I'm going to be purchasing a pair of used Usher S-520 speakers, but then something popped up in my mind when looking at the specs.

Exactly how much am I missing out by not buying a subwoofer as well?
I just looked up the specs and saw that it had a Frequency response (-3 dB)
of 52 Hz ~ 20 kHz. The remaining 20 Hz - 52Hz band, is it worth spending time to look up for a good subwoofer to produce that range?

Its to be used with a computer for gaming and music mainly (not into movies too much), if that helps. The volume won't be very loud though, as I live with other people and am wary of annoying them with too much noise from the woofer. I prefer clarity over volume at all levels as well.

If you are watching movies you will be missing an extremely large portion of the spectrum. I can't put it into words or percentages, but the difference is literally night and day.

You'll miss more out of gaming from not having one, and I'd say less out of music but both will also be severely lacking in some portion of the audio content. Just as a frame of reference the following chart will show you a list of instruments and which ones play below 52hz:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1069422&highlight=

Either way after adding one recently (August of this year I added my first one, and had not had one for 8 years) the difference was startling. I suppose though it's all a frame of reference. If you never know what you are missing, ignorance is bliss.

-Chad

I was just looking for subwoofer recommendations, it seems like Elemental Design A2 300 is a very good budget woofer out there. Is there any other recommendations on the woofer? Which woofer do you use? Btw that link isn't a chart after reading the entirety of it.

Also what role does the receiver play other than to take the signal from your computer and split it to the various channels with amped up power? I've been reading crazy stuff like crossover blah techno babble, which really confuses me.

Btw that link isn't a chart after reading the entirety of it.

Sorry I linked the wrong item. I Meant to link this:

http://www.independentrecording.net/irn/resources/freqchart/main_display.htm

My apologies! :D

You NEED a sub. Get a good one. You're missing nearly all of the LFE experience in a movie!;) The LFE channel is determined by the cross over frequency. Most people use 80 Hz cross-over. Frequencies greater than or equal to 80 Hz go to your mains/center, while those less than 80 Hz go to the sub woofer.

Most booms and explosions in a movie are in the 20-80 Hz range.

I was just looking for subwoofer recommendations, it seems like Elemental Design A2 300 is a very good budget woofer out there. Is there any other recommendations on the woofer? Which woofer do you use? Btw that link isn't a chart after reading the entirety of it.

I have the Usher s-520s in my bedroom. I only use them for music. While they do perform very good, they do need a sub to get the most out of them. I have a DIY sub with the eD 13v2 driver in it - similar/same to what is used in the A2-300. For me, the sound is excellent - if were not, I'd be swapping components out ASAP!

I would say you're missing a lot.

You can get by if you've NEVER had a subwoofer.

You NEED a sub. Get a good one. You're missing nearly all of the LFE experience in a movie!;) The LFE channel is determined by the cross over frequency. Most people use 80 Hz cross-over. Frequencies greater than or equal to 80 Hz go to your mains/center, while those less than 80 Hz go to the sub woofer.

Most booms and explosions in a movie are in the 20-80 Hz range.

Its to be used with a computer for gaming and music mainly (not into movies too much), if that helps. The volume won't be very loud though, as I live with other people and am wary of annoying them with too much noise from the woofer. I prefer clarity over volume at all levels as well.
He's not watching movies. He's gaming and listening to music... at relatively low levels.

Fred,

My advice is to get the speakers and see how they sound. As you can see from the chart posted by thirdeye11 above, there is not a lot of music below 52 Hz. Even when there is, it's just the fundamental frequency; the harmonics of those notes will be much higher and you'll hear them. You may not "need" a sub for your purposes. (Having said that, I, *personally*, wouldn't want those speakers without a sub, but then my use would be different than yours.)

Craig

You’d missing a great deal and it takes more than single sub to produce equal uniform frequency response over the seating area a great deal more.;)

It takes more than two to tango. stack them up front and place them side by side and run a few frequency sweeps with REW and your aim and goal is to achieve even frequency response as possible.

There will be dips and peaks in the frequency response that is addressed with parametric EQ like Behringer BFQ2496 that is cheap as biscuits. Use it to reduce the peaks if you still have a few gaps in the frequency response or the level of one many frequencies was reduced in the process add a few subs to strength up the sound pressure.

Cone area of the multiple subs will result in smooth range over seating area but might have few dips elsewhere or peaks, it can take days if not months depending on money to save up for another active powered sub bass speaker and they aren’t cheap. Also you’ll need another parametric EQ one for each sub as each sub will be in different space of the room that needs EQ tailoring.