Thinking of adding a subwoofer for more bass.

In reply to your comments I am reading the 37 Hz right off the specifications. My main concern was that if the output of my system was not generating the low frequency the sub woofer would not make enough difference. I guess I will have to experiment. I have been looking at the HSU units, and they have gotten great reviews.

One other solution I have thought of is tube rolling. I have heard the Svetlana winged C's are really great tubes and they should be an improvement over the stock Cayins. FYI I play records and CDs. Hate compressed music. Most likely I am going to try the woofer first because I wasn't not too-impressed when I changed out my speaker cables.

Thanks for your help!

Marntz, the spec you are reading usually states the anechoic frequency
response. This is measured with no reflected energy - basically in a room
without walls. Most listening rooms, however, actually have walls and those
wall create reflections.

In my room, there is a large (+/- 15db peak) rise between 100hz and 130hz.
There are significant but narrow nulls at 80hz and 50hz and a broader null
below 35 hz. The net effect is that the published specs rarely correlate to
what I hear in the bass region. I've only had 2 speakers in this room that
provided decent response to 35ish hz - the Merlin VSM and the Ohm 100.
The Verity Parsifal Encore, which provided solid response to 32hz in my last
home, won't get below 38hz in this one. That is not a giant difference, but
coupled with other room related bass effects, the Verity sounds thicker and
slower with less real deep bass than it should.

IMHO, the greatest advantage of modern subs is that they allow you to
address these issues with room analysis and EQ. You can essentially
"fix" the room. Some people will reject the whole idea because
you are "creating" the sound rather than listening to sound which
the speaker manufacturer intended you to hear. However, if your room
sucks......

Marty

PS I noted the exception to the best bass extention at 38hz in my earlier post
to this thread. The subs go flat to 25Hz.

Thanks for that last repsonse Marty, I think I am going to go with a 8" to 10" subwoofer and try it out. If it doesn't work I will just send it back. As far as the equilization is concerned, I am going to set it up to my listening preferences.

Thanks!

Martykl
my objection to bass room eq is that once you eq out the 100-130hz rise and the nulls at 50 + 80, what do you have?
my guess would be that you end up with other problems or a fairly small sweet spot....the 2nd would work for an individual up to 4 person space, but for a HT where you'd want more persons to share good sound, you may be in for trouble.

Magfan,

What I've gotten is "order of magnitude" improvement. I have enjoyed the expected benefit in deep bass: organ, (particularly synthesized) bass lines and drums are all rendered with more definition and impact. The biggest difference has been in the mid-band. With the bass "muck" gone, the midrange imrpovement has been both unexpected and pretty startling.

I have ordered 2 bass busters (hemholtz resonators tuned to "absorb" excess energy in the range extending roughly 1 octave above roughly 80hz. At the least, this should minimize the amount of eq I need to apply in that range. It's an approach that might work for Marntz as well, either alone or in combo with eq'd woofs.

Marty