sleepwalker65 wrote:
I guess it depends on what you mean by the term inadequate. After 45 years of audio and hundreds of speakers (I used to be an audio dealer and distributor) I have come to the conclusion that, for most rooms and most speaker designs, the concept of a "perfect" full range speaker is very hard to achieve; bordering on the impossible.
These days I play almost exclusively through tube components, SET and low output PP. I have extensively tested many high efficiency, single driver speakers and find that, to my ears, limiting the driver size to 8" or smaller and mating to a pair of good sealed subs gives my more audio joy and sense of performance realism than the (many pairs) pf much more expensive "full range" speakers I have played and owned in the past.
It's true: getting the best sound out of a pair of standmount speakers and separate subs isn't easy. It's a lot of work to get it just right. But IMO it's worth it.
Subwoofers are a bad solution for inadequate speakers. They are mutually exclusive with high fidelity because they can never perfectly integrate. Some people and rappers don’t care about sound quality. Low-Fi is fine for them. For the rest of us, subwoofers only belong in the home theatre.
I guess it depends on what you mean by the term inadequate. After 45 years of audio and hundreds of speakers (I used to be an audio dealer and distributor) I have come to the conclusion that, for most rooms and most speaker designs, the concept of a "perfect" full range speaker is very hard to achieve; bordering on the impossible.
These days I play almost exclusively through tube components, SET and low output PP. I have extensively tested many high efficiency, single driver speakers and find that, to my ears, limiting the driver size to 8" or smaller and mating to a pair of good sealed subs gives my more audio joy and sense of performance realism than the (many pairs) pf much more expensive "full range" speakers I have played and owned in the past.
It's true: getting the best sound out of a pair of standmount speakers and separate subs isn't easy. It's a lot of work to get it just right. But IMO it's worth it.