Well respected audiophile Steve Guttenberg says no. My time is running out to make a Cyber Monday purchase on the SVS SB12-NSD. I've never owned a SW for not sure what I'm missing.

https://www.cnet.com/news/the-case-a...ers-for-music/

NEED? Probably not. But what kind of music do you mostly listen to? What are your mains? How big is the room? Etc. IMO, yes. Music benefits from a sub, BUT with good enough mains, this can be questionable.

Well unless you have a really awesome pair of Full Range speakers maybe not but I would strongly disaggre with this guy.. a Sub is definitely needed ffor music..

I would get one even if it iwas just a 2.1 system without a doubt..

I've got a pair of bookshelf speakers with only 5.25" midrange which I believe only go down to 55hz so it's probably even less than that that I can hear. I was actually thinking of buying a new pair of speakers with a 6.5" midrange that goes to 45hz or so and that might improve the lower end enough to be noticeable. I have spare bedroom as my listening room so only about 11x12.

So what kind of music are you listening to?

I listen to all kinds of stuff...pop, classical, big band, rock, anything except for rap. Right now I'm listening to mostly Christmas music.

Yes. Just get it. If you have the dough, and you’ve never had one, might as well scratch that itch. You’ll never go back...

Well even though speakers can go low but in reality you shouldn't because the strain it puts on the amplifiers in the receiver it is best too have a sub do the lower Hz..

Usually you would want to set your speakers at a crossover of 80hz and set the sub crossover at 120Hz and let the sub play the lower stuff.

Worst case scenario if you dont like the sub you could get a company with a good return policy.. some of the ID sub companies like HSU or SVS proablly still have good return policies..

The only thing that concerns me is I don't want to have to manage the SW all the time. I want the volume to be linear and once you set it I want to forget it and not always be worrying is the sub too loud or not loud enough.

I have no way to manage crossover as the amp is not an AV amp. I only have a pre-out to send signal to a sub and use the crossover on the sub so the amp will still be sending full range signal to the midranges.

First, if you like bass and you even occasionally like to crank it up go for it. Don't worry about it. A well tuned sub will bring out the bass like it should be done.

If it's just one tune or album, they'll be a volume switch on the sub. Just remember where it is and turn it down a bit and then turn it back to the proper setting. Most likely, you'll never do it. Or just keep it slightly lower than recommended.

That should be fine. Just use the XO(LPF) on the subwoofer to blend.

The first question is: What mains do you have?

I think Steve is taking serious drugs on this one. Done right, subs will always add a lot if you tune them right. Once you have them dialed in, you don't need to fiddle with them ever. You only end up with "too much bass" if you don't tune them right. Honestly, I think it is insanity to suggest that a speaker with a 5 1/2" woofer won't benefit from a sub. The difference is massive.

The above said, it is possible for a sub not to sound good with music. I've lived that. My experience is that a sub will always help music, even if you have large mains, if the following are done:

1. Sealed sub is better than ported for music

2. No DSP built into the sub (for pure analog where the left/right mains have no DSP) (I tried forever to get DSP sub EQ to sound good with my 2-channel system, it sounded muddy and imprecise always until I removed DSP and used the basic built-in sub gain and crossover controls)

3. Drive the sub with the speaker level inputs rather than line-level (the sub will act more like an extension of the mains because both the sub and mains are driven by the exact same signal).

There aren't very many mid-priced subs with speaker level inputs. Bic has the F12 with speaker inputs but most under $500 only have line level or LFE input.

Most subs (across a wide range of prices) do have speaker level inputs, unfortunately the SVS sub you mentioned does not. Some have a "pass-through" speakers connections (where you connect the amp speaker outputs to the sub "speaker in" and the speakers to sub "speaker out") and some only have speaker-level inputs (in which case you wire the sub speaker-level inputs in parallel with the mains).