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I can very much appreciate the experience of others.   SpeakerDude, yes, the speakers in question are good down low without subs, almost always a 2nd order roll off.   All analog from a good converter, usually a Burl.  Target for max SPL (for dynamics) is 100 to 110dB SPL.    

Mijosten, I appreciate corners are where subs can have the most boundary gain but corners are rarely available in a studio.  They are frequently occupied with gear or bass traps.  Somewhere along the floor where it meets the wall is usually the best available location, with only 3dB less boost than the corner.   Sub arrays are certainly a goal but its extremely rare to have a studio actually allocate the control room space (often living room sized) to implement one.  In 25 years I have not seen a single studio example.  In live or fixed install, I have seen many examples. 

Is this the conflict of the practical vs the theoretical?

Brad

Apologies I used voice dictation for my last post and it changed mains to means several times. So much for context sensitive dictation :-)

@lonemountain if you are low passing the subs at only 2nd order (12db/octave) then you pretty much have to run the mains full range. Even 24db/octave is not enough with a high cutoff if you want to prevent localization. Analog filtering on the subs can often cause phase integration issues with the mains. 2nd order will have less phase issues, but has the aforementioned issues. DSP filtering is by far best for subs.

@mijostyn - Corner loading a sub may be the best option for a room, or it may not be. If it is bad for a given room and that room has symmetry, you quite often create more problems than you solve. It would be far more often the case with two subs that pulling them forward on the opposing walls out of the corners would result in more even bass and better use of available power. Your subs will only have some limited line array effect as the line is wall-to-wall, and the floor is right there, so you already have one immediate reflection, but if it behaves as a line array, the front wall-back wall room mode is amplified. Your crossover is below the Shrodinger frequency.

So I got to run my new Sony TA-ZH1ES dac/pre/headphone amp as a pure 2 ch preamp today, sans subs, just in 2.0. I haven’t listened to a system without dsp in this room in a long time (ever?) and although the Sony’s sound is more pure to the original recording it loses a step in sound staging and overall smoothness compared to my Marantz processor in Pure Direct mode which includes the benefit of the subs and room EQ. I might tinker with setting up the subs and dsp with the Sony after the holidays but for now am just going to enjoy it as a dac feeding my Marantz processor.

Whew....some of the disinformation here...

Not in my room. 

Maybe for HT.

 Subs belong in corners.