get the sub, get the sub!!!!
I'm still all geaky after my 1st run with one in the home. Definitely look to augment the lower bass in your room, regardless if its for HT or music...mine does double duty.
If you have hardwood floors, get the Aurelex SubDude, its also called the Gamma Pad. Probably the best tweak for subs on hard floors, and one of the few products around for $50 that will last your lifetime. It alone can make a boomy sub into a musical one, if installed on wood floors. It also clears up ANY neighbor below issues if they are present.
I've been listening to a Hsu STF-1 sub, it does OK. My recomendation is to buy the largest sub you can, large meaning the diam. of the driver. The 8" sub i bought is just not big enough.
With a sub, you can actually turn your main speakers down...this helps a LOT with neighbor issues as well. For some reason, adding deep, low bass makes your head hear the mid and hi frequencies more clearly. Taking from my car audio days, "adding a sub acts like doubling the wattage to your main speakers" this is no joke. late night listening is SO much cooler w/a sub.
Last, i'm the prop mgr of a bldg with 605 apts (with very thin walls) in it...i'm constantly counseling folks here on ways to rock out w/o bothering the neighbors. Also, i live in a condo (or apt) and deal with this personally day in & day out.
Re: your 'phantom' channel...do not ruin this by getting a center channel. Tweak your current set-up so that the center channel you now have widens to be the width between your speakers. Each time someone comes over who has never heard my set-up typically exclaims 1 of 2 comments: How on earth do LP's sound like that, and 'where is your center channel". Truth is, when your amp & speaks work properly (and your room is acoustically treated) the center channel widens to 8' - 10'...not a foot or 2 as you now have. Just an FYI. your center phantom channel is just the start of something really, really cool.
matt
