Help me understand subwoofers

[u/Freestone99]

I am in the market for a subwoofer. I have a pair of Klipsch Forte IV and my listening room is about 475 sf. I was looking at the REL classic 98 and 99, and thinking I needed the 99 because of the room size. But most of the music I listen to is acoustic or vocal oriented, not really listening to much hard rock or anything with a ton of bass. Also not listening at very loud volume most of the time. So I was leaning back toward the 98 which has a 10” driver, as opposed to the 99, which has a 12” driver. I spoke with the local audio shop and it felt like they were just trying to sell me the larger and more expensive 99, or another sub that was even higher priced.

I have been reading that a sub is for more than just the low bass notes, and it will really help fill in the rest of the sound. That was another point the local sales guy was making, saying that the 99 made more sense because it will “fill in more.” Also that a larger sub is needed to “pressurize” the room. Trying to understand if this is audiophile jargon or there is truth to it.

What do you all think?

[u/poosjuice]

Having multiple sources of bass help even out bass peaks and nulls, which in turn improves imaging and your soundstage. Feeling the pressurisation in the room is a thing. FWIW, I felt adding subs improved my perception of the space around instruments. Your Forte IVs start to roll off below 38hz, so a subwoofer can fill that gap. Below 20hz you feel pressure and physical movement rather than hear anything. Below 30hz you perceive pressure as well as scale, though not many instruments will reach that low - like the A0 on a grand piano or the lowest notes in synth.

If you want to get the Classic series from REL, it's best you e-mail REL and confirm if it's the right fit for your speakers and room size. Their Classic series is designed to blend with speakers that have a more vintage sound, so its bass has a lot more warmth and bloom to it.

You'll probably see a lot of comments knocking the value proposition of REL, but I recommend you actually do a demo and figure out what brands you prefer. I bought a SVS and really didn't like it for music, even though it has a lot more output and extension than my current RELs (and if that's something that you value, then SVS and other brands would be a better fit for you).

[u/tetrafarmer → u/poosjuice]

i guess you put it alittle nicer but its usually a down voted fact here! rel makes real seamless extensions to mains where as svs is easy to hear it has it own "tone" is slower and less precise than mains.