Hi Kukulcan,
The stopping point for speaker buyers is that high-quality bass requires the right acoustics and placement of the subwoofer. These requirements usually go un-heeded or are too fussy for most. They are simply a lot more trouble than smaller mains speakers are. Having said that, with the patience, it is possible and straightforward.
If sound quality really is paramount, start with measuring your room. Add appropriate bass traps until the energy storage in the room has been controlled.
The biggest mistake bass aficionado's do is go for size and power first. Tune the room and you'll be amazed how little subwoofer (if any ) you need.
Once you have tuned the room, then adding a subwoofer is a piece of cake, and you'll have a much better idea how much you need. Alternatively, you can add all the inches or meters of speaker diameter and watts and it will sound like muddy dog poop.
Let me show you what I mean with a graph of my main speakers in my living room at 3' away. I just took it last night as I was examining the best way to integrate a subwoofer.
Please keep in mind, this is in-room, far field response, this is not quasi anechoic! Meaning, these are great measurements from a single speaker with a 7" woofer.
I can only get results this good due to the pair of bass traps from
GIK Acoustics I am using in the corner behind the speaker. Did I mention this was taken with NO subwoofer? The subwoofer was off for this measurement. In fact for music I currently do not use it at all, it only comes on for movies.
After measuring the sub though and using XSim to simulate the effects of adding a subwoofer I decided it was simple and worth trying to integrate the subwoofer by using a mini-DSP. However, this is only simple and easy and a luxury because of the bass traps.
The before results were terrible, and I had so much energy storage in the room my test tools couldn't measure it.
So, to summarize. Measure your room first. Apply appropriate treatment then re-visit the entire subwoofer question.
Usually what happens here though is people thuroughly ignore me, spend weeks with cabinets and drivers and crossovers and build something they are never quite happy with. Good luck with either of the paths you choose to take!
Best,
Erik