[gsmollin]

Wide range speakers all have two, three or more speakers in them, so we are always listening to multiple drivers. A subwoofer adds one or two more, and further complicates the phasing between drivers at the crossovers. Whether this helps or hurts high fidelity sound reproduction depends upon the skill of the system integrator to add the components together.

I have a sub on my HT system, and none on my hi-fi system. I still think the hi-fi system sounds better for music than the HT system, but the HT system sounds reasonably good playing music, and the sub is a reasonable addition to that. I can add that on most symphonic music the subwoofer is not used. It's VU meter is off. Pipe organ music wakes it up, for sure, and I do enjoy the extra punch. Techno and hard rock of course gives the sub a workout, but that music is not critical to listen to.