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When comparing towers to bookshelves, do you let a subwoofer into the mix?

I'm presently comparing bookshelves to towers in my listening space.
Until today, I've just compared the speakers without adding my sub.
But since I would be using a sub (especially with bookshelves) it seems fair to add that in.

How would you make a final judgment comparing two speakers?

Naked (no subs) -- Speaker A vs. Speaker B?
or
With Sub (since that's how things would actually happen)?

Perhaps this question answers itself with "both" but I'm curious what folks do in this situation. It seems unfair to blame the bookshelf for not having the low end of the tower, but I would be using it with a sub, so that would allow me to judge on just the non-bass performance
hilde45

Showing 3 responses by hilde45

hilde45's avatar
hilde45 OP
5,305 posts
 
Thanks Miller. Free diver, since you’re never in the situation described, your answer could only come out one way. But now we know what it is. ;-)
hilde45's avatar
hilde45 OP
5,305 posts
 
Thanks @verdant. @Oldhvymec made a good point -- if it was for a review, then naked vs. naked. Otherwise, this is about the whole situation. And that would include (of course) dialing sub in, positioning, etc. Otherwise, it’s really not controlling the variables which can be controlled. That's just a kabuki-experiment.
hilde45's avatar
hilde45 OP
5,305 posts
 
Thank you so much. I read your blog post a while ago Erik, and it's wonderful.

And I have been trying the subwoofer with the towers but they don't seem to add very much. what I'm hoping to do is get an honest to John comparison between the quality of the mid-range and tweeters  between the two sets of speakers (assuming that what is happening in the base and soundstage are comparable).
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