Losing the sub


Had some work to do in my listening room so needed to disconnect my system.  Acoustics are not ideal - other than an area rug and upholstered furniture, there is no acoustic treatment.  After putting my system  back in place, I decided to try some slight adjustments to my speakers, a pair of Focal 1028be's.  In addition. I installed a recently acquired set of GAIA II feet.  For whatever reason. I neglected to hook up my subwoofer a Focal Chorus SW800V I had in an earlier system. Power is a Marantz PM 11s3 integrated amp and sources include Marantz Sa-11s3 SACD player and Music Hall MMF 9.1 turntable with Clearaudio Maestro V2 cart through a Manley Chinook phono preamp.

After a long listening session yesterday with a wide variety of music, I have concluded the sub was unnecessary.  Among the music was:

U2 - The Joshua Tree (30th anniversary LP)
American Beauty - Original Film Score (LP)
Cassandra Wilson - New Moon Daughter (LP)
Art Blakey Jazz Messengers - Night in Tunisia (XRCD)
Lee Morgan - Sidewinder (XRCD)
Stravinsky - Firebird Suite /Dorati (CD)
Schehezade -  Fritz Reiner (CD)

I have listened to each of these multiple times over the years  (other than AB) and every one of them sounder cleaner, tighter, and BETTER.  I had no feeling of missing the bottom end of these recordings.  Maybe the GAIA footers contributed to this, but overall, this was a very satisfying listening session.  I had plans to buy a new subwoofer this year (SVS SB2000) but now not sure it will bring any benefit.

Anyone else have a similar experience?




 






sjtm
Anyone else have a similar experience?

Sort of. Well no actually it was  nothing like that.
Hi OP,
Sorry I was out carousing when I first replied.

You have inadvertently perfectly illustrated the problem many audiophiles find themselves in. They have a good 2 way system, and when they try to go lower in octaves they are less than satisfied. For some it happens very easily and for others not so. Subs in particular can be heaven or hell.

I also wrote about this here:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/the-order-of-getting-more-better-bass
Best,

E