The Listening Distance and whether to Use a Subwoofer or Not

The monitor selection process is based on few fundamental requirements. The first one is about the listening distance and the second concerns is a subwoofer being used or not.

Determining the listening distance

A larger listening distance requires a larger maximum sound output capacity in the monitoring product. A larger listening distance also requires a better directivity control so that the acoustic influence of the room remains low. Genelec publishes a selection guide in its Monitor Setup Guide to enable this evaluation.

https://www.genelec.com/monitor-setup

With or Without a Subwoofer?

If a subwoofer is not used, the low frequency cut-off and the room acoustic influences the monitors and determines how low frequencies are reproduced. Monitors usually work the hardest close to the low corner frequency, so the maximum sound level will also affect the choice. If a subwoofer is used, the subwoofer extends the low frequency cut-off and takes on the workload at low frequencies, so the monitors only have to work down to the crossover frequency of the monitor-subwoofer system.