Why do you guys pursue a flat frequency response when you buy a subwoofer?

Deep pondering your post... what does REW run result look like for in room ? The frustration in room 2 seems to be more with recording variations? Can you post a frustrating track title and the SPL where troubles begin or end... Also you can high pass the mains with a 6 db per octave filter available from Vandersteen which is part of his systems engineering approach to powered bass integration- not advocating a switch in your speakers. Traveling today,

@m-db  yes that is Terra Mar :-) red tide going.... on top of reopening...

On the subject subs. Too much over thinking I have 4 15 inch woofers in my 4 way speakers total of 60 inches of woof, you can feel your rib cage vibrate at just the right volume problem solved enough said have a nice evening.

I gave this bit of thought on the airplane trip today - IF ya get Soular Energy sounding “ right “
then everything else is recording variability...

OP I sent you a PM offering help gratis but I see you have taken many many steps to better sound...

@audiokinesis --

Deep: "I sure would not want to add another adc/dac into the chain with a subpar DAC on something like miniDSP for bass management (when i have a Denafrips DAC in my 2 channel setup). Guys i know have waaaay more expensive speakers, DACs, monoblocks, etc on their 2 channel music setups than i do. They are probably not gonna do that either. "

You bring up an excellent point: How do we roll off the bottom end of the mains without any undesirable side effects? Not sure there is a totally transparent solution.

Unless your speaker platform is all-active to begin with, in which case (expectedly quality) digital filtering is already a vital part of the configuration - sans passive cross-over parts that would otherwise be regarded the bottleneck. There are pro vendor, excellent digital cross-overs out there that doesn't cost a fortune, like the ones from Xilica, but even with passively configured main speakers - the primary focus in this context, it would seem - I find they're nigh on fully transparent being implemented into the chain. I'm stressing 'nigh on' despite my not being able to detect a sonic degradation with a Xilica unit put into the signal chain that ends with passive speakers (based on my experience with my previous, passive speaker set-up), because I wouldn't want to presume its total transparency in more academic or theoretical terms.

Forest for the trees, as they say; with passive speakers in mind, what does the outcome of putting a quality digital cross-over/DSP into the signal chain potentially bring with it advantageously, high-passing the main speakers instead of letting them run full-range, compared to the (mostly theorized?) audible influence the added component itself will have? That's certainly up to debate, but I find high-passing passive main speakers with a quality digital DSP for subs augmentation to be worthwhile, and with an all-active configuration like I'm using now it's a naturally integrated option. High-passing mains to me is all about relieving them and the amp(s) driving them, rather that protection per se.