Topic: BASS speaker placement?

[Baluts]

hey guys one big question sa placement ng sub  ko. k lang ba na itago ko sya sa cabinet  o nakaexposed sya sa labas. im designing my tv rack at buong pader ay may cabinets. k lang ba na nakatago sya sa kabinet or allot ako ng blank space para kita ung subs. 

[av_phile1]

I think it's not so much whether the sub is exposed or not, but whether the location will yield better bass for your room without unecessarily rattling its surroundings .  I would imagine enclosing a sub in a cabinet will waste some of its power to rattling your cabinet walls and inducing unwanted cabinet resonances that will interfere with your sub's sonic delivery. 

[ATJr.]

low frequency sounds coming out of your subwoofer are non directional so placement is not really that critical.

[av_phile1]

Room mode excitation will vary depending on subwoofer placement relative to your listening position. Also the number of subwoofers used can  lessen  room modes for a smoother/flatter room bass freqeuncy response.

[alvinthx2]

The subwoofer is actually the hardest speaker to place in a multi-channel setup relative to your sweet spot. It is affected by the room modes. There are places in the room where these modes are augmented and in some places cancelled. Just try to walk around when a low frequency signal is outputted via subwoofer. The use of your phase control is very important also because, depending on the room, the crossover between your main speakers and the subwoofer might be affected by your subwoofer's placement. Quality subs offer a stepless variable phase control to dial in the best setting. To do this, you have to have a signal generator with the crossovers freqency and let somebody rotate the phase control until you have the loudness perceive output from where you are sitting. A SPL meter will help you a lot

[arthurallanj]

You should also take into consideration that subwoofers move a lot of air, hence, let it breathe. That's why I would not suggest enclosing the sub in anyway. But that's just me. 

[alvinthx2]

if ever you enclose the subwoofer, the sides, top and the back wall should have covered fiberglass material to act as a damper for your cabinet.

[frootloops]

Mga Sir's, pasingit lang...

if I put a foam at the back of the sub, meaning sticked to the wall, will it create better bass sound? Kasi may back wall is plywood with Cork Board (similar to ones used in office ceilings,parang asbestos), underneath it, that includes my ceiling as well, and my side walls are cement. Will it produce anything significant??

TIA

[av_phile1]

Bass frequencies cannot be enhanced or absorbed by foam or any accoustic frequency absorbing materials which are only good at reducing first reflections of mids to highs.  OTH, concrete walls and marble floors are excellent reinforcing materials for a more powerful bass.

[newbie pa rin]

Guys I have a question which might be related to sub placement.

When theres a lot of LFE's in the movie am watching like X-Men I hear some distorted noise in my ceiling left back from my sweet spot.
How can I avoid that? Can sub placement or sub x-over remedy that?

[av_phile1]

Apparently there's some room mode excitation that's rattling your ceilings. There may be something loose with the ceiling structure.  You could relocate the sub so the standing waves hopefully change orientation.  Changing the x-over setting might help if there's frequency peaking at that point.

[jerix]

Moving the sub here and there really brings a lot of hassle. With the weight of my 15" fiberglass coated sub it took me hours to find the right spot but then, that good spot for the sub conflicted with existing arrangement of things in the house so I had to reposition it again in accordance with furniture placement 

[newbie pa rin]

The problem Im encountering right now is that the electrical outlet is in the left side only.
I would love to try placing in on the right side sana.

Its true its hard to move the sub im just using a 10" sub what more kung 15" sya.
Especially kung carpeted iyung buong floor ang hirap itulak.

[av_phile1]

No need to bring the sub to the other side of the room if the room is symmetric.  The room modes produced would be identical to the other side.  Just experiment on  the placement along the wall up to the adjacent wall.  Position it in so that its location is not on exact fractions of the wall length so to prevent symmetric standing waves from cancelling and peaking at certain frequencies and harmonics.