I use the hardware Edorr identified, but in a different configuration. I filter the main signal with the NHT X2 and run the bass signal out of the X2 into a Velodyne SMS-1 room EQ unit, because:
My current room, like every other room I've measured, gets very ugly below app. 125hz. I can (and do) fix it down to app 75 hz with bass busters. Below that, active bass EQ is the only workable solution that I've found.
If you run main speakers that have any real output below 75hz, it will IME be very difficult to get seamless integration of the subs and mains because the main speakers are contributing very lumpy bass until their roll-off. If you filter the mains to remove bass below 75hz (or at whatever frequency your treated room dictates) you can get smooth response from the mains, smooth response from the EQ'd subs, and a neat hand-off that will hard/impossible to hear (for me anyway).
If your main speakers have little to no output below 80, 90, 100hz, (i.e. Sunfire cinema Ribbon Monitors)you can probably run them full range and "snug up" the subs from below. Otherwise, I prefer to filter the mains.
As Stanwal, noted, there are 2 schools of thought, and this is the school I'm enrolled in. Others take the alternate route.
Two more thoughts:
1) "Fast" is a descriptor I dislike for subs. People tend to think small drivers are fast, and - IMHO- that's not the case. I think "highly damped" probably communicates the idea at hand - tight bass with little overhang - but this characteristic is not related to driver size.
2) My set-up does put the NHT between my ARC LS-25 and my ARC 130SE, but it keeps the Velodyne SMS-1 out of the main signal path. The NHT seems to be benign (to my ear at least) but the Velo has no business in the main path.
Marty
My current room, like every other room I've measured, gets very ugly below app. 125hz. I can (and do) fix it down to app 75 hz with bass busters. Below that, active bass EQ is the only workable solution that I've found.
If you run main speakers that have any real output below 75hz, it will IME be very difficult to get seamless integration of the subs and mains because the main speakers are contributing very lumpy bass until their roll-off. If you filter the mains to remove bass below 75hz (or at whatever frequency your treated room dictates) you can get smooth response from the mains, smooth response from the EQ'd subs, and a neat hand-off that will hard/impossible to hear (for me anyway).
If your main speakers have little to no output below 80, 90, 100hz, (i.e. Sunfire cinema Ribbon Monitors)you can probably run them full range and "snug up" the subs from below. Otherwise, I prefer to filter the mains.
As Stanwal, noted, there are 2 schools of thought, and this is the school I'm enrolled in. Others take the alternate route.
Two more thoughts:
1) "Fast" is a descriptor I dislike for subs. People tend to think small drivers are fast, and - IMHO- that's not the case. I think "highly damped" probably communicates the idea at hand - tight bass with little overhang - but this characteristic is not related to driver size.
2) My set-up does put the NHT between my ARC LS-25 and my ARC 130SE, but it keeps the Velodyne SMS-1 out of the main signal path. The NHT seems to be benign (to my ear at least) but the Velo has no business in the main path.
Marty