Why the fascination with subwoofers?

steakster
I moved my Talon Roc out to sell and have more room. But it turns out I have plenty of room. Soon as I can find the time its going back in. Mine's powered so I will be able to set it to do very little but add a little at the extreme low end. If it even will do that. Was never able to get it to go as low as my bass array does already, but then with one you are forced to locate it for least bad overall. So we will see.

lewinskih01

One material aspect of their research was time delay between the subs in the room, which is something I can't do with my setup. Neither can the SWARM system, yet Noble100 and Millercarbon report very good results, so I'm intrigued.

My 4 are run with two Dayton amps, giving me the option of running stereo, mono, and with variable phase on either one or both pairs, in addition to being able to wire one or more completely out of phase. Phase isn't exactly the same as time delay, but close enough for government work. 180 degrees out of phase equates to a .025 second delay at 20 Hz. 

In any case what little I've had time to experiment with hasn't turned up any noticeable difference. Yet. This probably says more about my lack of experience.

The bass from a distributed bass array, it seems to me, is so much better than anything possible from any one or maybe even any two subs, that it takes quite a long time to appreciate. This is compounded by the fact its impossible to know where the really good bass is until you come across it, often by accident. Some recordings I always thought had a lot below what I was hearing turns out they really do. Some others not so much. Some I would never in the world have thought of having low bass surprised me. I've barely begun to scratch the surface of what's hiding out there waiting to be revealed.

Often times when it happens its not like you'd think. Almost all of what we think of as bass is guys plucking strings or hitting synth boom boom boom each note pretty much like the last. This I am now sure has more to do with the inherent inadequacy of a single sub than anything else.

Because the bass with a bass array is never like that. Each note, each drum whack, whatever, is its own unique event. And I know this is passing strange and one hell of a conundrum because at the same time its all mono its also precise and localized. Just not localized anything like the way people assume. Its clear the sense of localization has nothing to do with what is coming out of the subs.

Obviously, because I can run all 4 off the one amp and it sounds exactly the same as run in stereo. To be fair I noticed the same thing with my one Talon Roc sub. Which with its massive drivers and isobaric design ought on paper at least to be faster and cleaner than my much cheaper PartsExpress subs. But its not. Not even close. The 4 sub array is much more precise. Despite there being 4 of them. Spaced all over the room.

But because it is so much better I think means it takes a lot longer to dial in and understand. Also my time is limited and given the choice between enjoying awesome music and working to make it even better I keep coming down on the side of immediate gratification.

So sue me.

I'll get around to it, eventually. Even so its more than enough to know absolutely and for certain this is the way to go.

Really? And you would know..... how? 
Which ones have you heard?

2psyop

why add a subwoofer to an existing audio system when they don’t always perform well, are costly, and are difficult to integrate with the many varied speakers offered.

Why indeed? I sure never would. That would be crazy. Instead I would add one that performs well, is affordable, and integrates well.
See what you did there? Built a straw man in the guise of a question. Don’t do that.

Additionally, why wouldn’t any audiophile first choose a speaker with a well designed bass driver designed, engineered and BUILT INTO that same cabinet?

Many do try to do just that. Look around however, it quickly becomes very obvious the hardest most expensive thing you can find is two quality speakers with true 20 Hz bass. They essentially do not exist. Turns out (read on) that for reasons of physics they cannot exist. Which is why they don’t.

If anyone’s speakers were not giving enough tight bass, why wouldn’t that person sell those speakers and buy a pair that does have tight bass?

Well now you’ve confused tight bass with extended bass. Tight responsive bass is not all that hard. Tight responsive deep bass, that is so hard it borders on impossible. In fact it turns out that thanks to the particular combination of physics and human hearing that rules the lowest frequencies there’s really only one good way of doing it.

Also your question ignores the fact there’s more to music than low bass, and a lot of people love the way their speakers sound, and just wish for that plus really nice solid low bass extension.

Add to that, the cost of adding a really good distributed bass array is far less than a new set of speakers, at least ones that will get you anywhere near as good bass response.

Finally, they say you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone. In this case though its more you don’t know what you’ve been missing till its there. So its the unknown. Nothing more fascinating than that.