Subs & Group Delay

Low-order harmonic distortion is benign. I'm aware of a controlled listening test in which 30% second harmonic distortion was statistically undetectable - so don't go nuts pursuing low harmonic distortion specs.

Group delay typical of a vented woofer system has been shown to be detectable on test tones, but to the best of my knowldege not conclusively so on music program material - thus the "hotly debated" reference in Shadorne's post.

In my opinion the in-room frequency response makes a bigger difference.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer

Acoustat6, sorry this reply is late; I've been on the road and haven't logged in since, oh, some time last year.

Anyway, it's hard to say that a given frequency response specification is a guarantee of good sound. It really depends on how it was measured and what the actual data looks like. Consider this aspect of human hearing: The ear tends to integrate peaks and dips over intervals of perhaps 1/3 octave of so (it varies with frequency), so if there are offsetting narrow-band deep dips and sharp peaks close to one another, they might look disastrous to the eye but be completely overlooked by the ear. On the other hand a very broad but shallow (1 or 2 dB) bump or dip is easily overlooked by the eye, but may be quite audible.

An actual in-room response that falls within the numbers you mentioned is probably quite rare, and more likely than not sounds quite good, but it's still possible to have poor sounding bass that falls within those same specs.

Duke