Hi Mr. Peabody,

If the sub is fast enough and the crossover frequency and db slope is set correctly a sub can add a lot of weight to the J-LO, I mean bottom-end, and oddly enough it can improve soundstaging. But if the sub is slow it will screw things up. The sub has to be fast, and most aren't. The REL is very good. A friend of mine runs Martin Logan Monoliths and was using a Carver Sunfire sub, which just wasn't quite fast enough for the Monoliths which are stats. He got the new sub from Martin Logan and it is very fast - sounds great. Check out the Fathom F113 from JL audio. Got a cracking write-up in the Absolute sound from Robert Harley. Its expensive though, about 3K.

Not more than half an hour ago I just watched in misery as an Audio Research EC-4 (circa 1974) tube electronic crossover went for $400.00. It has a compliment of 6 12AX7s and sounds great. I badly wanted to buy it but I need something else right now so had to excercise restraint.