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Back to speakers…
Yes, and?
As previously discussed by @NTK, the volume displacement of 3 8" woofers is likely not going to equal the volume displacement (I.e. what actually matters; we don't care about swept area except in that larger swept area requires less excursion for a given volume displacement) of a good 12" woofer. However, Salon2 use large vented cabinets so they have more headroom above their port tuning than a closed box using the same drivers. BUT, placement is also an issue - and subwoofers are more likely to be placed to take advantage of boundary loading. So balancing all factors it's reasonable to assume in room a good 12" closed box sub individually will provide slightly greater mean output than a single Revel Salon2 above Salon2's tuning, and much greater output below. If you use 4 subwoofers, as Dr. Toole does with his Salon2, that's an additional headroom boost.
Though to add another layer, Sound Field Management subwoofer calibration sacrifices headroom for bass linearity and consistency throughout the room, so in that particular case the delta in headroom with and without subs may not actually be that high. Bass quality at all volume settings over all seats should improve (dramatically in some spots, subtly in others) from well integrated multisubs. For certain movies, there may also be more significant headroom benefits given the ability of closed boxes to pressurize the room below their nominal cutoff.
So really I think there are two questions here:
First, how much bass output do you need? Personally I think it's hard to argue that for most musical program Salon2 should have adequate volume displacement in most if not all rooms, and can be made to sound very good in one seat with judicious placement and EQ of peaks. In that sense, subs are not necessary.
Second, how large of an area with good bass with good bass you want? If the answer is more than "1 prime listening seat" then distributed subwoofers are of huge benefit almost regardless of output capabilities.
Yes, and?
As previously discussed by @NTK, the volume displacement of 3 8" woofers is likely not going to equal the volume displacement (I.e. what actually matters; we don't care about swept area except in that larger swept area requires less excursion for a given volume displacement) of a good 12" woofer. However, Salon2 use large vented cabinets so they have more headroom above their port tuning than a closed box using the same drivers. BUT, placement is also an issue - and subwoofers are more likely to be placed to take advantage of boundary loading. So balancing all factors it's reasonable to assume in room a good 12" closed box sub individually will provide slightly greater mean output than a single Revel Salon2 above Salon2's tuning, and much greater output below. If you use 4 subwoofers, as Dr. Toole does with his Salon2, that's an additional headroom boost.
Though to add another layer, Sound Field Management subwoofer calibration sacrifices headroom for bass linearity and consistency throughout the room, so in that particular case the delta in headroom with and without subs may not actually be that high. Bass quality at all volume settings over all seats should improve (dramatically in some spots, subtly in others) from well integrated multisubs. For certain movies, there may also be more significant headroom benefits given the ability of closed boxes to pressurize the room below their nominal cutoff.
So really I think there are two questions here:
First, how much bass output do you need? Personally I think it's hard to argue that for most musical program Salon2 should have adequate volume displacement in most if not all rooms, and can be made to sound very good in one seat with judicious placement and EQ of peaks. In that sense, subs are not necessary.
Second, how large of an area with good bass with good bass you want? If the answer is more than "1 prime listening seat" then distributed subwoofers are of huge benefit almost regardless of output capabilities.
