Besides adding some lower frequencies that your main speakers are not capable of, really the main reason for subs is to relieve the largest speakers in your main speakers of having to reproduce the lower frequencies that they can produce and allow them to focus on the midrange. If anyone is adding a sub or cranking up the bass just to get that chest thumping experience, I can almost guarantee that their music is out of balance without knowing much more.
Finally Learned: Subs serve much larger role than adding more low bass
I sold my older powered sub a while back. reasons-
1. It did not integrate well.
2. I was pretty satisfied with my 2 speakers bass output.
3. Was big, heavy and ugly.
After traveling around the counrty and listening to home systems put together by people who know their way around the industry I realized they all have something I did not. A well integrated bass array.
So what does a bass array add to a 2.0 system?
This is where words fail but I will try:
-Increased Involvement in the listening experience
-More enjoayble sound stage
So if you are like I was, a sub denier, I suggest you try one small
sub, as I did, and see what you experience. My $500 REL T5x experience
did it for me. Now I will buy a second one.