I've been getting back into audio the past 6 months or so and have been upgrading my previous gear which consisted of the Pioneer Andrew Jones 5.1 speaker system and a Sony STR-DN1050 receiver. I upgraded to a 4.1 system that consists of Klipsch Reference Premiere speakers (RP-6000f towers, the 6 inch version of the 8000f that was well reviewed here at Audioholics) and an SVS SB-1000 sub. The receiver is the same.
The reason I've been getting back into audio is because of music. I wanted better stereo performance than I was getting from my HT receiver, so I bought an Emotiva BasX A-300 (150 watts into 8 ohms). The amp was a big improvement for stereo listening, especially in the bass regions (more control). Then I watched the Audioholics YouTube video about room correction, and with all the time we have on our hands with the lockdowns, I decided to try music again through my HT receiver, only this time with the towers set to "small" and crossed over at 80 Hz. The sound was incredible! More weight and depth in the bass, more clear in the treble, and much more dynamic! It's not the same when I use the speaker level connections on the subwoofer and the stereo amp. The bass is louder, but it's not as clean. It makes everything sound more muddy.
I want to integrate my subwoofer into my stereo setup with the Emotiva amp. From what I can tell, the best way to do this would be to buy a miniDSP 2x4 HD and set the crossovers for the subwoofer and the speakers. I might as well do some room correction while I'm there (which is a rabbit hole I'm quickly falling into).
Is there another/better way to accomplish this? Why does bass management of my towers (that are rated down to 35 Hz) with a sub sound better than a dedicated stereo amp (with or without the sub)? Am I just hearing things, or will we not really know until I get some measuring equipment? Thanks!