I rather think it's the later, if you haven't experimented with sub's in a high end system, you might not appreciate what they can do. I mentioned earlier, that I like what a satalite/subwoofer system can do. In my living room right now, I've got a pair of B&W 705's with a 750 sub. To my ears, this setup sounded better than a pair of the larger floor standers in the same series. The smaller sattelites image better, but suffer when pushed loud or with bass heavy music. Strip the low bass off, and let the sub handle it, and the system has both great dynamics and imaging.
I took a quick look at the article you mentioned, and realized I had read it several years ago, under the authors original "Secrets" title. He makes some good points, and, also some factual errors, but in general, I agree with most of what he says. Konut suggested a higher order crossover between the mains and sub, and while I agree, I only go half as far, and prefer a second order filter. My reason for this, is that I agree with the underlying rational with the THX spec using a second order filter. If you take a speaker with a second order roll off (ie an acoustic suspension or sealed box, hopefully with a butterworth alignment), and combine it with a second order electrical filter (again butterworth), then you achieve an effective 4th order Linkwitz Riley filter! Your sub then uses a forth order LR filter, and you've got a reasonably good shot at not having frequency response problems in the cross-over region. By now, you may have started to grasp the biggest issue with subs in high end systems. It's not entirely plug and play, and there's plenty of room for error. Good speaker designers spend a ton of time measuring, listening, thinking, adjusting speakers to get them sounding the way they want. Properly integrating a sub with speaker is the same. Do your homework, and or get lucky, and it can sound great. Get it wrong, and it can sound like that Civic that was beside you at the red light the other day... Cheers, and good listening! Dave -- DCtoDaylight Audiophile wish list: Zero Distortion, Infinite Signal to Noise Ratio, and a Bandwidth from DC to Daylight ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DCtoDaylight's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7284 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=67022 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
