I had a very educational conversation with Bill Duddleson, the 
founder of Legacy Audio yesterday about subwoofers, and more especially 
matching subs to your system and your room.
        I have had a most difficult time with directionality of my speakers 
and with bass/sub bass as my listening room only has one side wall. So I get 
clobbered with reflections and reinforcement from one wall and none from the 
other side. You would expect such a situation to just be louder from one side 
and/or something that could be corrected with a balance control. Not so.
        But more to the point. Mr. Duddleson advised me to think of my 
listening area as a balloon. Just like you cannot blow up one side of a 
balloon, I cannot pressurize one side of my listening area. Subs, and all our 
speakers for that matter do just that. They pump up/pressurize the room we 
are listening in. Bass, being omnidirectional, is a major player in this 
pressurization. That is why a sub for a vehicle requires so much less driver 
surface area and amp power than does a home unit. That is also why several 
smaller (10" and 12") drivers moving a shorter distance, pressurize and 
control the bass better than say one large (18") driver would moving great 
distances (long excursion).
        He also advised that no matter how hard you try, some subs and 
drivers were not intended to and cannot be matched well to some main 
speakers, simply because of their lack of capabilities, like freq range, 
speed/excursion or lack of actual surface area in comparison to your 
listening room.
        I remember one set of small tower speakers I auditioned a couple 
years ago in a small demo room of a local dealer. They sounded magnificient 
there. At home they were awful! No matter what I did or where I placed them 
they just didn't have the sound like they did in the showroom. Finally, I 
understand why.
--- Maximus/2 3.01
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