2-channel listening with a sub-woofer

As usual, small diameter drivers are said to be "faster".
Frankly I have never heard a "fast" 16 foot organ pipe. I think that what we really mean is that the cone is under tight control of the power amp, and this depends on the power of the driver "motor" and the mass of the cone rather than the diameter of the cone. If you have an 8 inch driver and a 10 inch driver from the same manufacturer's line, and they both have identical voice coils and magnets it is reasonable to assume that the 8 inch will give "tighter" sound. But if you compare a typical 12 inch driver with a 2" voice coil against a 15 inch driver with a 4" voice coil and twenty-odd pounds of magnet one cannot make assumptions. Throw in servo control, and all bets are off.

I have heard a lot about how hard it is to "integrate" a subwoofer with planar speakers like my Maggies. In my custom designed subwoofer system,I have been very successful in this regard, and I think that the reasons are as follows.

1...I went with two large drivers (12" and 15") so that the subwoofer operates with large area and small excursion, like the Maggies. (A line array of eight 8" would probably have worked just as well).

2...I located the SW systems (I have three) in the wall directly behind the Maggies. I describe this setup as the SW "playing through" the screens. It is as if all the sound is coming from the screens. Also, I think that the setup may involve the SW "absorbing" the backwave of the Maggies. Whatever...it works.

When I had box speakers I used SW enclosures as stands. This makes sense to me because it just amounts to adding the LF capable driver which the speaker manufacturer left out, and the enclosure happens to come in two pieces.