Will I need a sub???

[DolfoMan]

Hopefully this title grabs peoples attention.

I'll be picking up a pair of Kali LP-8s this weekend and they have a frequency response down to 37Hz. Human hearing can only go down to 20Hz (if you still got that left), and a lot of subs don't get a whole lot lower than 30hz. I've only seen a few affordable ones that advertise 20Hz. I do want to get into more cinematic/trailer/score work so the question is would I really ever need a sub for that little of range left?

[AlanHall]

Depends on your space. If it's not an audiophile room, then my - admittedly amateur - opinion is that a sub could make things worse for you as you struggle to get a good balance in the lower freqs.

I have a set of JBLs: the 306 pair and the 310 sub. If I had known just how well the 306s extended into the low range, I'd have saved myself a few $100 and gone without the sub. But that's me and my room. I'd think your 8" speakers will be even better for LF repro.

If you can, hold off on the sub and buy just the LR pair to hear how they sound in your space. Do you have any room correction software for your DAW? That's something else to consider if you want accurate results from a speaker setup that includes a sub. I set up my system without room correction, balanced the way it sounded 'good' to me. Yeah, 'good' is not always accurate! I had the sub really cranked compared to the way it needed to be after using room correction, so my mixes sounded GREAT in my studio, but had very weak bass anywhere else. Not using a sub at all would have helped me avoid that pitfall. Lesson learned.

[cosmicdolphin]

Don't get the sub, use the money towards room treatment and room correction ( take a look at the new Arc Studio for example ) or a pair of Slate VSX if you want to know what the sub is really doing

[DolfoMan]

thanks to you both, I don't have great room treatment at the moment but im actually gonna move my set up to a different room in the house soon so im waiting until then to handle that. I do have sonorworks to do room correction.

[BradleyHagen]

I agree with the others.... I have a sub, but have a pretty well treated room, and have been doing this for a long time.... If you do not? It is just going to screw you up every single time. Get the VSX or ARC thingey if you need help figuring out where your lower frequencies sit, and save yourself the headaches. Plus, it you DO go with a sub? Make sure you get a really REALLY good pad for it, like the Primacoustic, otherwise you are really going to have issues in your room...my two cents

[DolfoMan]

Thanks, I'll stick to the new (to me) Lp-8's and my sonorworks room correction. I won't say I'll never get a sub but it definitely seems like its way way down on the priority list, especially with the frequency response these Kali monitors have.