Howard Ferstler wrote:

Joseph Oberlander wrote:

wrote:

I have heard a lot of sub/satellite systems and some are quite good, I
think, but the mid-to-low bass never seems to be as realistic (the
lowest bass registers are fine) in terms of where the instruments
'appear' to be located. I guess in the Holt vocabulary this is part of
"soundstage". On a lot of material it doesn't matter, but on those
relatively few stereo discs where you had true stereo room recording
and instruments in physical space together, the sub/sat systems present
the material with as much or more detail but without the audible image
in that register.

Correct. This is because the room is large enough to where the
lower frequency sounds coming from the subwoofer are still directional.


Room size should not have an impact on bass directional
clues. You could tell if the sub was quite close to the
listener, but that is only the case if it is either
generating harmonics that would be high enough in frequency
to provide localization clues or if artifacts (knick knacks,
lamps etc.) close to the sub were vibrating in sympathy.

IIRC, the O.P. said he had a huge room, so beyond 30 ft
long, or so, 50-60hz or so is still directional. The systems also
probably had the crossover improperly adjusted(and/or bad
positioning), and were getting the overamped "boomy" effect.