

Anyway, from a practical (and financial) standpoint, for now at least, the single Rel in the corner works surprisingly well (for me). I did, however, purchase the Summits with the possibility of upgrading to two subwoofers in mind. Part of the pleasant surprise with the Summits was that, for now at least, that doesn't seem like a pressing need, even though they're two ways that go quite low.

Bill

Dear Readster: I never had the opportunity to hear the LFM-1 but I think that that subwoofer could integrate better in a home theather system than in a high-end true stereo system.
As a fact that sub goes down " only " to 25Hz and their electronic quality seems to me a little short of a high-end product.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Dear friends: I found a Stereophile article that confirm what I already posted about the " must " : two subs in a true stereo way. here it is:

" A simple advantage is that two subs operating in-phase less than one wavelength apart wil generate 6dB more output than a single sub....................If you have two sources arranged in the room so that the left and right woofers are equally far for their respective side walls and equally far from the common wall behind them, most of the standing wave patterns remain the same......the two woofers simply reinforce each other's standing-wave patterns........So while such symetry is desirable at middle and high frequencies for the sake of stereo soundstaging, it may penalize you at low frequencies. This situation change if the bass in the recording is not monophonic. When an orchestra or pipe organ is recorded with widely spaced mikes, bass waves arrive at sligtly different times at each mike. If the bass is not blended into mono for disc mastering, these timing differences will be preserved in playback. The effect is akin to moving one woofer closer or farther away, destroying their simmetry so that the woofers no longer reinforce each other standing-wave patterns.. ......You can achieve a similar result with mono bass by using two subwoofers but placing them asymmetrically.... The bass waves from the two woofers arrive at each boundary surface at different time, producing partial cancellation of the standing waves. These wave interference effects tend to diminish the severity of the peaks and nulls, yielding a more uniform distribution of bass energy within the room. "

Fortunatelly, in my system, I have my two subwoofers in asimmetrically way and I can confirm exactly this very " old " Stereophile statement.

As always I posted: you have to try it: is a " must " to have. Period.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Hi Raul,

Can you guess if the side-firing woofers used by Coincident in their larger speakers would produce a similar effect? Their two largest models go down to 24 and 20 Hz, quite a bit lower than my B&W's. (As you know, we really have no space for subs located as you recommend.)

Regards,
Doug

Dear Doug: The asimmetry is with respect to the room boundaries ( side/behind walls ) not if the woofers are side firing.

In my case my subs are placed side firing but the right side sub has no simmetry with the left side: the right one is in an almost open boundary.

Anyway, I prefer the subs in side firing position over the front firing. The Coincident are very good speakers and like in the NHT speakers the Coincident has benefits from their side woofers firing, if one of your room side L/R is asimmetric against the other then you are done !!!.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.