50hz deep enough?

i'll chime in as a heavy metal listener. You can add a good quality sub to most any speaker lacking in the ability to move a lot of air (such as a planar) and for metal and HT, you'd hardly notice the difference compared to an expensive-to-execute floorstander. On acoustic music (classical, jazz, folk/ethnic) yeah, you'd notice the slight disparity between mid-bass and deep-bass. but with most metal and HT, it's close enough (at least for me). That allows you to budget for a better speaker in the midrange.

but like all things, you just have to weight your sonic tradeoffs.

also don't over look reports where people have upgrades to better sources, preamps, and amps only to find that they no longer NEED a sub, as they have rediscovered more than enough quality bass from the current speakers to satisfy their needs. Before you decide that you need full range to 20Hz, listen to some really well done speakers that extend useful output to 40 or even 50Hz. You may be surprised. Then again, you may miss that output. Depends on your priorities.

For rock and for a lot of listeners it depends on how much kick drum (or should I say cow bell?) you get. you just need to aim for a satisfing amount. Not enough, and you'll be left wanting. If even enough, you won't be wanting more and will enjoy the midrange purity that you did not have to sacrifice (hopefully) to get there.

Biro speakers, the best for the $

honest1 - you can't change the laws of physics. It is true. And car stereos can't reproduce subteranean bass unless the windows are open. You can't fit a 32 foot sine wave in a fifteen foot room.

Bomarc, i don't have a misimpression about your thread or any others. you made a comment that states no bookshelf speaker is flat to 50hz. i disagree with you unless you can tell me that you have listened to all the bookshelf speakers out there. as for bookshelf speakers, i have seen subwoofers smaller than the size of my mani 2's that are claimed to go down into the high 20's hz range so i don't think size has much to do with it. i do agree with you that a larger speaker will have an easier time to play loud and deep in a larger room. imo, in a typical room sized 20 x 12 or smaller, a good bookshelf speaker could sound wonderful with a full range sound. the caveats are: larger bookshelf speakers (bigger than the nht superzeros or super ones), powerfull amplifier(s), and speaker positioning. i use totem mani 2's in my audio room that is 14 x 12 and i have another pair in my home theater room that is 18 x 40 (back open to eating space and kitchen) and the mani's sound full range in both rooms. i do need bigger amps in the home theater room to get the same level of sound, but the bass and fullness is still there.
the best thing to do is try out the speakers you like in the room you will be using them in to see how they sound to you. if a bookshelf works, great. if not, there are some great floor standing speakers out there.
good luck!

Tiny speaker can indeed reproduce very low frequencies: even 20 Hz. But the sound volume will be so low that you can't hear it unless you put your ear right up to the speaker. Hey...that's earphones.

Bookshelf speakers are for small rooms, and low volume, and in this situation can be quite satisfactory.