There’s a lot of reasons people rely on two speakers, the biggest being its relatively easy to understand and do. Plop two speakers down anywhere, make sure they are equidistant and pointed symmetrically and in your general direction, and they will image and sound great. Move them around a bit from there and you can get really quite good sound. From the midrange on up.
From the midrange on down is a different story. The lower you go the longer the waves and the more the waves cancel and reinforce creating great big areas where there’s way too much bass- or way too little.
The conventional wisdom, as espoused by the one here giving you so much grief and uncalled for insults, is to solve this with a combination of EQ and bass traps. He would have you first EQ too much bass into the room to fill up the nulls where its weak, and then to put tube traps into the room, to suck up the extra bass he just had you put there.
That’s the real reason so many people use just two speakers, they’ve heard nothing but the conventional wisdom. Anyone with 2 ears can hear the CW doesn’t work. But its too much work to try and understand what does.
Its called a Distributed Bass Array or DBA, a fancy term for using a lot (typically 4) of relatively small or low powered subs distributed asymmetrically around the room. Each sub makes its own set of lumpy bass modes. But with four they’re now all over the place. With four each one has to put out less bass, because they all add together. The result is much smoother more even, fast and articulate- and deeper. Much deeper! Also because you haven’t put too much bass in like you would with EQ, you don’t have to try and suck bass out with traps.
These guys know all this. They just haven’t tried it, and can’t get their minds around it. If you search around you will find all of us who can know just how great it is.
So that’s your reason. All this bad advice has led to a perception of "a" sub, or "the" sub (singular) that is absolutely correct- "a" sub ruins as much as it helps. Until and unless you get four in a DBA. Then by the physics described above all these problems are addressed. And oh by the way, the bass is so beautifully integrated you won’t believe it, the midrange is indeed clearer, and the sound stage expands creating a sense of envelopment that is simply wonderful. For sure a lot more audiophiles would think a lot more highly of subs, and low bass, if they could hear one of these.
And it also wouldn’t hurt for the old guard to loosen up and allow that there is indeed a better way.
From the midrange on down is a different story. The lower you go the longer the waves and the more the waves cancel and reinforce creating great big areas where there’s way too much bass- or way too little.
The conventional wisdom, as espoused by the one here giving you so much grief and uncalled for insults, is to solve this with a combination of EQ and bass traps. He would have you first EQ too much bass into the room to fill up the nulls where its weak, and then to put tube traps into the room, to suck up the extra bass he just had you put there.
That’s the real reason so many people use just two speakers, they’ve heard nothing but the conventional wisdom. Anyone with 2 ears can hear the CW doesn’t work. But its too much work to try and understand what does.
Its called a Distributed Bass Array or DBA, a fancy term for using a lot (typically 4) of relatively small or low powered subs distributed asymmetrically around the room. Each sub makes its own set of lumpy bass modes. But with four they’re now all over the place. With four each one has to put out less bass, because they all add together. The result is much smoother more even, fast and articulate- and deeper. Much deeper! Also because you haven’t put too much bass in like you would with EQ, you don’t have to try and suck bass out with traps.
These guys know all this. They just haven’t tried it, and can’t get their minds around it. If you search around you will find all of us who can know just how great it is.
So that’s your reason. All this bad advice has led to a perception of "a" sub, or "the" sub (singular) that is absolutely correct- "a" sub ruins as much as it helps. Until and unless you get four in a DBA. Then by the physics described above all these problems are addressed. And oh by the way, the bass is so beautifully integrated you won’t believe it, the midrange is indeed clearer, and the sound stage expands creating a sense of envelopment that is simply wonderful. For sure a lot more audiophiles would think a lot more highly of subs, and low bass, if they could hear one of these.
And it also wouldn’t hurt for the old guard to loosen up and allow that there is indeed a better way.