You may well get away without using a subwoofer at all, even with our bookshelf speakers. If your listening habits are predominantly with music that doesn’t have super low bass recorded, or not at high levels, then you can enjoy the simplicity of just the main pair of speakers. However, if you have a large listening space, like to listen to music very loud or to music that contains lots of low bass or want to use the speakers as part of a home theater setup then a subwoofer would be advantageous.