speaker specs & room matching

You might peruse The Complete Guide to Highend Audio. All I know is, it's not as easy as you say to get smooth and accurate bass, deep or not, that has a fast room modal decay time (try a good test CD, and it'll be obvious). I prefer using a high quality subwoofer or two, in an "augmented" configuration, where you can adjust low pass crossover frequency, level, and especially continuously variable phase. This type of system is always going to be better in the bass than a standard "fullrange" system. Besides, all the world class $50,000 plus systems have some provision for this anyway, because they know you can't have ultimate performance without it. Integration isn't a problem, you just have to spend a little time with it.

Thanks again Carl. Sorry it took me so long to respond. An excellent idea and one I had not previously considered.

You're welcome.

A caveat: don't rely too heavily on Harley as an expert. Seriously consider "The Master Handbook of Acoustics" by F. Alton Everest. In short, the lowest freq. that your room will successfully accomodate is found by the equation: freq = 565/L where L is the longest dimension of your room. If your room is 10 ft long, then the lowest freq would be 56.5 Hz. This is called the first axial mode of the room. Hope this helps.

IMHO, that describes whether the wave will be allowed to "travel", or whether it will be perceived as "pressure". That has nothing to do with the room's deep bass extension possiblities, however. I easily perceive a 15 Hz test tone as "pressure" with my Sennheiser HD-600 headphones, and they are only, what, and inch and a half from my auditory nerves (with the wavelength being over 40 feet long)? The argument that deep bass is somehow invalid or "only a standing wave", when heard reproduced through a stereo, that is not allowed to be a "travelling wave" (because the room is too small), IS AN OLD AND OUTDATED ONE...and is widely disavowed by anyone who has a properly dialed in full range playback system (and properly treated room).