[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Bravo, Naut!

I’ve often felt that this topic needed more than one man’s perspective, but so far no one has ever got back to me with specifics on their experiences. It would be nice if others would weigh in with details on their experiences, too.

I’ve made a couple of other observations myself since I wrote that article.

For one, I’ve switched from floor-standing mains that had 8” woofers and 10” passive radiators, with good extension down to 30 Hz, to bookshelf speakers with 6-1/2” woofs. I’ve found with these that I like a flatter house curve – there’s only 1-dB differential between 30 and 90 Hz. I can’t help but wonder if it’s because the sub is making up for what the tiny-woofer mains are lacking. Of course, the size of my listening space has increased by 50% (9200 cu. ft now), but I don’t see how that could fully account for a slope change from 7 to 1 dB!

I notice that both you guys have speakers with good bass extension, so that may account for your preference for a curve that starts lower. Maybe someday if you’re bored you could so some experiment using your surround speakers as mains.

Second, since I did the subwoofer review, I’ve been theorizing that you get better bass detail when response droops below 25 Hz. Of course, you first have to have some demo material that generates some detail – there are a couple of recommendations in the sub review that I use. Naught, you didn’t mention if your satisfaction with the 20 Hz shelving was as pleasing for music as it is for movies, so I’m still wondering about this one. My subs start dropping naturally at 25 Hz, so I can’t experiment with it myself.

Regards,
Wayne