Adding a Second Sub

Haven't experimented with multiple subs myself, but an interesting article you may want to copy for insight was written by Tom Nousaine and appeared in the June 96 issue of Audio magazine. Don't scoff at the date. The article is an excellent discussion of room nodes behavior and is well grounded in not trying to beat the laws of physics. He titled it "Two subs in a corner beat five in the round".

Re: directionality of subs:

I have a REL Strata III in the right corner of my listening room. On the 4th track of James Taylor's Hourglass CD, beginning at around 3:50, there is a drum roll which goes from right to left on the soundstage, with a big whack when it reaches all the way to the left side. You'd never know the sub was on the right side. Absolutely amazing. Try it yourself.

Sugarbrie, I listen to a lot of classical music and am glad to hear that placement of my sub in the right corner is correct!

Deffinately two subs. I added 2 B&W 800 Matrix subs to my
801 III and will not go back. It was a match problem for
the 801's and the only seemless blend was another Matrix
12" sub. I have them reasonably low, but can really hear
and feel the difference. If it plays well together, go for
the lows.

If you are crossing over low enough, then you don't need two subs for stereo as Faberryman and others have pointed out. But two subs often gives a better result - the main reason being that you can get smoother response. Some subs use two drivers, one on each side, and their separation by a foot or so helps to get a smoother response. It is just that each driver will create room nodes and anti-nodes in different spots and (hopefully) cancel each other out. The downside is that set-up requires even more patience and time than with one sub. From experience you will very likely get a significant improvement with two subs, but two Stentors is a big investment in the bottom octave.

I started my first system with Aerial 7's...added one Vandersteen 2W...wow, what a change! BUT, the most noticeable change was not in the bass range, but how the 7's opened up and became more dynamic. Subsequently, I added another 2W, and BAM, once again a step up in the performance of the 7's...Take out one sub and its like a v-8 running on 6 cylinders...I vote for two subs.