If one were looking for extended low accurate bass that seamlessly mates
to main speakers for music listening (not Home Theater), a possible
suggestion would be any active sub that operates by becoming active
before the output to the mains. These subs have a huge advantage over
LFE, passive, or add-on subs.
The first and main advantage is they completely remove the low base
load from your main amplifier letting it concentrate on the highs,
midrange, and upper base. They blend seamlessly into the system and
sound like they are part of the mains. Volume is no longer an issue
because they behave as the mains do because they are receiving the same
signal sample as the mains just only the low end. It is basically like
somebody added a lower base driver inside your main speakers. Thiel and
Vandersteen 2Wq (the V2W is for HT LFE) active Sub-woofers are both good
examples. The ability to change the Q should be a function of the
subwoofer itself, not an item that affects the whole system. Why mess
with the source signal when the device that needs to be adjusted can be
tailored to the room?
Now for the downside, although these active subs work wonderfully with
full range speakers, they were not designed to add base to satellites
and most monitors. The reason is because satellites and most monitors
do not have enough bass extension to reach the area most subs operate
in. This issue causes a hole or at a minimum a deep valley in the bass
performance between where the monitors run out of gas and the sub takes
over. Which is why a sub will not fix the lack of bass authority in
satellites or most monitors. Speakers used with active subs need to
have reasonable response an octave below the crossover point to have
realistic blending (filter theory 101). Having a sub with a high upper
bass reach adds to the problem because the sub is now not operating in
its bandpass and will be to weak (probably 6dB) and muddy. The primary
problem being that the more bass extension the mains lack the wider
(hence higher up in bass frequency) the required octave overlap becomes
(one octave at 50Hz {25Hz down and 100Hz up} is a much smaller range
then one octave at 200Hz {100Hz dn and 400Hz up}). As an example if one
targets the crossover frequency at 50Hz, ones mains need to
realistically go below 25Hz. 80Hz is my preferred cross-over point with
active subwoofers. I have a choice of many full range speakers that
start running out of bass gas below 40Hz and the sub never has any work
load above 150Hz staying well away from the 200Hz mud zone and yields
actual bass response down below 20Hz.
--
iPhone
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