adding "slam" to 2-way speakers?

i used to run thiel 3.5's - w/the aid of thiel's active equalizer, thew were +/-2db, down to 20 hz. they still were improved w/a pair of vmps larger subs, crossed over w/a 24db/octave active x-over, at ~90hz. and, i dint need the equalizer anymore. i now run the same sub-crossover system w/a pair of meret re monitirs, w/the x-over point changed to 60hz. it's great! while ewe *are* adding extra electronics to what your monitir sees, if it's a hi-quality x-over, i feel the benefits are outweighed by reducing the stress on teh monitors' woofer. of course, ewe could opt to still run your monitor full-range, & yust x-over the subs.

i have vandy 3a sigs which go clean to 25hz. i added a rel stadium 11 and it made a huge improvement, and i don't notice the sub AT ALL.getting seamless low end extension is'nt easy, but the rel does it.

I have Merlin VSM-SEs in a rather heavily damped room, and I also added a Rel Stadium II. I agree with Marklivia. The Rel does do it, probably with all speakers that roll-off their bottom ends smoothly and cleanly without "burping" or "harrumphing" as they reach their lower limit. That's because according to REL, their speakers work best as bass augmentation, i.e., adding bass that your main speakers running full range just can't produce.

My sub does that very well also, and it isn't a REL.

hey carl_eber, what kind of sub do you use? i've heard great things re: REL & Vandy, but i'm trying to keep my options open. fwiw: i don't want a sub to simply 'fill in' info that my mains cannot produce--i want a sub to reproduce the same bass info in a non-directional manner so that a) i cannot discern where the added bass is coming from b) additional weight & scale is provided to the music thanks to the subs reproducing the same freq. as the mains (and implicit in this is the requirement that the sound of my mains is not affected--the merlins are incredibly coherent) (and given the higher freq coverage of a sub, should i look exclusively at front firing subs like M&K?)