How do I know if I need a sub woofer?

my point is, as audiophiles, if we need a sub, we subconsciously know it, and don't sleep well.

buy a stereo pair of front facing subs, no ports, and locate them adjacent to your mains, to you gain more lows and get the directionality contributing to imaging that the overtones give.

As long as you own good speakers that (1) comfortably reach down to the low 30Hz range, whether floorstanders or bookshelves, and (2) have reasonably wide horizontal and vertical dispersion, you don’t need a subwoofer. I’m talking strictly about music listening. The problem with subs for music is that they are very difficult to blend seamlessly with the main speakers, especially in terms of pace and texture.

Movie watching is a whole different story.

Just be careful reading measurements...lots of speakers rated -3db at low/mid 30's, are doing that measured at very low volume and very very close to the speakers...and are not even close to that at 10 feet away at full listening volume...that's why a pair of subs can make a huge difference in many ways..and while 1 sub is difficult to set up, 2 are much easier...

@jl35 +2

Mike

As long as you own good speakers that (1) comfortably reach down to the low 30Hz range, whether floorstanders or bookshelves, and (2) have reasonably wide horizontal and vertical dispersion, you don’t need a subwoofer. I’m talking strictly about music listening.

@lanx0003  That’s just simply not true.  Along with bass there’s considerable information below 30Hz that conveys sense of space, expands soundstage, and improves imaging.  I’ve heard this on several $100k+ systems (along with my own where my speakers go down to 28Hz @ -3dB) where the speakers went well below 30Hz and when the subs are turned off the soundstage just collapses along with a good level of overall enjoyment.