Subwoofer placement question

[J. PUPSTER]

Speaker placement in a room carries a lot of weight. Almost more than anything else. The room itself a very close 2nd. (Sometimes dominant in gross cases of reflections and standing waves though.)

You can alter the distance from walls and corners while keeping the proper array angles and orientation between speakers. And then the sub calibration as mentioned. Do any and all of that before touching any eq!

You can spend stupid money on all kinds of things with not much to show for the results. Moving a couple speakers 12" could solve all kinds of issues and make a big impact.

I know this was supposed to be about the sub. Just sayin.

Right toe...

Got my Sub in the front left corner of the room and always felt it's a great place for it.

Last night watched an odd little claymation movie called "Early Man" that had one scene with a faux Mastodon walking that was shaking the room before I even knew what it was (to great effect!)

Also, my front left speaker, at one time was sitting just to the left of a gas fireplace glass door, and I knew something wasn't right because my phantom center was shifted too far left, which by just moving the speaker another 6-12" corrected it back to center. (I blame Mrs. Pupster for moving things around out of her ignorance of the matter!)

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Also, my front left speaker, at one time was sitting just to the left of a gas fireplace glass door, and I knew something wasn't right because my phantom center was shifted too far left, which by just moving the speaker another 6-12" corrected it back to center. (I blame Mrs. Pupster for moving things around out of her ignorance of the matter!)

Is she like my lady who puts Christmas/Halloween decorations and such on top of the speakers?

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Is she like my lady who puts Christmas/Halloween decorations and such on top of the speakers?

ha ha, ohhh worse, she'll try and get away with putting them "In front" of the speakers

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Right toe...

Got my Sub in the front left corner of the room and always felt it's a great place for it.

Last night watched an odd little claymation movie called "Early Man" that had one scene with a faux Mastodon walking that was shaking the room before I even knew what it was (to great effect!)

Also, my front left speaker, at one time was sitting just to the left of a gas fireplace glass door, and I knew something wasn't right because my phantom center was shifted too far left, which by just moving the speaker another 6-12" corrected it back to center. (I blame Mrs. Pupster for moving things around out of her ignorance of the matter!)

RE: Early Man
Haha etc! Another great Nick Park creation. I will definitely watch that. Last month I watched Shaun the Sheep in The Flight Before Christmas. Shaun isn't my favorite but my real complaint is I think it's all CG made to look like claymation. In olden days you could see fingerprints in Wallace & Gromit occasionally.

Anyway since we're all sharing subwoofer stories.... I guess you could say I have 6 in my room. I use Infinity Kappa's for the main speakers. They all have matching 12" woofs. Xover just happens to be at 80 Hz which I remember THX specs suggesting for the subwoofer. So I can either think of it like a 4 way floor standing speaker or 3 way with built in (passive) sub.

The dedicated sub pretty much breaks @Mr. Afternoon's rules. It is a dual woofer Helmholtz box with 2, 12" woofers sitting behind the sweet listening spot & in front of the casual listening spot, the couch. Not only that but a coffee table chunk 'o 1/2" glass sits on top (tempered, rounded corners, beveled edges. Really looks quite nice). It's driven by a bridged Adcom 555 power amp. There's about another 6' or so behind the couch so standing waves seem to be tamed nothing going boom that isn't supposed to be there.

Most 1st timers listening to my set up walk away with no idea I have a subwoofer. Because it is carefully set up & music doesn't usually have the bass that movie sound FX have. But playing a great live album like Yelo at The Kraftwerk the bass is visceral. Gonna have to check out that mastodon!

 

[LuvMyQuad]

RE: Early Man
Last month I watched Shaun the Sheep in The Flight Before Christmas. Shaun isn't my favorite but my real complaint is I think it's all CG made to look like claymation. In olden days you could see fingerprints in Wallace & Gromit occasionally.

I watched that. I liked how all the sheep had their mouths on the side of their head. Also there were no spoken words at all, just grunt like syllables.

I agree with the CG

 

[J. PUPSTER]

RE: Early Man
Haha etc! Another great Nick Park creation. I will definitely watch that. Last month I watched Shaun the Sheep in The Flight Before Christmas. Shaun isn't my favorite but my real complaint is I think it's all CG made to look like claymation. In olden days you could see fingerprints in Wallace & Gromit occasionally.

Anyway since we're all sharing subwoofer stories.... I guess you could say I have 6 in my room. I use Infinity Kappa's for the main speakers. They all have matching 12" woofs. Xover just happens to be at 80 Hz which I remember THX specs suggesting for the subwoofer. So I can either think of it like a 4 way floor standing speaker or 3 way with built in (passive) sub.

The dedicated sub pretty much breaks @Mr. Afternoon's rules. It is a dual woofer Helmholtz box with 2, 12" woofers sitting behind the sweet listening spot & in front of the casual listening spot, the couch. Not only that but a coffee table chunk 'o 1/2" glass sits on top (tempered, rounded corners, beveled edges. Really looks quite nice). It's driven by a bridged Adcom 555 power amp. There's about another 6' or so behind the couch so standing waves seem to be tamed nothing going boom that isn't supposed to be there.

Most 1st timers listening to my set up walk away with no idea I have a subwoofer. Because it is carefully set up & music doesn't usually have the bass that movie sound FX have. But playing a great live album like Yelo at The Kraftwerk the bass is visceral. Gonna have to check out that mastodon!

I always wondered how the smaller speakers in a large main speaker cabinet like yours, handles the sometimes massive vibrations from the 12" woofs; ever notice anything unusual from that?

 

[timothyemerson]

Right toe...

Got my Sub in the front left corner of the room and always felt it's a great place for it.

Last night watched an odd little claymation movie called "Early Man" that had one scene with a faux Mastodon walking that was shaking the room before I even knew what it was (to great effect!)

Also, my front left speaker, at one time was sitting just to the left of a gas fireplace glass door, and I knew something wasn't right because my phantom center was shifted too far left, which by just moving the speaker another 6-12" corrected it back to center. (I blame Mrs. Pupster for moving things around out of her ignorance of the matter!)

Mine's left corner too which works best in my room. I was thinking about getting another for the right corner (which would involve finding a new home for a cabinet that's currently there) but prices shot up almost a grand here in NZ in the last month so will put that idea on hold for the time being.

 

[timothyemerson]

Is she like my lady who puts Christmas/Halloween decorations and such on top of the speakers?

I've had guests almost dump their car keys on top of a speaker before. Almost had to go full Pat Bateman!

 

[Sonik Wiz]

I always wondered how the smaller speakers in a large main speaker cabinet like yours, handles the sometimes massive vibrations from the 12" woofs; ever notice anything unusual from that?

The Infinity Kappa's have their either their own sub-enclosures or at least sealed back on the mid-bass, mid-range & tweeter. So internal compression/rarefication does not directly affect them. Many other speaker manufacture's also do this.

Me thinks you are describing inter-modulation distortion. Typically that would be tested using a high ratio of 60Hz to 1kHz & seeing how the 1kHz wave is affected. I guess that could be applied to speakers but I've never heard of it being done. Certainly on some level just deep bass cabinet vibration must influence the higher freq's. But as J. Gordon Holt once said, " many things can influence the quality of reproduced audio. The only thing that matters is if you can hear it or not." Fortunately I can not hear this problem.

 

[DuncanS]

I've had guests almost dump their car keys on top of a speaker before. Almost had to go full Pat Bateman!

I know what you mean. I have 4x Monitor Audio RS8 and everybody comes in and dumps their car keys on the one nearest the door as you come into the room! I have ended up putting books etc. on the top to protect them. I am thinking of changing to B&W 702S with the shaped tweeter housing on the top, but I reckon they'd still do it and I couldn't put a book to protect them then.

 

[timothyemerson]

I know what you mean. I have 4x Monitor Audio RS8 and everybody comes in and dumps their car keys on the one nearest the door as you come into the room! I have ended up putting books etc. on the top to protect them. I am thinking of changing to B&W 702S with the shaped tweeter housing on the top, but I reckon they'd still do it and I couldn't put a book to protect them then.

 

[MidiMagic]

Subwoofer make boom boom noise.
Glass tables rattle when boom boom happens.
Don't place subwoofer behind you. Unless you have multiple.

My subwoofer has been behind me for over 20 years. There is a ramp that goes behind the media room up to the next level of the house. The underside of the ramp us open to the media room. I put the subwoofer near the sharp end of this wedge-shaped space. It works fine.

 

[par4ken]

I don't need subwoofers as my main speakers provide ample bass, however if I was to use a subwoofer I would consider something really massive. I remember seeing a design that used a large piece of Sono Tube, I can't find the link to that original article but here is another one.

https://spinditty.com/instruments-g...your-own-DIY-sonosub-style-cylinder-subwoofer
Or how about a folded horn that can act as a second row home theatre riser!

https://carltonbale.com/ultimate-home-theater-subwoofer-bass/

 

[Soundfield]

I know what you mean. I have 4x Monitor Audio RS8 and everybody comes in and dumps their car keys on the one nearest the door as you come into the room! I have ended up putting books etc. on the top to protect them. I am thinking of changing to B&W 702S with the shaped tweeter housing on the top, but I reckon they'd still do it and I couldn't put a book to protect them then.

I solved the problem by having 4mm toughened glass cut and radiused to the size of the top of my speakers where they sit on cork pads. I use this solution on all my floor standing speakers. Almost invisible and no more worrying about scratches! -

 

[Soundfield]

I don't need subwoofers as my main speakers provide ample bass, however if I was to use a subwoofer I would consider something really massive...

I have no need for subwoofers either but if you're going to do it do it right. As you say, massive engineering is required, none of those weedy little wooden boxes, so you have to admire this bloke who built giant folded horns into the foundations of his house-

Now those really are capable of reproducing some low notes!

 

[LuvMyQuad]

That's true dedication to the hobby

 

[Strilo]

That's true dedication to the hobby

Not sure it IS a hobby at that point...

 

[par4ken]

I have no need for subwoofers either but if you're going to do it do it right. As you say, massive engineering is required, none of those weedy little wooden boxes, so you have to admire this bloke who built giant folded horns into the foundations of his house-

View attachment 75365

Now those really are capable of reproducing some low notes!

I was also going to mention something about using masonry or bricks, Little chance of any cabinet resonances, at least the wife couldn't get you to move it!

 

[LuvMyQuad]

I remember seeing a design that used a large piece of Sono Tube, I can't find the link to that original article but here is another one.

I once had a set of HSU subs that were made from Sono Tube. The woofers faced the ground.

 

[DuncanS]

I

I have no need for subwoofers either but if you're going to do it do it right. As you say, massive engineering is required, none of those weedy little wooden boxes, so you have to admire this bloke who built giant folded horns into the foundations of his house-

View attachment 75365

Now those really are capable of reproducing some low notes!

I know somebody who built his sub into what was the fireplace, but a folded horn of that size Wow!