So I don’t have a super high-end system by any means. I have JBL L36 speakers. They sound awesome. There is some music that sounds absolutely incredible on them. The Beatles – Abbey Road. Oscar Peterson - We Get Requests, Robag Wruhme - Thora Vukk, Lorde - The Louvre…
There is some of my favourite music however, that sounds completely non-impactful and wimpy on the speakers as well. Depeche Mode - Never Let Me Down Again, and in fact most of their catalogue. Bowie - Berlin trilogy sounds weak but it slams in my car…
I would really love to know if someone has a great system and Depeche Mode/Bowie sound fantastic on it.
Nope.
It still brings in the same issue I was getting at, which boils down to a goal of strict neutrality or not. I mean, sure you might have a loudspeaker that is so small and limited in bandwidth, that in of itself could be why it’s not satisfying with some music.
But most people own speakers that have decent bandwidth.
The thing is you can add a sub, but if you go the ‘tightly reined in for neutrality’ route, in terms of dialing back the sub, then you can end up with the same issue I described, and you may still prefer a less neutral dialing of your bass response.
I have Thiel 2.7 speakers, tower speakers that go down to 35Hz, and I tried adding an elaborate system of subs - two JL audio subs, an expensive JL Audio crossover, room correction for the bass. I ended up with a very linear sound top to bottom. And yet I found it wanting compared to my speakers without the subs, which had a bit more of a upper bass boost and just “Kicked more” with energetic music. I even had my rap-loving son do a blind comparison between subs in, subs switched out, and he preferred the energy of the speakers without the subs.
Now, all of this is ultimately subjective. Plenty of people seek, and fully enjoy totally neutral sound from top to bottom in their system. I’m just pointing out it’s maybe not for everyone, and why some people can find strict neutrality to sometimes be disappointing with genres they love.