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Posts: 3082
Location: South FL
Joined: May 18, 2008
Contributor
Since: July 26, 2010
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Good find, LineSource! It jives with my own experience also. Just a few weeks ago, after my insistence for a long while, a friend finally acquired the 2nd subwoofer for his (box speakers) system. For over a year, he had kept telling me that it was not needed...but he kept being surprised that I could locate his lone subwoofer. This time, when I dialed in the 2nd subwoofer...his eyes opened wide at what came out of the system. And, like what Dumpinground showed in his chart, the frequency sweeps later showed a much smoother frequency response. The flip side of the coin is at my home. Since I can't have 2 sub/woofers properly located, I normally use none for music. I do have one, placed smack in the middle between the Maggies, for movies -- and for the occasional music where the deep end is really key. For music, 99% of the time, it is off. The article has it right. Phase (and imaging) information carried down there gets killed by just one subwoofer. It is better to have less bass but correct timings and phasing than more bass but muddled in both clarity and imaging. [here, I am not talking about mechanical intermodulation distortion further up...which one may have to manage also]. As as result, much classical music and many recordings done with few microphones tend to deliver superb soundstaging, 3D imaging and venue ambiance. Furthermore, the degree of instrumental textures that can be heard clearly and alluringly present at the bottom is amazing. They are so palpable as to belie the lower SPL that the Maggies (and other planars) are really delivering at their low extremes. Quite often, the real skills of some recording engineers in the 50s, 60s & 70s shine through loud and clear. We do have good cases like what Wazoo and others did with their MMGs which, if properly calibrated with the right sub/woofers, can do a terrific job. They mounted the MMGs on top of the subwoofers. The other really good approach is to place and time-align the subwoofer right next to each Maggie. I have to look again but I think that Wazoo is doing something along these lines with his other pair of Maggies, the 3.7. I've also seen this done in other rooms and it makes me wish I had the extra space; one day I will. I do find interesting that deep bass can convey hall ambiance more completely -- and charmingly. Yet, pursuing it with the wrong setup or adjustments may deliver it at the expense of other SQ attributes. This is one case where I go by personal preferences. My friend loves the hall reverb in all its glory. So, I biased the bass tuneup to this preference of his. Besides, his much more expensive box system still cannot deliver the fuller textural charms that planars usually can.
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