Wayne Parham Messages: 18788 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
Certainly, you can listen to four π mains without subs. They sound great by themselves, especially in smaller rooms. But to be quite honest, adding flanking subs takes them to a whole new level. Not only do you get a better foundation but you get modal smoothing. The flanking sub approach mitigates anomalies caused by early reflections from nearest boundaries as well as higher frequency room modes, especially the one from floor/ceiling. So my suggestion is to build your mains now, listen a while, and then as time permits consider adding a couple flanking subs.