Why did I ever buy a Sub?

[chuckears]

I found that adding subs to my Fortes brought a realism to good recordings; by reproducing the room cues of the recording venue (again , with good recordings), I was able to pick out in three dimensions a realism that did not bring the artist(s) to my room, but rather brought me to the artist. I was there, feeling th energy and emotion in a way I never was able to do with the Fortes on their own.

There is a LOT of material in the teens and twenties of the Hz scale that needs to be reproduced, and I think a lot of subs that are mid-bass heavy instead of being true subwoofers actually detract from the realism an audiophile (i know, it's a dirty word to some) is looking for.

[CECAA850]

To me it seems to add a "weight" to the source material and give it a more realistic sound. If you knew what the source was actually supposed to sound like, then listen to the same material on a system without a sub, you'll see what's missing. Just because it sounds good doesn't mean that you're not missing out on something that should be there and isn't.

I've listened to music on my 2 channel rig, then listened to the same song with the mains off. At times there's very little output from the sub, other times there's output that really doesn't sound like much at all. Reverse it and play the mains without the sub and you can really appreciate what's missing. The ammount you're actually missing is speaker dependant of course.

[SWL]

To me it seems to add a "weight" to the source material

Carl,

Do you eq your subs in any way? I've been doing this recently with the DEQ2496's parametric eq (subs only) with very good results. It makes integrating the subs much easier. The only thing I don't like about it is that I didn't do this sooner...like years ago. [:^)]

[SWL]

I thought I immediately detected the forte II's come alive from the low end. Deep bass seems less muddy, etc.

How did you have the sub hooked up into the system? What type of bass management were you using?

[CECAA850]

To me it seems to add a "weight" to the source material

Carl,

Do you eq your subs in any way? I've been doing this recently with the DEQ2496's parametric eq (subs only) with very good results. It makes integrating the subs much easier. The only thing I don't like about it is that I didn't do this sooner...like years ago.

My living foom had a HUGE peak around 50-55Hz. It was cool when you watched a movie with gunshots as that frequency was really hot. It wasn't very good with music though. I used a BFD to knock down the peaks, then ran it through my pre/pro's room correction software.

EDIT, I was referring to my HT. My Lascala/sub combo hasn't been eq'd but sounds really good as it is. Sometimes you get lucky.

[chuckears]

To me it seems to add a "weight" to the source material

Carl,

Do you eq your subs in any way? I've been doing this recently with the DEQ2496's parametric eq (subs only) with very good results. It makes integrating the subs much easier. The only thing I don't like about it is that I didn't do this sooner...like years ago.

My living foom had a HUGE peak around 50-55Hz. It was cool when you watched a movie with gunshots as that frequency was really hot. It wasn't very good with music though. I used a BFD to knock down the peaks, then ran it through my pre/pro's room correction software.

EDIT, I was referring to my HT. My Lascala/sub combo hasn't been eq'd but sounds really good as it is. Sometimes you get lucky.

Your Anthem-QSC stack is ridiculous, and I mean that in a good way... I have the little brother to your D2 (the AVM20), and I love it.

When I was getting the best sound from my Fortes, I had a McCormack DNA-1 Deluxe amp and TLC-1 preamp - no DSP for the main signal, and used a second output from the passive preamp to run through a subwoofer amp set at around 40 Hz. So the Fortes were responsible for everything down to around 40, and had assistance- carefully balanced with test signals, and with minimal processing - from a Hsu 1220HO sub. The result was the nearest I have come to a live sound in the house.

Foolishly, I dumped all of that to go HT, which sounds great for film material, but the extra processing - even with the quality of the Anthem - takes away some of the immediacy from recordings.

Someday, if my financial fortunes improve, I would love to have a separate music-only system, and it would rely on subwoofage to assist with that bottom octave down to which even the best Klipsch has to offer does not quite cover.

[CECAA850]

Thanks. The Anthem gear is really nice IMHO. The TLP-1 is an awesome sounding pre-amp, one of my favorite pieces that I currently have.

[SWL]

So the Fortes were responsible for everything down to around 40, and had assistance- carefully balanced with test signals, and with minimal processing - from a Hsu 1220HO sub. The result was the nearest I have come to a live sound in the house.

[Y][Y]