May I suggest that you go to the next step above B&W. The engineer responsible for most of the finest technologies at B&W left when B&W was sold and eventually formed (with a partner) Vivid Audio. Vivid has refined these technologies and taken them to the next step. Rather than a B&W 801 D4 ($35K) or 802 D4 ($14K) with subs, go with the Vivid Audio Kaya K45 ($19K), K90 ($28K), or Giya G4s2 ($34K). Regardless of what specifications might tell you, the bass response of each of the three models is simply amazing. These speakers offer another level of transparency, detail, and the ambience of the recording. If you had been considering the B&W 801 D4, you should here the Vivid Giya G4s2. Next level performance.
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801D4 - you can add subs at any point later on if you find you need more bass. Although the 802D4 shares the same midrange enclosure and tweeter as the 801D4, Bowers has done some magic on that xover, midrange driver, and woofers to separate it enough from its lower sibling. The 801D4 when i auditioned it had a much effortless and fuller sound. Besides the deeper bass it was the midrange that stood out enough.
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Both the 801 and the 802 will benefit immensely from subs. You are not just getting a speaker, you need to marry it to a room. The optimal location for imaging and so on is usually never where a sub bass driver oughta be. So, any speaker will benefit from subs (full range or not!). That REL is not the brightest idea for your use case. Consider the ELAC Varro line, especially the DS1000 dual force balanced 10inch for your use case....and it is cheaper than the REL, how about that? https://www.elac.com/series/varro/dual-reference/ds1000-10-dual-subwoofer/ Why? Well, in your use case a) Sub driver size is much more closely matched to the bass drivers on your speaker. If you don’t have servo control (from the likes of Rythmik), this is an important factor. b) The Elac Varro will give you extension out the wazoo, dig into 14, 15hz, without blinking (something your Rel mentioned above can never do). You will perceive things in tracks that you would never hear otherwise, i.e. in a sub with weak sauce extension. c) The Varro line comes with a very unique auto-calibration feature that is extremely beneficial for 2 channel purist systems without any PEQ or whatever else. It was pioneered by Andrew Jones when he was still at ELAC. At minimum, the calibration will match the sub’s response right at the driver to your listening position, even if a user knew diddly about how to integrate a sub. In other words, it will nullify the room’s confoundance with just a simple bit of positioning and running the cal. It will also give you several bands of manual PEQ, delays, etc/whatever else for more advanced users.
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