More Power or use subwoofer to boost bass for music

@erik_squires wrote:

"The swarm was an interesting idea which is promoted by fetishists whose motives and honesty I question...

Please mark me down as some one who no longer believes those people are well meaning. I’ll no longer bother arguing with anyone of that ilk. You have convinced me of your intension$$$$$$$$$$$$."

For the record, NOBODY here has a financial interest in the Swarm except for me.

Erik if you feel that the main fetishist behind the Swarm needs to have his motives and honesty questioned, I’d like to hear you out.

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Xcool, I apologize for entering your thread to squabble with someone. Erik and I are not enemies (far as I know), but we do have differences of opinion on some subjects (that NEVER happens among audiophiles, right??). Imo bass traps (absorbers) are not the solution when you’re trying to increase the net in-room bass energy, but I am absolutely a fan of GIK Acoustics.

Anyway let me try to offer some thoughts about your bass situation, taking into account that four small subs probably isn’t feasible:

Your B&W’s gently roll off by about 4 dB per octave from 100 Hz down to 30 Hz before boundary reinforcement according to Stereophile’s measurements, with the rolloff accelerating rapidly below 30 Hz. In rooms with generous boundary reinforcement, this can give bass extension down to 30 Hz ballpark.

Presumably your room does not provide generous boundary reinforcement at your listening position with the speaker positioning you have. Just for fun, you might try standing at the wall in the back of the room to see how the bass sounds there.

You asked about amp or sub. I am inclined to think that sub(s) will make a bigger difference, and a more fine-tuneable one. I was a Parasound dealer for many years and think your B&W’s are well within your amp’s comfort zone.

You might consider this: Adding two smallish subs, one along a side wall (but not centered), and another along the rear wall (again, not centered). Considering your B&W’s to be bass sources down to 30 Hz, this would give you four in-room bass sources, with two of them (your B&W’s) symmetrical with respect to one another, and the other two asymmetrically placed. I can explain why this might be beneficial if you would like.

I see now that this suggestion is pretty much a repeat of heaudio123’s post above. Nice job, heaudio123.

Xcool, best of luck with your quest.

Duke
Grand Poobah of the Swarm Fetish Cult

Hey @audiokinesis thanks a lot for your suggestion, and also everyone else for such a colorful discussion.   :-)  

There are a lot of good information here.  One thing for sure though is I don't have the space for 4+ subs.    I definitely have space for one sub.  That is to replace my old one that I only use for movie right now.   It's sitting in the corner of my room, but partially obstructed by piece of furniture about 1 foot in front of it.   So the location is not ideal.   It will be a challenge for me to try to fit a 2nd sub in the room.   BTW, my speakers are already very close to the back wall - right around 1 foot away.    So technically, I'm already placing my speakers at a good location from the bass perspective.

Anyway,  I think I might give a new sub with EQ a try, and get myself out of this 'purist' mode :-).   Will also do some research on room treatment.   

Actually I might start with a new dedicated stereo preamp for my 2 channel music and work from there.   

There are definitely a lot of moving parts in this hobby, and a lot of trial and error to pursue the best sound.  But it's all fun stuff.  :-) 

Well unless someone here is interested in a professionally designed sound system, complete with 3D modelling of the acoustic field based on architectural drawings, industry measured material properties, and sufficient speaker models or they are trying to design tolerable audio into the latest miniscule consumer gadget and need to design and model the acoustic performance before finalizing the design and committing to tooling, or they need help with designing and implementing psychoacoustic experiments, or, and this would be unlikely, they need a device for medical or industrial "sonic" treatment (or measurement) then yes, I would be guilty about my motives. This is not the case, here.

The swarm was an interesting idea which is promoted by fetishists whose motives and honesty I question.

The truth is many modest systems achieved great bass with proper speaker placement, modest acoustics, and soemtimes a sub with an EQ long before the swarm and there will still be systems with great bass long after the swarm.

To hear the fanatics tell it, no one has even heard bass before them, and only they can fix it. Also, only they know about room acoustics. It's magic. Ignore all the previous work that has gone before, because it's bunk before the swarm.