1 or 2 high quality subs would be better than 4 cheap subs because you would have to deal with inferior crossovers, high distortion amps, and poor cabinet design. This sums up to very poor & inarticulate bass, the exact opposite of what you want for music. I am not sure why your are stacking speakers on top of each other. I would think that this would cause blending issues. I think a single pair of the best set which I believe would be the Cornwalls and 1 or 2 very high quality subs would be the way to go. To get the benefit of the subs, blending and handoff are the key to improvement because you don't want to hear the subs. They should blend so well that you can't locate them. The speakers & subwoofers should sound as 1 functioning unit. Not an easy thing to pull off. Not quite sure how you would connect 4 subs speaker level. It's very easy with RCA's but 4 with speaker level would be a challenge. With a little creativity, I figured out how to connect 3 RELs speaker level with my own system but RELs are a little different because your speakers run full range then you use RELS proprietary crossover to get the perfect blend. I would recommend REL, Martin Logan or JL Audio. Martin Logan is a particular stand out for having Anthem Room Correction, speaker level connections and starting at a reasonable of $650.00
What 4 subwoofers to buy?
I am using a pair of Klipsch Cornwalls from 1984 and a pair of Klipsch Heresys stacked on top of the Cornwalls. I recently bought a Klipsch R-115SW subwoofer and could not get any satisfaction from it. Too many room placement issues. So I kicked the subwoofer out of my listening room, being that I get better results all around without it.But I still desire an upgrade on bass performance and would not complain if overall speaker performance was increased. I have been reading alot lately about the DBA thing, and without even trying it, I am positive that it will be the best thing for me. But I have come to a brick wall sort of speak in my search for which subwoofers to buy. I am not rich, so buying 4 of Rels best is out of the question. I know that Miller Carbon is always saying that quantity over shoots quality, but when I use manufacturer subwoofer mating tools, the results always comes back with their most expensive subwoofer for my system. One of my main concern is will 4 lower end subs be an enhancement to my system? I was going to buy 4 SVS SB1000s because they are very good priced for the quality and they also have the high level speaker input which I will need for hooking up to my vintage integrated amp. But as I was researching all of their other models, I noticed that only their 1000s had these hookups? I emailed them and asked why their other upper models did not have high level speaker inputs? They said that none of their customers have expressed the need for them? I am not sure how to understand that? Maybe most of their customers main interest is in home theater and not 2 channel stereo? I do not know? This is where I have come to a stand still in buying my 4 subs. Will 4 lower end subs work for enhancing my system or do I need to go higher up in the chain as far as quality is concerned? Any ideas, knowledge, experience and or opinions will be greatly valued. Thank you.