I spent a lot of money building a smallish (3.3 x 4.5 m) listening room, it sounded terrible. The bass was so overblown that the cones of a pair of unconnected speakers in the room would be moving. One wall in particular vibrated and sounded terrible at any appreciable volume. I spent money on all sorts of passive solutions that helped but did nearly solve the problem. However I used 2 subs connected to my pre amp via a minidsp, cut pass to my Audio Physic Sitara 25's floor standers and plugged there ports. Set minidsp to cut at the 3 room mode frequencies. Problem solved, no awful bass, no rattling walls, until volume is set on crazy, so my experience is yes subwoofers were definitely a massive improvement. Sounds stunning too.
Subwoofer with Floorstanding Speakers?
Still enjoying my Sonus Faber Olympica Nova Vs in our den where I mostly listen to jazz. However…I had a nostalgic experience tonight and streamed up some Def Leppard and cranked it LOUD. With this kind of rock, I am missing a little of the bass I remember from my school days. Got me thinking, how many of y’all are running a subwoofer in your stereo setup with floorstanding speakers? What do you think? Any issues with sound distortion?