Personally, I can only handle one sub at a time.
Your experience of moving to two subs
Hi all, I have a 2.1 system with the sub sounding best in the center between the loudspeakers. My speakers have substantial, deep, and detailed bass for their size and with the SS amp I’ve chosen. Thus, the sub’s optimal crossover setting is only at about 28hz. I have plenty of bass amplitude going on -- don’t need "more" bass.
I’m wondering about soundstage effects of having two subs on the outsides of my speakers, though. Having my sub in the center does result in some apparent compression of the low frequencies towards the low-center area. The L and R channels from my preamp are combined at my sub. I know some people may disagree and think that the source of frequencies below 60hz can’t be located by human hearing, but my experience tells me differently.
Does anyone have an opinion on the benefits of 2 subs vs only 1 when there’s no need for more bass oompf?
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Thanks to everyone for their input! I have yet to play with my Rythmik and SVS together, but I'll report back when I do, since at least one person was interested in hearing about it. I think it's unlikely I'll stick with a single sub forever. Conceptually, two just makes more sense, just based on the info provided in this discussion. 👍🏼 |
@gladmo Assuming your 7T's have a fairly flat frequency response down past 50Hz fugetaboud stereo. The only time I didn't need to use the crawl test (you don't actually need to crawl but it won't hurt to do both walk and crawl) to map out my listening rooms bass mode / standing waves was when I used four subwoofers. Once you've mapped the room you'll know exactly, or at least near the optimal subwoofer/s locations. There's a rub. Your going to need some long interconnects to do the crawl test and most likely a longer pair for the location. You don't need anything exotic. Blue Jeans Cable custom makes economical cables for this purpose. Since both your subs come with a modicum of equalization you can adjust them individually to your taste then use the one with the remote control as the master to control the volume of both. You'll most likely run them together at a lower volume. They absolutly do not need to match. Good luck with the reward.
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One man's datapoint. Hsu VTF2 Mark IV subwoofer. (Out of production.) In TV system: one sub off to one side opposite main speakers but not in corner.. In audio system: four subs behind main speakers. No difference between one sub and four. Subs make your main speakers sound better because they don't have to work as hard with the sub handling low bass duties. This Hsu sub has two ports which I have plugged with the foam plugs that come with the sub. Less bass but tighter compared to leaving the ports open. |
One sub is fine, two are always better. More is better in the case of subs. As others have said, multiples really can better fill out the sound stage and give a really full and balanced experience. One huge fallacy is that subs are for movies and not music. That is an opinion that is completely baseless, proven wrong consistently, and only held by insane "2-channel only" types and possibly deaf sheep herders. |
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