is a subwoofer for music a good idea??

I use mine on some music..and not on some music. Thats a great benefit IMO.

Dave

I agree with crossing over your sub as low as you can go. I want my main speakers to carry the full musical load and have my sub go where my mains cannot. My last pair of monitors (Revel M20s, just sold awaiting new monitors) were crossed over at 45Hz. Seamless. My new monitors are flat to 30 Hz!! Same size as the Revels. My sub is going to be on holiday most of the time, but when needed it'll be there....peace, warren

Great post, Sd.
1. Depends upon your monitors' abilities, and of course whether there's any musical programming below their LF performance cutoff.
2. Sufficient? Probably. Will it sound integrated and tight?
Not easy to accomplish.
3. No. Subs are more important for HT special effects. (C'mon, guys, I'm trying to keep it simple here!)
4. Not if it's a good one integrated at a low freq.
Can't stress the importance of knowing what your monitors are doing in your room. Again, oversimplifying, if they're largish 6.5-7" two-ways rather than diminutive 5" there's less need for a sub. If you do try a sub I strongly suggest that you start with FAST ones like the RELs, some Velodynes, and the one I bought, the Boston PV1000 (Vel clone), and start at the lowest crossover frequency, working up until integration is best. And yes, room placement can be key, even more so if it's a cheap, slow sub, which can very easily be worse than no sub at all!
You state that your monitors "go" down to 45-50Hz, but I wonder how many dB they're down in-room? There are some 6.5" two-ways that are surprisingly full-range, but your room-loading has a lot to do with it too. Perhaps you could tell us what your speakers are and room dimensions for more specific advice....

Marakanetz..Ok, I'll haul out the old war horse and keep track of SW activity.

Your comment about warped vinyl really refers to mixing the LF to mono, as when a single SW is used. Actually, if you have two SW, record warp and rumble will drive you crazy. Even though I have several SWI I also have a rumble filter that does the mix-to-mono thing, and it always is necessary when playing LPs.

I do not agree at all that most classical music does not need a subwoofer. A subwoofer transforms classical music (including chamber) in a way that is not apparent unless you've heard the difference. (Transforms all music.)

The separation of instruments is greatly enhanced using a subwoofer. The sound of every instrument is more rounded.

For example...assume a piano, flute, oboe, violin, etc, play the exact same note (same frequency); if all that was being played was that exact note, then you would not be able to tell what instrument was playing it; the sound would be the same. But of course we can tell what instrument played the note. A flute sound nothing like a piano. How can this be? The simple answer is that any note played by a musical instrument involves a much broader frequency spectrum than the particular note being played.

Adding a quality musical subwoofer fills in the bottom of the frequency spectrum of every note played by every instrument. The result is....every instrument sounds more realistic.