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?  

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It appears that your Olympica Nova V's can be bi-amped. You might want to start by trying that to see if that adds enough low end to your rock recordings. Integration would be far simpler. Separate gain control with each amp would be required for best results. Without it there might not be a noticeable difference.

Your Nova Vs go to 32Hz, but that is already down a few db. So yes, there is information below that point, lots of information on some records. Although 32 Hz is pretty good, lower than that is better. 

Bass is the backbone upon which the rest of the music rides on. Up until the mid 80’s subs weren’t needed. Then the Mfgs etc started pushing midrange because it has the majority of the music.R&Rollers weren’t considered in this because classical and jazz were the accepted genres. In doing so, they robbed the bass from the speakers so that now, even a supposed full range speaker needs a sub for life of the music. It took me a while to accept that but i have run subs for 20 yrs and choose Rel as THE sub IMO. As has been said, pairs are better and the Rels add so much more to the music, IE sound stage and make the speakers sound bigger.And they are very easy to integrate. Depending on your room size, there as a Sumiko S10 for sale which is the Rel S5 clone. It operates in the same way as Rel and Suniko was the distributor here in the US for many years.and somehow pretty much copied the Rel ,,, at least for a year. .

BTW no affiliation with the seller. Just familiar with them and have them myself

I use a pair of Martin Logan Depth i, in my small room. It’s vibration cancelling design is why I chose them. Using Stillpoints SS underneath them. Good tt decoupling is a big help

I have the Vandersteen Sub 3. Costs more than the others, but integrates seamlessly and frees up your amp from the lower frequencies.

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