I am going to differ. Subwoofers, just like a Formula 1 car need to be utilized carefully. The goal is to effectively align, calibrate and dial in a subwoofer so that the subwoofer/s integrates seamlessly with the mains and disappears into the soundstage with a deep, sharp, tight fisted, fast and powerful punchy sub bass. Get it right and the difference to the overall performance of the system is profound.
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Why do you think that won’t work?
It’s just that you could fit a tennis court in the space between the B and Ws 
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Bet me to the punch, im sure that subwoofers can indeed be profoundly positive if trying to fill an arena with distortion free deep bass…
Sorry - I meant the want of a proper rack.
I’m not entirely confident that I can identify all the units within the (admittedly rather attractive in a monolithic kinda way) oak furniture, but it doesn’t suggest optimal isolation and microphony minimization to me - but perhaps I’m overly optimistic about the attributes of a properly designed rack a-la-fraim…
I often read this, but with a full-frequency feed to the speakers and no external crossover, how do the speakers know that they are relieved?
This is possible with a high level connection where the signal is routed through the subwoofer which only will pass the frequency you set on it to go to the speakers.
Of course they don’t know anything they just get fed with frequencies above 80hz - although i am not sure how it is supposed to have an influence on the frequencies reproduced below 80hz as opposed to the whole range used without a sub.
But we are hijacking the thread here…
Ah OK, so essentially an external crossover in the sub. Makes sense. I have no clue about subs, in case you didn’t notice 
Perhaps it’s good to note that many people would not choose to crossover/split the signal in a non-HT setup.
Home theater speakers are designed to only relay part of the frequency spectrum, and HT sets rely on a DSP or receiver to split the signal between the different (3, 5 or 7) speakers.
Full range speakers however are designed to deliver the full frequency range. Especially high end speakers such as the ones in this thread are specifically optimized for that scenario. Their construction and internal resonance patterns are fine tuned to harmonize the full range signal.
When you cut away an integral part of that signal, for instance the entire low bass region, then the speaker will not behave as designed, and will very likely underperform (whether you are able to hear it or not).
So in general full range speakers are best delivered the normal, full range signal, and a subwoofer should be dialed in below their bottom frequency to extend their range. In this way the performance of the (more expensive) full range speaker is never compromised.
This is most easiest to do with a measurement microphone, it can be very difficult to do only by ear.
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Possibly - but I’m not sure that cabinets like this are necessarily bad in this regard.
Thanks. I get that the higher freq transition at ~80 Hz comes with its own issues like hearing the subs location, having a separate crossover or high-pass in the sub, and losing some of the mid-bass character of the big speakers, but wouldn’t it be only a good thing for the speaker bass cones if they don’t have to vibrate at 30-80 Hz while also oscillating at 80 to their upper cut-off freq? I.e. a simpler envelope.
For most scenarios with full range speakers, the (natural) crossover point for the subwoofer will likely be somewhere around 35-45hz.
That means that the full range speakers behave normally and will roll off at their bottom frequency, and the subwoofer will roll in around the same frequency.
So at the point where the main speakers are -6db in the bass is where you would want the subwoofer to roll in with a 6db slope.
I get that, but I meant specifically this part:
If we ignore the new issues coming from a high transition freq and only look at the work the big speaker has to do, wouldn’t it make its work easier instead of making it underperform? Just musings 
Well the main speaker was designed to deliver a full range signal, so that is what it’s construction is optimized for, as well as the drivers and internal crossover etc. If you then take a knife and cut the signal off from 80hz to below, then the speaker gets a very different kind of signal, one that it wasn’t designed for to relay optimally.
So during play the woofer of a main speaker would normally expect to produce e.g. a 30-400hz signal, and if it gets a 80-400hz signal instead it’s behaviour, resonance, dispersion pattern etc will change in possibly unexpected ways.
So to avoid messing with the main speaker in this way - and some main speakers cost 10K or more ofcourse - it’s often considered best to just let them do their thing, since they were designed to play a full range signal.
The sub-bass can quite easily be dialed in below their bottom frequency, but it takes a bit more work to measure the response correctly with a microphone. However that is something that is always good to do when using a sub, also when using a hard crossover, just to make sure that everything is behaving correctly and there are no weird room modes that you missed.
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So glad my new speakers will take care of this
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Yes if your system is pre-designed for this usage and has it’s own crossover system, that will certainly work best. The manufacturer then already has optimized the construction of the speakers for a reduced / partial signal, and the main speakers can be ‘relieved’ more without compromising their ideal performance!
When will you get your new set?
Not sure, it was said 3-4 weeks and we are now at 3.5 but I’m not pestering them
But the low bass is simply built in
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Yes the low bass in your new set goes plenty low, so no need to grab extra subs for that probably…