@luxmancl38 --
The subwoofer can be fantastic or a monster. In my case I use my sub very conservatively. I don’t want to ruin the mid’s and top end w/to much bass. However I found a certain segment feels the bottom is the most important part of the music. If you don’t have big bass the system isn’t correct. How do you set your sub? In my case it’s fairly conservative. It’s basically to fill in the bottom end w/out heartening the midsized and top end. Any friends that can’t get enough bass?
It’s a question of balance, and preference obviously. My system is dialed in around some variation of the Harman target curve, meaning the response is in a downward slope with about 0.5-1 dB per octave from the lows to the highs. Previously, in a different sub set-up, I had the sub running hotter when watching movies (2-5 dB’s), but in my current set-up the tapped horns are set at the same gain regardless of listening to music or watching movies. There’s observational merit to this, I find, being that my current subs are cleaner and more effortless in their presentation, and thus I don’t feel they’re overpowering the overall experience with "undue signature" when set with a higher gain.
So, I’m not only running my subs hotter now, but it sounds more natural and balanced as well with a fuller and more visceral presentation. Some cinephiles are running their prodigious sub set-ups extremely hot (to my ears at least), and even with movies I find it to lean too far into mere effect rather that immersion, but that’s just me.
