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Will I benefit from a subwoofer with 20Hz speakers?

My source is a minidsp shd studio with Dirac going into Denafrips Gaia DDC to Denafrips T+ DAC to McIntosh 601 Monoblocks to Cabasse Pacific 3 speakers. The speaker's published frequency response is 41-20,000Hz. I presume this is achieved in an anechoic chamber. In my room however, it goes down to 20Hz, at least according to the Dirac measurements. In fact, I needed to flatten the curve and  reduce by 5-20 DBs between 20-100Hz due to the room effect.

So, considering I already go down to 20Hz, is there anything else 1 or 2 subwoofers will do for my system?  Would it create a more consistent low frequency field? I see many people adding up to 6 subs, so I wonder what I'm missing. 

Thank you for your insight! 

dmilev73

Showing 1 response by sandstone

sandstone
358 posts
 

@erik_squires ,

You have responded well to the OP's original concerns, and I for one appreciated the dialog.  You've not only laid out a reasoned approach for assessing one's existing setup, but documented some very economical tools for doing so.  

It makes perfect sense in these cases to collect more data and learn more about your system/room before laying out $4K or so in subs.  I for one would definitely go this route.

The notion that you failed to make your case - for questioning the accuracy of published speaker ranges without also considering room effects, - is ludicrous.

You gave some good examples, including specific comments on OPs speakers. 

Even Hans Wetzel's review of the Cabasse Pacific 3 mentioned by @dmilev73  - but apparently not read by the skeptics, alluded to the same point:

"The speaker’s claimed 41Hz lower limit must be an anechoic measurement; with room gain, I’d be shocked if they didn’t have solid output down into the low 30Hz range, possibly even the high 20s."

Please keep the great comments and ideas coming!

Sandstone

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