Don't hate me but your "more extended, cleaner bass" doesn't come from the proper direction. Not only are you compromising the line level signal by adding processing, your now completely changing the simple, full range, four corners template originally intended for quad setups.
Instruments, intended for a speaker in one corner, are now being cut. So part of the instrument is coming from one direction (lets say a bass drum from a left rear speaker) and part of it is now coming from your sub (in the front?). This makes a huge difference. Any instrument cut in half and one portion sent from one side of the room, and another portion of the same instrument sent to another side of the room (a completely different direction) is a compromise. Your "more extended, cleaner bass" is now changed to something completely different.
The simple four corners method has now turned into something originally intended movies. Heavy, large full range monitors have been phased out for the easy to carry speakers and a sub. Easier to ship, easier to sell. The literature will tell you bass is not directional. All instruments are directional.
Hey I would never hate you. Its just a conversation. We can agree to disagree.
I do want to clarify a few things though.
I don't run a quad setup. I run 5 channels. Like it or not, that's the format modern music is released as. I agree that a wonderful surround experience can be had with 4 channels, and there are many QQ members that prefer it, as you seem to.
We have different ideas regarding how a subwoofer works and how low frequencies are distributed in a room.
I use 5 identical small monitors with 6" woofers. They start to roll off at about 60 Hz or so. They cross over to a sub at 50 Hz (I've tried several crossover points and this one seems to work best for me.). I do this with an active crossover in the analog domain. I do not use any additional DSP at all. My disk player is also set to pass the full signal with no digital bass management, just like yours. I do tell it there is a sub for the LFE channel however. The electronic crossover is connected between the pre/pro and the power amp. The inputs are the 5 analog channels plus the LFE channel. The crossover provides a high pass for the five channels and routes the low bass (below 50 hz) plus the LFE information to the sub. All the levels are adjustable. This is no different than what a passive crossover inside a full range speaker does, in fact, the electronic crossover does a better job of it than the passive crossover networks in most loudspeakers do because it doesn't produce the phase shift common with passive devices. One reason I like this setup so much is it allows me to play full range vinyl with no digital processing at all. Without the analog crossover, the vinyl low end would either be lost due to the roll off of the monitors or I'd have to digitize the vinyl analog signal to be able to route the low bass to the sub. To be honest though, true low bass on vinyl records is pretty few and far between.
How do you set your disc player when it comes to handling the LFE channel? If you tell it there is a sub connected, the LFE information isn't produced at all because there really is no sub connected. If you tell it there is no sub in the system it
digitally combines the LFE channel into the signal going to the 4 main channels. That
is a use of DSP, which you seem to dislike so much.
With respect to direction, lets go back to that bass drum example of yours. A bass drum has a fundamental frequency of about 50 hz or so. The upper harmonics stretch to over 150 Hz, and the low end stretches to below audibility. The fact is, its difficult to hear any signal lower than 50 hz because you feel it more than you truly hear it. You hear the upper harmonics, but you feel the lower ones. Because of that, those low frequencies do really seem directionless as long as the crossover to the sub is set reasonably low. I've tried crossover frequencies as high as 100Hz without noticing a direction issue, but it does bloat the mid-bass when set that high. My sub is in the front of the room but off to one side and pointing in a completely different direction than the main speakers. Its that way for a reason. It minimizes the standing waves that are produced if it were oriented to fire forward and it allows it to provide truly low bass. I have measured a -3 dB point of 18 Hz. That's tough to achieve in all but the largest of full range loudspeakers. I never notice any conflicting directional information... not in the least. There is no compromise, there is no "huge" difference. I seldom even realize the sub is there until something with true low bass gets played. The biggest problem I have is how it can excite other objects in the room at high volume. Again the freedom of placement that the sub provides helps quite a bit in that regard. And it allows me to locate the smallish monitors for optimized imaging without worrying about what kind of problem that bass driver (which is usually only a few inches off the floor in a large floorstander) is going to cause.
What I do miss by not having large floor standers is the lack of a height dimension. I used to own large Magneplanars which produced a truly good, really large image that produced a good sense of height.
The bottom line here is that there is more than one path to a superior sounding system. There is no right way. If what you are doing works for you in your room that's all that matters. And smaller monitors plus a sub work very well in mine.
Now what was it we were talking about? Oh yeah.... that Pepper release...