For me the subwoofer is a real must !! and it's not a must until you tried it !!

First of all : yep you need a linearity in all the spectrum range  , and i say linearity !! that's why even good nearfield are not enought cause they roll off pretty hard the lows .....so you gonna tell me let's buy some nearfield  bigger and stronger : yep but you hilgly incresase the interarction with walls and early reflection , but the most important for me is that hearing my adam with and without sub is night and day even on med !! : why ?

soundcard feeding the sub , sub is dsipatching frequency ranges : 0/85 hz for sub 85/40khz for my P11A : the reseult as my adam have to handle a freqeuncy range reduced especially enregy wise (understangd the lows ;)) , the precision is wiked !!

3rd : the sub is on the floor (to be precisie on an auralex gramma : a must have) so my 3Deffects is just excellent on the Y axes (frequency axes from floor to top of my speaker) !!


Cons : hard to set up sometime : beware of phase (all sub have at least phase switches) , placement in the rooom and to not have a frequency lost on the crossover freqeuncey (in my case 85hz) , ARC frop IK helped me alot !! and now its price is super low so don't even think twice i bougth it 400 euros , it's 160 euros now !! 

I like the blog.

It was averaging 1 post every 1-1/2 months... and now it's like 1 post every few days.

I don't think the content of this latest blog entry has any technical merit, (and yes, I use a sub woofer) and it doesn't seem like the writer had the benefit of partnering with an editor so the writing isn't very cohesive.

The result is that the premise which is founded upon a fragile supposition never gets a chance to be substantiated in the actual article... we just get to experience some circular logic while what appears to be explanations are anecdotal stories.

This blog entry probably would have been more effective if the author started out with an outline and then made a solid attempt to state why he has drawn his conclusion. The way the entry currently reads, it seems as if the topic for discussion was thought up over some fish tacos at lunch and then the article was popped up on the web before anyone actually read it for review.

Which dooms it to take it's place in our *age of communications* NOISE floor.





Having said that, I applaud the attempt at outreach and education which I feel is the lifeblood of any retail enterprise.

Keep up the work and move it forward.

Looking Good!


best regards,
mike

@Zo

See, now there you have some info that could have been in the blog post, that gives insight and understanding, 
just a couple of lines of text and it makes a lot of difference to why someone might want to invest in it.
Some of it might be a bit to technical for me, but still :)   

edit: gnaff, cant figure out this quote thingy :P

so pull of your mask ;)

Adding a sub to your studio to reference frequency is a valid point & approach to real world mixing. There's energy in the lows that affects the entire mix & vibe. Just 'cutting out all below a certain frequency' is a bit like saying 'I'll fix it in the master.' 

carl


Adding a sub to your studio to reference frequency is a valid point & approach to real world mixing. There's energy in the lows that affects the entire mix & vibe. Just 'cutting out all below a certain frequency' is a bit like saying 'I'll fix it in the master.' 

Is that a bit like saying that we should actually hear the unwanted rumble and noise before we make it un-hearable?






I usually put a shirt on before I get a sunburn... I don't have to experience another sunburn to know about how useful a shirt is. I think of the shirt as a low pass filter.

Somehow, it seems like these thought processes can be related.



best regards,
mike

A sub is a tool. I find it very valuable, but then I did take time to set mine up properly.

I will read through all this, but I have always avoided a sub-woofer out of fear it would skew my perception of the recording; that is, accentuate the bass too much (unless I brought a specialist in to tune the room, adjust the crossovers, run test tones, etc.), or cause me to hear things in a way most consumers would not hear them.

"a sub woofer is a tool"


Yes, I enjoy my studio sub woofer. I like to make sure that the tone of the kick and any foot stomping sounds musical down in the 20hz range.

I don't use my sub woofer to remind myself that all the other instruments just make erratic noise in the 5-40hz range.

I like to use my sub to mix so that it sounds good on other systems that have authoritative bass response. Sometimes I get to listen to playback on a JBL or Meyer Sound line array out in a field. That's a good way to check the low end. :-)

I don't use the subwoofer too figure out what my car stereo sounds like.


I have an anecdote about car stereo to share. One of our cars has a subwoofer... and it is factory OEM. It is squishy sounding and makes a mellow oomph sound when you push it with gusto. Another car we have is made at the same factory and it doesn't have a sub woofer. It has a rich, deep, clean, and powerful bass response with the OEM speakers. By comparison that so called subwoofer in our particular car isn't a benefit and it doesn't sound good with anybodies mix. I don't spend a lot of time mixing for systems that make everything sound squishy... why bother.

all the best,
mike

I get enough of a subwoofer effect from my Klipsch II's thankeeverymuch. In this house anything louder and we would be having the entire house as a subwoofer...