musical small sub for B&W 805s's

Sorry Bob , I did not see you last posting in our other discussion and was unnessarly snippy. Bob and I have a difference of opinion about which is the better way of hooking up subs. If you get a REL you can try both and see for yourself. Everyone hears in a different way, the sound waves are the same but what we hear is not.

I used a pair of the old smaller Hsu passive subs and had good luck. They are the round ones with the 10" woofer. I use REL Stadiums with my Spendor SP-1/2 Es and they work very well. I use my main speakers full range and cross the subs over as low as possible. Try running the 805s full range and crossing the sub over at 30-40 Hz. It may be too big to match the 805s but I think that doing this would give it the best chance. REL works very well, they use a 10" Volt driver. If you look at them look at the S series [ Stadium, Storm , Strata] rather than the Q series , which is intended for home theater. I think that the small main , subwoofer route is the best way to go for many , if not most, people for just the reasons you gave. It is also easier to get maximum performance in most rooms with such a system. I have much larger speakers [Spendor S-100, Apogee Duetta Signatures] but am not using them. Good luck.

I would stay with the S series. REL has recently changed hands and they have brought out some new product lines; the S series is well established. There are several Strata and Storm available. I just bought the Stadium 111 listed there. I also bought my Stadium 11 used. It is better, but not essential, to have one for each channel. A good 10" will produce very good bass, the Stadium 111 is down 6db at 12 Hz. They typically produce about 105 db at one meter which is about what the 805s do so they will work in any room that the 805s work in. I also have a pair of woofers that have 8 12" Volts between them , they will , of course, play louder but the bass quality is similar. The problem with larger woofers is that they are slower than smaller ones. The difference between my advice and Bob's is that I actually have the speakers and am not looking at the spec sheet. I never heard a spec sheet that sounded good.