Anyone with a high-end home theater sans sub?

Flrnlamb,

Chill out, dude! I wasn't trying to discredit you. I was simply trying to point out that the original post asked if ANYONE was enjoying HIGH-END home theater without a SEPERATE sub.

Though an active, separate subwoofer are the most common and most efficient means of accomplishing the task, they are not the only way. So the answer to his question is still "yes".

Do bear in mind that the DSP 7000's have 1/3 the number of woofers as the DSP8000s - quite a difference.

You can't make a blanket statement like "All home theater needs a sub." My main speakers are Meridian DSP8000s and there is absolutely no need for a sub - they are flat to 18 Hz in my room, up to 118 dB (God forbid). My Meridian 568.2 is programmed to send all frequencies below my crossover setting to them and, believe me, it's high-end home theater.

Flrnlamb,
As you point out, the DSP8000s (like most full-range speakers) include separate drivers for various frequency ranges. If your implication is that any speaker that includes drivers that play the lowest octave automatically include a "subwoofer", then this discussion is moot. However, Quicke's initial post questioned the need for a separate subwoofer (not just full-range speakers) - note his reference to a "7.0" configuration.

For the record, I don't know how loud the DSP8000's will play an 18Hz tone, but they are measurably flat down to 18Hz for as loud as I can stand in my room, so they work for me. My previous post may have incorrectly implied 118dB at a single frequency. They are specified as within 3dB from 20Hz to over 20kHz. Maximum output >118dB spl @ 1m on music material (presumably a combination of freqencies). Honestly, I'll never be able to test them at that level.

Flrnlamb,

Do you always communicate so condescendingly? You might have considered that someone who has invested the kind of time and money in audio as I have (over the past 25 years) MAY have done a bit of research. In fact, my DSP8000s are not the first active speakers I have owned. I am quite familiar with the advantages of active speakers - that's why I own them.

As I mentioned, the original poster in this thread seemed to be referring to seperate subwoofers (hence the comment about 7.0 configuration).

Your definition of subwoofers as active bass speakers (integrated or seperate from main speakers) is arbitrary and incorrect. There are a number of passive subwoofers available today, though I'll grant that active subs are more common. The passive ones are no less subwoofers, however.

I'd wager that the folks who own 1000W Boulder amps and Wilson Alexandria speakers would challenge your assertion that passive full-range speakers are incapable of handling home theater without additional subwoofers, powered or not.

I realize that this is an extreme example, but the subject of this thread is "Anyone with a high-end home theater sans sub?" and the post begins "Is anyone else out there enjoying a high-end home theater without the contributions of a subwoofer, e.g. 7.0?". Since the writer specifically asked about high end, it is reasonable to answer "yes".

Javachip - sorry - my post should have been addressed to Dmurfet

Javachip,

No flame here - I promise - just a slight correction in terms. It might actually be more accurate to say that the Meridian DSP speakers maintain a digital signal THROUGH the crossovers, as the crossover is also digital. The D to A convertors are at the end of the signal path immediately preceeding the amplifiers, after all DSP processing (such as volumne, treble, bass, balance, tilt, etc.) and crossovers.