More Power or use subwoofer to boost bass for music

Well unless someone here is interested in a professionally designed sound system, complete with 3D modelling of the acoustic field based on architectural drawings, industry measured material properties, and sufficient speaker models or they are trying to design tolerable audio into the latest miniscule consumer gadget and need to design and model the acoustic performance before finalizing the design and committing to tooling, or they need help with designing and implementing psychoacoustic experiments, or, and this would be unlikely, they need a device for medical or industrial "sonic" treatment (or measurement) then yes, I would be guilty about my motives. This is not the case, here.

The swarm was an interesting idea which is promoted by fetishists whose motives and honesty I question.

The truth is many modest systems achieved great bass with proper speaker placement, modest acoustics, and soemtimes a sub with an EQ long before the swarm and there will still be systems with great bass long after the swarm.

To hear the fanatics tell it, no one has even heard bass before them, and only they can fix it. Also, only they know about room acoustics. It's magic. Ignore all the previous work that has gone before, because it's bunk before the swarm.

Clearthink, if you took the time to read and understand my posts (if you have the requisite knowledge), you will note that I was pointing out that simply saying the amp does not double from 8 to 4 ohms, provides no real guidance on whether it can supply adequate bass to a load that bottoms out at 3-3.2 ohms, and that all we know is the distortion is 1% at 4ohms at a given wattage (what georgehifi posted) which means we know how it behaves at some level under those conditions and absent the output impedance / damping factor, (not to mention distortion w.r.t. frequency), the conclusion he made is simply not possible.

As a matter of fact, if a link to the full range of tests was provided, as in here: https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1373:bhk-labs...
then one could see that the limitation is very low until the output hits a hard limit at which time the distortion rapidly increases. One can surmise from the shape of the graph as it hits the limit that it is primarily voltage limited. The damping factor is also very high at 8 ohms, >500 throughout the bass region, indicating no output impedance issues through the speaker impedance range. Further, the rise in distortion across the frequency range when the power is increased from 150 to 200 watts coupled with the lower distortion at 4 ohms (SMPTE) again, communicates it is primarily running into a voltage limit. The decrease in distortion from 8 to 4 ohms, also indicates that it is unlikely to have issues with the odd dip to 3-3.2 ohms. Furthermore, that 422 watts (albeit at 10% THD), is all channels driven, or about 1260 watts total.

Since you have exceptional knowledge, perhaps you can point out exactly where the errors are in my analysis, using the best information I had at my fingertips.

xcool, based on the SoundStageNetwork test, unless you are running your amplifier into clipping or there is something wrong with it, it is highly unlikely to be causing your bass issue.

Nice post lemonhaze.

Lemonhaze is correct on this, traps do work, but most people have woefully inadequate traps which are either large, expensive, or both. That is one of the reasons for many why a bass array is a better proposition for most within the limits of what they are going to achieve. 

You touch on a point that many miss, in that you have to be careful with the materials you use. Absorbent foam can often throw off tonal balance by absorbing too much mid-highs compared to base. Foam tends to be pretty useless in bass frequencies. Sound deadening fibreglass/rock-wool is far better. In the vast majority of listening spaces, I don't think standard bass traps with massive amount of fibre/rockwool and hence enormous size, like yours are practical and hence perhaps that is why atmasphere says they literally do not work ... because for most people they don't. In most listening rooms, the only practical acoustic solution for truly controlling bass resonant modes is a Helmholz resonator and to use one effectively, you need to take measurements and install the right ones and and/or get tunable ones. Strangely enough, the most "ardent" audiophiles, rarely have this simple and low cost measurement equipment preferring to "trust" their ears.