cowanrg

i have heard numerous people in here have questions about sub placement. i feel that it is far too often overlooked. 9 times out of 10, if there is a problem with bass, it could be resolved with different sub placement.

personally, i am trying to decide where best to place my new toy. it's proven quite difficult because of its sheer power. if it goes close to corners, you hear more of my siding and less of my sub. if it goes away from walls, its too close to me, and im always in a null spot, regardless of phase adjustment.

right now, its perfect, but its taking the place where my monoblocs are gonna go. sigh.

so, if anyone is having problems with their sub, maybe you should try just moving it around a bit.

redscare24

Thanks for the help, I'll keep that in mind when I'm testing mine out.

renaldow

Moving the sub around is a good idea. Placement definitely makes a difference, and you might find that seperate placements are good for different types of movies. I usually have my sub to the left and a bit behind my front right speaker, but with an action movie that's going to be heavy on 5.1 effects (like Reign of Fire) it's fun to put it directly behind the couch. Brings you into the movie a bit more, and you get to feel the rumble.

cc13

I usually find the best place for a sub is near a two corner wall. It will increase by 6 db

cowanrg

i wish i had the luxury of moving mine... its 120lb, and just too heavy to move around all that often.

i just messed with the placement a little bit more. my room is unique because i have the ability to walk 30ft from my sub in one direction. its nice to test for null spots and peaks. if you have the ability, you can just walk to see how far the couch needs to be away to get the best sound (or how far the sub needs to be from the couch). it helped me a lot, however, 20ft was my optimum distance, and there is no way i can position it 20ft from my couch.

unfortunately is back against the outside wall, and you can hear my siding rattling from a block away if i have it turned up to just half... (inside im loving it...)

renaldow

A long cable and a $20 hand truck are your friends

Boot

My subwoofer doesn't seem to really hit me with the bass like I feel it should, and I believe it's because of placement in relation to my seating. Unfortunately, I really can't move farther away from me (it's at about 8') because of the layout of my living room.

I'm interested in the above comment about putting it behind the couch. Should I try that? And how would I wire that? (My sw has an RCA-type jack.)

Also, someone told me that the sub should actually be facing the wall. Is this true?

cowanrg

placing your sub facing a wall will give you a boost in bass. however, depending on the room, and the power of your sub, this can be a bad thing. for me it was a disaster. i heard the room more than i did the sub. you can also try moving it away from the wall gradually to stop from booming.

i wish i could move my sub a little bit more, but the sub cable is only 15 feet, and its all black lacquer, so you just gotta pick it up. not to mention it has spikes as feet, you cant slide it. oh well. i found its place for good now.

DVD.guy

Normally it's a good idea to place the sub at YOUR listening location and then going around the room to find the sweet spot.

Boot

I'd like to do that, but my cord won't reach. How can I wire a long cord with an RCA connection?

cowanrg

use any speaker cable (preferably thicker than thinner), and just get some rca ends (from radio shack), or better yet, www.partsexpress.com. just put them on both ends, and you have a sub cable as long as you want!

suggestions:

use coax cable for subs... its heavily shielded, has a solid thick center conductor, and works very well for subs. im using a higher grade audioquest RG6 (coax) cable for my sub with some audioquest ends, and it sounds great.

Boot

Thanks for the advice, cowanrg. I'll pick that stuff up and play around with it.

One more question. How much bass might I lose if I travel a long distance? If I move my sub away from my system, I will probably run the cable up through the attic and back down the wall to the sub. Should I seek an alternate method, or do you think this way will be fine?

DVD_O_Rama

Please, for the love of good sound, do not point your sub toward the wall. You'll succeed in doing absolutely nothing but introducing a gigantic amount of room boom, and contrary to what the guys with the 5 12's in the back of their Civic will tell you, hearing your walls buzz, creak and vibrate from a direct assault of low frequency bass is not what you want to hear.
Then again, maybe you do?
For me, I prefer to hear a soundtrack a it was meant to be, whether it is a film soundrack or a piece of music, without adding unnecessary coloration to the sound.

A properly placed and calibrated sub will NOT overpower your mains, and intergrate seamlessly in with your other speakers reproducing the low freqencies they can't handle, which is the point of a sub, be it passive or powered, as not all soundtracks go BOOM.

So yes, placement is an easy way to discover the best location for your sub(s), and once you have the place that sounds best by EAR, then break out the SPL meter and test tones (I prefer to use tones at 5Hz intervals between 20Hz and 120Hz to get a flat response at the listening position).

Cheers,
Erik

cowanrg

actually, depending on the sub, placing a sub against a wall (hopefully a sound one, like a basement) CAN make it sound better. however, it tends to just boom.

to answer Boot's question, you can run the cable pretty much as long as you want, just try not to go too far over 200 feet...

DVD_O_Rama, every sub works different. some have almost NO cabinet resonance, some have a lot. just being CLOSE to a wall can change the response of a sub. as ive pointed out in EVERY post in this thread, its all different depending on what sub you have.

my sub absolutely disappears with my main speakers, but i still have incredible bass response. its really absurd bass, but its amazing that the sub completely integrates that you dont even know there is a sub.

there is an in-between, regardless of what you think. just because its a lot of bass, doesnt mean its car audio.

DVD_O_Rama

Originally posted by cowanrg
actually, depending on the sub, placing a sub against a wall (hopefully a sound one, like a basement) CAN make it sound better. however, it tends to just boom.

That's my whole point: boomy bass is crap. YMMV.

DVD_O_Rama, every sub works different. some have almost NO cabinet resonance, some have a lot. just being CLOSE to a wall can change the response of a sub. as ive pointed out in EVERY post in this thread, its all different depending on what sub you have.


Cabinet resonance has absolutely nothing to do with the interaction of a standing wave and it's obstacles. Cabinet resonance is just that: vibration in the cabinet, and is usually an example of a poorly designed enclosure, inadequate porting, etc.
Of course, putting a sub near room boundaries will change the bass response, and the more boundaries, you will yield a slight inscrease in output, which is why most people will put a sub in the corner. That being said, if a 20Hz wave is 50 fifty long, and you place it 6 inches from your wall, firing directly into it, where's it (the soundwave) going to go?

I guess if boomy is what you want to hear, go for it.

Cheers,
Erik