35hz capable tower speakers vs. 40hz capable subwoofer

[Johk]

Originally Posted by Beaner666

I know the common feeling on this board is that running a full 5.1 system with a powered subwoofer is better than running a 5.0 system with full range tower speaker’s but here’s my predicament:

My current system (listed below in my signature) isn’t the best and my subwoofer (Polk PSW10) is only rated down to 40 Hz and I have had problems with it bottoming out. I have some old JBL tower speakers (TLX171) that I dug out of storage and they are rated down to 35 Hz.

I realize the JBL towers aren’t technically full range, but since they can handle deeper bass than the Polk sub would I be better off integrating the tower speakers into my system and running them at full range?

The TLX171 are 35Hz-25kHz (-6dB), the PSW10 is 35Hz-200Hz with 40Hz at -3 dB.

At 35 Hz, both are probably at around -6 dB (which means that at 35 Hz the volume is 4 times lower than the normal level).

I would say you're better off sticking with the sub (until you can upgrade it ) since the sub will still handle the lower frequencies better and with the speakers only.