Subwoofer


A couple of days ago I was talking to a dealer and he said that all speakers benefit from adding a subwoofer. What's are your thoughts? 
ricred1

What stringreen says is true for most speakers, none more so than planars. When you add a pair of subs to Magneplanar/Eminent Technology or ESLs, you remove the very low frequencies from the panels, decreasing their displacement and the resulting distortion (planars are very inefficient movers of air), resulting in better upper bass and lower-mids on up into the midrange itself. You also remove the low-frequencies in the signal going to the speaker's amp, decreasing IT'S distortion, and leaving more available power for the mids and highs.

With the quality of musical subs available these days (Rythmik, GR Research---their OB/Dipole especially!, SVS, Funk, Seaton, REL, JL Audio, Vandersteen) there is no reason not to.

Stringreen 3-18-2016 6:39 p.m.
I explained it and some of you still don’t get it. You’re not extending the low end, but making mids and treble better....
Assuming, of course, that a high pass filter of some sort is inserted somewhere in the path to the main speakers. And assuming that the benefit of keeping the deep bass out of the main speakers is not outweighed by the sonic side effects of that high pass filter and its associated interfaces.

As is usual in audio, a tradeoff is involved. And I wouldn’t by any means expect the net result of that tradeoff to always be the same among different systems, rooms, recordings, and listeners.

Regards,
-- Al

I have learned that without proper phase integration with the mains, the sound will suffer big time. When the sub and speakers are in time,the whole system improves across the board... When out of phase,bass becomes slow and lacking in dynamics and musicality.
Highly recommended as long as you do the management properly.  Look at the MiniDSP 2 x 4