Lol give me a break, 500 bpm sounds like a blur, and no, the subwoofer doesn't make a difference there. That is definitely not workout music. You can't go much past 200 bpm at 4/4s without music sounding starting to sound like gibberish. And with music you will want more than just a small sealed sub unless you only listen to smooth jazz. My subs get more of a workout with music than they ever do with movies. Thermal compression will affect music playback more than movie playback anyway, so you still want a beefy sub.
I obviously don't listen to 500bpm music while working out {and play some of that stuff, it makes a difference, not every beat is a bass beat, and big slow subs are what makes it sound like a blur, get the rite sub, no more blur, obviously 500bpm is extreme} but I will throw on some fast club/tekno and I you can have all the "breaks" you want when playing songs with a lot of punchy fast bass beats, the sub makes a huge difference, I have listened to A LOT of subs, and have a dozen of them set up in systems {and another 5 or 6 in storage} so I have compared them, I demo'd the sb12, sb1000, and sb13 ultra all together and abc d'ed them with the uls15 {and my wd300's}, they all made different sound, they all had strong points and soft points but when compared to my vtf2's and pb12+ they were more "musical"..
And Shady, Im not saying a small 8" sub, I have dual 12's in all 3 of my 2.2 systems {wharfedale jade 5's with wd300's, evo2-40's with wd300s', and the sb12 nsd's with csb1's} and in all 3 of them systems the subs can over power the mains with ease the jades and the csb1's have 2-200w monos per set, and the evo-40s have an xpa2 powering the mains and with out a doubt I can turn the subs well past the mains....
As far as a "workout" for music vs HT, I don't see that at all, my vtf2's smash along throughout a a 2 hour movie {depending on the material obviously} and when they do, they shake the house, my music systems play loud but its different, no long 40 second rumbles with the limit light flashing away, just smooth punch notes....
So I have to disagree, I want more power for HT than music, I want more clarity for music than movies, but we all have our preferences, Im not here to argue my point, Im just trying to state it, its my opinion and its great if you have a different one, but I have listened to MANY subs {as most of you know its a hobby of mine to go around listening to systems {actually going to a wedding in NJ this weekend and mapped out a couple high end shoppes I want to check out on the way}... But don't twist what I said to sound like I am recomending a 60w 8" sub for music, I have dual 400watts paired with a set of bookshelfs. I have heard HT systems with dual 1300w subs that used almost all of that power without taking apart the rest of the material, where if you pushed 2600 watts of bass with a set of stereo speakers {depending on eff.} you would need to have stadium speakers to keep up.... I like my music a little hot on the sub side but not past unnatural .... and 500bpm isn't a blur, I like all kinds of music {except country/rap mixes, that makes me want to punch a baby} heres some vids, I like this one
World Record: World's Fastest Guitar Player (600 BPM) - YouTube while this is not my "cup of tea" people listen to it, I have a friend with a club that blasts this stuff until 2 am and his doors and bars pull 6 figures a weekend, so someone likes it
Deterrent Man - Insomnia Speedcore (500BPM) - YouTube this is what I listen to when doing serious cardio
Daft Punk - Robot Rock - YouTube