Are Floorstanders' Bass Wasted When Using an SVS? (1 Viewer)

[MikeNagy]

I'm trying to plan out my speaker purchase, but this question perplexes me. It seems to me that the principal difference between floorstanders and quality bookshelves is lower bass at higher volumes. But what if I will be buying a sick subwoofer (SVS) and don't particularly need the bass below what the bookshelves produce? Is there more to bass than just covering all the frequency ranges equally?

Specifically, I was looking at getting a 5.1 setup, with PSB Stratus Mini's (50Hz - 20KHz ±1.5dB on-axis) or PSB Stratus Silveri's (40Hz - 20KHz ±1.5dB on-axis), paired with an SVS 16-46 PCi.

My home theater room is not TOO large, but it opens up to a kitchen, dining room, and rec room respectively on three different sides, making it sound like a fairly big and complex room. (There are no doors between the rooms...only openings in the wall which are about 8' wide).

So, with those options and those room conditions, would I be wasting money if I went with a pair of Silveri's over a second pair of Mini's?

 

[CurtisSC]

Nope...I don't think so. If they are well integrated, everything should work well and sound great together.

The biggest thing would be HT and stuff that gets below 40-50hz. And there is some music that gets that low too...you heard some at my place.

 

[MikeNagy]

Yeah but you have bookshelves and a sub. Theoretically you wouldn't need the greater bass power that floorstanders would produce because your crossover was set to 60Hz, unless the floorstanders put out better bass above 60Hz (better than the bookshelves). That is what I think, anyway, and my post was trying to ask if that method of thinking is wrong.

 

[CurtisSC]

I think I misunderstood your question.

What I'm saying is there is bass below 50-40hz that you should have a sub for.

There will be other differences in tonal qualities between the Silveri and Mini as well. Floorstander vs. bookshelf is more than just the difference in the bass. If you are wondering if the capability of a floorstander's low end may be going to waste because of a subwoofer, I say no. It may even help the integration of the sub.

 

[MikeNagy]

Yeah, I am for sure getting a sub.



That answered my question I obviously to need to read up about bass management sometime soon, as well.

Wait...if you're using the crossover on the pro/receiver, it won't send bass to the mains anyway. But if you just use the sub's crossover and run the mains large, then won't you get issues with two different drivers trying to produce the same notes, like, if your mains are boomier than your sub? Lol I have no idea what I just said.

 

[Edward J M]

The short answer to your question is no.

If you are using an 80 Hz crossover to the sub and all your speaks are set to small, and you have the typical 12 dB/octave high pass filter rate, then you will be amazed at how much bass all your speakers are still "allowed" to play.

There is no question in my mind you need pretty large bass capable speaks all around if you are going to be using an 80 Hz crossover. If you are using smaller bookshelf size units, you are better off going with 100 Hz.

The longer answer is here, and this is IMO the seminal article on subwoofer crossover frequency.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volum...rs-9-2002.html

Regards,

Ed

 

[MikeNagy]

Thanks, Ed, that page looks great! I skimmed it and bookmarked for when I have more reading time.