Speaking of subs...a bit of an alternate take.
I just decided to sell mine.
I know there is the mantra that every speaker, be it a stand mount or floor standing model, benefits from subwoofers. I'm not saying I disagree with that in principle, so long as one goes to enough trouble to get things just right. But there are various factors at play in terms of personality, ergonomics, aesthetics, and how much one is willing to put in to the project.
Personally, I did not find that my speakers (Thiel 2.7 floor standers) benefited enough from subs for me to keep my subs.
Having been lured to the promise of subwoofers by the mantra "every speaker will sound better" quite a while back I bought 2 JL Audio 110E subs, an excellent JL Audio CR-1 crossover and a Dspeaker Anti-mode for some room correction. Did I go as far in my efforts and trials as many other subwoofer-heads have gone? Hell no. I've seen the endless subwoofer threads in many forums, especially AVSforum, and it continues to astound me just how much time and effort some of these guys have put in to subwoofers. I mean, even when not DIYing their own giant subs, it can be months and months of fiddling and "almost there..."
I didn't go perfectionist-route. But I did my subcrawls, my dual sub placement, I used a great crossover, had DSP for bass nodes. And frankly no matter where I crossed the subs over I never had any "aha" moment where it just obviously sounded better. The CR-1 crossover has an audition button that, once you've dialed in the subs, you can press and it takes them out and plays your speakers full range.
So I had a long time to play with that, constantly comparing subs vs without, at various crossover points etc. The first thing is: they were great subs, and the CR-1 was a superb crossover device, making dialing in a subwoofer probably as easy as possible. And I got the subs dialed in surprisingly well integrated. I was very impressed.
However: Playing orchestral spectaculars I listened for "less strain" from the speakers (crossed over between 60 - 80 Hz). Nope. Deeper soundstage and better imaging? Eh...not really.
More even bass? Well...yes...occasionally, here and there. Addition of deeper bass? Again...it was amazingly rare to hear any contribution in that regard. Punchier and more realistic? No: actually I found my speakers sounded punchier and more realistic without the subwoofers. E.g. kick drums had that "punch the air towards me" force that became muted with the subs on.
Overall I found that the subs didn't add much to the presentation, and ended up subtly altering the tonality of the system in a way I didn't like.
Maybe it was the psycho-acoustical effect of adding some lower bass, but it sounded a bit less "airy, real and alive" in the upper midrange to the highs, less like live music to me. In fact even when I auditioned one of my favorite beautifully recorded soundtracks (Jason And The Argonauts) where there is a passage employing just giant tympani drums doing a foot-step beat, they sounded just as "big" and deep on the Thiels without the subs, but also seemed to have more punch and aliveness in the drum hits, and the tone seemed more realistic. I could more easily feel like I was hearing live tympani drums in real space.
So...I've yanked it all out of my system and feel this big sense of relief. A real Marie Kondo moment of de-cluttering.
Two subs cure CAN be a bigger hassle than one sub, depending on the room you have to work with. It meant yet more electrical cords, extension cords, more cable runs, more dials to fiddle, more sub placement etc. Frankly I didn't find the second sub helped much vs a single sub (I started out with a single sub).
I could understand someone hearing my set up and preferring with the subs in the system. Depends on what criteria an individual is attendant to and cares about in the sound.
And the one thing sure to be going through the mind of every subwoofer-fan reading this is "Well, clearly you just didn't get the subs dialed in perfectly!" Which, if true, is part of the point. If you are damned picky, as I am and many people are, it's a real rabbit hole of complexity to go down, and I went as far as I was willing to go. After that...too much hassle, too much additional tech and complexity. Not to mention I find subwoofers a true eye-sore and I'm very glad to see them leave my room.
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