I don't know if my opinion is a 'valid' opinion, but here goes.

I used to use almost exactly the setup you describe: KRK 6" monitors and a KRK 10" subwoofer, all in an untreated small bedroom. Yes, the subwoofer helped me mix, absolutely. I have since gone to Mackie monitors and an Adam sub, but the conditions are similar.

By this I am not saying you cannot mix correctly without one, but I do think it helps greatly. Without a sub, you need to test mixes on more systems to hear what sort of info is going on in the lowest range. Mixes done on headphones or on monitors without a sub often can have too much bass.

My subwoofer was always set to reproduce only the lowest frequencies it could, and set at a rather low volume. I just wanted a presence, basically to know if there was low frequency sound or not.

One neat thing: the sub does not have to be in the middle. It should be if you can, but as bass is mostly non-directional, you can put one off to one side without a problem, as I had to do in my small room. More important is that the sub is roughly the same distance from you as the other monitors.

As an aside, after maybe seven years, the KRK sub developed a bad capacitor and started spitting out thunder-like noise at random. I made good use of this fact at Halloween last year, cranking up the slightly defective subwoofer in the closed garage. It really sounded like thunder in there! Good addition to the ambiance.


BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors