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Will I benefit from a subwoofer with 20Hz speakers?

My source is a minidsp shd studio with Dirac going into Denafrips Gaia DDC to Denafrips T+ DAC to McIntosh 601 Monoblocks to Cabasse Pacific 3 speakers. The speaker's published frequency response is 41-20,000Hz. I presume this is achieved in an anechoic chamber. In my room however, it goes down to 20Hz, at least according to the Dirac measurements. In fact, I needed to flatten the curve and  reduce by 5-20 DBs between 20-100Hz due to the room effect.

So, considering I already go down to 20Hz, is there anything else 1 or 2 subwoofers will do for my system?  Would it create a more consistent low frequency field? I see many people adding up to 6 subs, so I wonder what I'm missing. 

Thank you for your insight! 

dmilev73
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,649 posts
 

There is very little musical content in that octave 20-40Hz and in my experience having too much bass becomes annoying after a while. 

@bishop148 The point is not more bass! The point is to get the bass right. If the bass is deficient, the ear will perceive the system as being tilted to the highs; if there is too much bass the ear will perceive the system as being muffled in the highs.

andrei_nz
192 posts
 

If you listen at mid volumes (or your room is large) then a sub should be of some benefit,  If you listen some of the time at low volumes then a sub will always be of great benefit.  You can do the equalising thing (early amps always had a 'loudness' button!) but a good quality sub is the better way.

dsnyder0cnn
65 posts
 

Justification for subs: The best place for imaging is never the best place for bass™

erik_squires
15,963 posts
 

Op: I am not in any way saying you should not get a sub.

Properly configured a sub can be glorious.  I just want you to maximize your current room and system first.

erik_squires
15,963 posts
 

OP:

Sometimes speakers image better crossed in front.  Depends on a lot of factors, but what this tries to do is minimize early reflections from the side.  If you don't have early side reflections this can't provide any benefit, but being only important in the mid-hi frequency range it's OT for this conversation. 

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