I like subwoofers because they help me achieve more of the visceral experience that I get listening to live music.
Most speakers can't do that on their own or they may not produce an even bass response. Maybe if you have a perfect room. I don't. In my main system I have Legacy Audio 20/20 speakers that have combined total of 6 12" drivers and they can come close to "pressurizing" the room, but the quality of bass is better when subwoofers are added into the system. I have 4 very large and powerful subwoofers in my system, but they are not set up to "thump", they are there to add body to the music and smooth out the bass response throughout the room. They are barely noticeable unless I play techno or something else with really deep bass, then they come alive.
In my smaller computer system I have Focal Electra 1008 BE stand mount speakers and a single small 12" sealed subwoofer. The sub just fleshes out the bottom end, it's not there to thump or pressurize the room. It's a fairly small room and it just complements the Focals by producing the lower frequencies that they can't.
Most speakers can't do that on their own or they may not produce an even bass response. Maybe if you have a perfect room. I don't. In my main system I have Legacy Audio 20/20 speakers that have combined total of 6 12" drivers and they can come close to "pressurizing" the room, but the quality of bass is better when subwoofers are added into the system. I have 4 very large and powerful subwoofers in my system, but they are not set up to "thump", they are there to add body to the music and smooth out the bass response throughout the room. They are barely noticeable unless I play techno or something else with really deep bass, then they come alive.
In my smaller computer system I have Focal Electra 1008 BE stand mount speakers and a single small 12" sealed subwoofer. The sub just fleshes out the bottom end, it's not there to thump or pressurize the room. It's a fairly small room and it just complements the Focals by producing the lower frequencies that they can't.