I suspect that my sub puts out sound that is in some ways not up to the standards set by my Axiom floorstanders.
......no surprize really since my sub box was originally manufactured in 1946 of some of the highest quality 3/8" plywood then available.
The box has sentimental value, which is unfortunately beginning to pale next to the obvious improvement in sound quality I should gain by moving my new driver into a "Real" sub cabinet!
But yeah, even if I had a top notch sub, I can't help but notice that I can, in fact, hear some sonic information below 80hz, and since I'd like to have my center match my mains, and my surrounds match the rest, then I'd also like to have the low tones match the higher. So the lower I can get with my Axioms, the better off I feel I should be with cohesive tonal qualities.
I have an odd system: I use Axiom bookshelf speakers for center and surrounds that are capable of getting down to 60hz pretty much right along with my floorstanding mains. So crossing at 60 is easy.
.......but yeah, I gotta do some sneaky EQin' too....
There are two things that I like about crossing at 60: The first is loosing the little bit of voice component that sometimes used to sneak into my sub when I previously crossed at 80.
The second I noticed when I removed my old "rated 80 and above" center channel speaker and replaced it with one happy to 60; I noticed more stuff that I hadn't heard before in some of the more familiar DVDs. The same in the surrounds when I placed new lower frequency rated bookshelves out back, much more presence back there, as well as with the bigger center up front.
My system is not for everybody, however; there are serious trade-offs: First of all there are the direct radiating surrounds.
....I'm stuck with 'em for movies as well as music. Not everybody can swallow those constraints.
And my center is a vertical and inverted bookshelf speaker.
...not exactly the most favored design concept, but not exactly without some supporters as well.
Bottom line: Although I'm now extreemly happy with my current sub integration(less the times when the driver overpowers the cabinet during a few scenes of "War of the Worlds"!!)And while the sub is pretty well invisible("Is the sub turned on?"...Ka-Boom!!!..."oh,..yeah it is!")I still prefer to hear my mains produce the sounds down through the range I'm capable of hearing, and let the sub add the augmentation and not set the tone.
It's just us.
