What percentage of audiophiles use a sub ?

I've found that subwoofers are difficult to balance with the rest of the system. Like others have said, the bass level varies on recordings enough that no one setting works well.

Another issue for me is that my receiver doesn't allow the use of a subwoofer in Direct Mode which is where critical listening is at its best. When the sub is active the receiver is actively processing the music. I love it for home theater and some "low rider" music demands loud bass.

When I was listening to my speakers at the store I took in some song with heavy bass to listen to and found out that the clarity of the sound was more than enough to forget about the lack of bass compared to my previous speakers.

I've heard the Focal Grande Utopia EM in combination with the JL Audio Gothom subwoofer and that's a pretty nice combination, but I'm not sure why the EM would ever need a subwoofer unless someone was just spending money to impress.

I believe there are a couple of issues with subwoofers in a 2 channel configuration.

First, many people don't purchase subwoofers that match the sound quality of their main speakers so it's essentially putting a $200 bass driver in a $3,000 speaker (just an extreme example). The salesman at the store that I deal with indicated that the current JL Audio subwoofer were on the short list of "audiophile approved" subwoofers and is about all they have in the store for the high end customers.

Second, every amplifier has its own sound and if an active subwoofer is used it isn't likely that it will perfectly match the sound of the main speakers. An audiophile isn't likely to hook up left and right channel speakers with different mono-block amplifiers and many, I suspect, wouldn't bi-amp speakers with different amplifiers either.

In my case, my receiver forces me out of direct mode to use a subwoofer so for 2-channel critical listening the best configuration is two full range speakers. My Focal 836v speakers can reproduce 30 hz, but not at a loud enough volume to support home theater applications. I have a subwoofer that isn't an equal with my main speakers, but does a wonderful job of the .1 duties and for heavy bass non-critical listening.