Bookshlef speakers Vs. subwoofer?

Question

Has anybody used decent bookshlef speakers or even small floor speakers to bypass using a subwoofer?Reason i ask i am in an apartment and am trying to be kind untill i move but yet want some bass.

My reciever is a yamaha RX-V663

surround spearkers:klipsch quintet

the bookshelf spkrs would be used as my front L&R and the klipschs for the rest of my 7.1surround home theater

My area is 18X25

Answer 1

I have the Klipsch Quintets and a Klipsch SW-12 powered subwoofer. The sub has a variable output control on it that allows you to turn it all the way down, if you want. It also has a cutoff frequency control from 60 Hz to 140 Hz. You could get one of those (about $200 used on eBay - that's where I got mine), and just adjust it down in volume and up in cutoff frequency, so you don't boom out your neighbors.

BTW - I have another system in my den with a Klipsch RW-8 subwoofer and Klipsch kg 0.5s on just a stereo receiver. The 0.5s don't put out much bass - but, it's a little more than the Quintets. I got them used on eBay for $80 a few years ago. And, I think you're going to have to spend a couple hundred dollars at least for decent bookshelf speakers that give you the bass you want, especially if you stay with Klipsch. So, you might want to just go ahead and get a Klipsch subwoofer that you can control, since you indicate that you want to get one eventually, anyway.

Answer 2

No regular speaker will give you the bass you want (unless it has a built in sub, of course). Cerwin Vega makes a boomy speaker but it won't really do what you are asking. You either have to get a sub or forgo it for now. Most decent subs have a volume control so you could turn it down some.

Answer 3

If you have a tower speaker called a "3-way" speaker, it has 3 separate cones to make sounds.  These are called the Tweeter, the mid-range, and the woofer.

You need all 3 to get all the sounds from 20 hz to 22,000 hz.  Each driver takes a piece.

Bookshelf speakers dont have woofers.  They do not produce sounds below about 120 hz.  You must have a external subwoofer to create these sounds or you miss out on parts of the soundtrack.

But you can still enjoy a movie, but you wont have that bang.

An external sub allows you to turn off the bass for late night viewing. I often turn mine off when my daughters & friends are over sunday nights for movies and I go to bed.