Erik Squires wrote:

People who buy subwoofers purely on spec, or reviews of the subwoofer
are completely screwed. The only simple way to evaluate a subwoofer
for YOU is to put it in your room.(*)

So far, so good.

The reason for this is that subwoofers, more than any other
component, are most subject to the effects of the room they are on.

That seems to be a pretty wild assertion as applying to just subwoofers.. In
fact any speaker is profoundly affected by the room it is in.

75% of the sound of a subwoofer is really the sound of your room and
the placement of the subwoofer in the room.

The 75% number appears to be something that somebody just made up.

Only a small amount of
the quality of the perceived sound with a subwoofer has to do with
the subwoofer itself.

That seems to be a pretty wild assertion as applying to just subwoofers.. In
fact any speaker is profoundly affected by the room it is in.

One of the worst mistakes that consumers make, IMHO, is to look for
the "best" subwoofer they can afford, without knowing how that
subwoofer will work in their room. That is, the "best" subwoofer in
the world, can sound like bird poop hitting a car roof in the wrong
room. An "average" subwoofer, hundreds if not thousands of dollars
less, which matches the room, can evoke the fear of God and the joys
of spiritual and physical ecstasy.

The biggest problem I see with this post relates to the course of action one
is supposed to take once a loudspeaker is brought into the room. This post
does not discuss the fact that the sound from a loudspeaker can be tailored
for a room by means of placement, orientation, changes to room acoustics,
crossovers and equalizers. It seems to suggest that a listener would cycle a
large number of subwoofers through a listening room, installing each one
naively and blindly as possible in just one location with just one
orientation, crossover setting, etc., until the right subwoofer was somehow
found.

Speakers need to be matched to a room, but its not like matching dress shoes
to a purse. It's an interactive process. A wide range of speakers can be
made to sound good in a given room if suitable adjustments are made.