subwoofer placement

[CyNics]

okay...I already found the place to place my subwoofer..now..u guys always say place it against the wall ..or around the corner rite ? now my woofer has a speaker and a hole (inspire 5300)..which one should against the wall ? the speaker or the hole ?

 

[Dundain]

Well...there is no one right place to place a subwoofer. The best place is the one you find after playing some test tones and moving it all around the room for the best sound and best levels. Generally placing it in a corner will give you the strongest bass but sometimes it'll amplify it too much and give wierd peaks that shouldn't be there. Generally for home theater they recommend placing it a foot or two from a wall...that seems to give the best response. But of course it varies for everything.

As to what to place against the wall...well the "hole" is the speaker port. You don't want to place that up against the wall because thats where most of the air is pushed from so you don't wanna mess with that.

 

[Mem]

I`ve mine under my desk,the hole you are talking about is on the left side ,so I`ve it few inches away from left side of the desk with the main subwoofer speaker facing me ,the position is really up to you,don`t forget to tune it with the bass level knob on the back of the subwoofer speaker.

The best way is to try it in different positions and judge it by your own ears.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Corners give the best BASS and deepest tones because it rumbles and vibrates/bounces off the walls. in the middle of the wall you get better definition, but not alot of the rumble. Play with it. Just don't cover the port hole on the back of the sub.

 

[CyNics]

mem: are u using the inspire 5300 too ? isn't it wierd to have a subwoofer with its front (speaker) facing the wall and its back(wiring panal) facing me ???

 

[Mem]

isn't it wierd to have a subwoofer with its front (speaker) facing the wall and its back(wiring panal) facing me ???

I`ve mine with the grill part facing me so the wires are at the back (normal speaker position),the port hole on the left side I like to leave some space from a side wall or desk,I also don`t like it very close to a corner which can give too much bass,but this is down to how you like the personal sound , & how much bass etc,I like a balance sound where I can hear the midrange etc without being overblown by bass output.

 

[Shagga]

They used to say place it on the floor behind your curtains.

 

[Wingznut]

Originally posted by: Dundain
Well...there is no one right place to place a subwoofer. The best place is the one you find after playing some test tones and moving it all around the room for the best sound and best levels. Generally placing it in a corner will give you the strongest bass but sometimes it'll amplify it too much and give wierd peaks that shouldn't be there. Generally for home theater they recommend placing it a foot or two from a wall...that seems to give the best response. But of course it varies for everything.

As to what to place against the wall...well the "hole" is the speaker port. You don't want to place that up against the wall because thats where most of the air is pushed from so you don't wanna mess with that.

Bingo.

 

[Goi]

Placing a subwoofer, or any speaker for that matter, will generally create boomy bass. Some folks dig that, but it isn't accurate bass, and definitely not a flat frequency response. If you have a weak sub though that might help things out a bit by giving you a false sense of extension and volume. Just make sure you don't place the port too close to a wall.

 

[StattlichPassat]

How big is the unit and driver? Face the port (hole) to the wall, perferably in a corner, and about 6 to 12" out. I had a 12" home theater sub up until last week that I kept 8" from the wall in a corner. Placement is everything with subwoofers. You could give me the baddest sub and plant it in the middle of the room, and an 8" Sony in the corner might sound just as good. Well ok probably not, but you catch my drift. Bounce the bass off as many walls as you can, but no more than 2. For my computer speakers, I have the sub under my desk, which almost acts as a 2nd enclosure- great results, from only a 5.25" driver.

 

[StattlichPassat]

Originally posted by: Shagga
They used to say place it on the floor behind your curtains.

Who, Bose? They only 'say' that in their promotional pictures. My curtains would play "someone-left-the-window-open-and-an-F4-tornado-blew-through" if I put my subwoofer behind them. Heck, it wouldn't even fit anyway. But one of those cute little Bose jobbies would.

 

[Zugzwang152]

Hmm good advice, I never thought to bounce the bass off walls before. My standard setup is usually having the woofer point directly at my crotch. I like to FEEL the bass vibrate,mmmmmm....:Q ANYWAY, do what you like the best, forget what the manual or other ppl say and find what you like the best. There might be a position you like best for each type of listening: gaming, movies, music, etc. Find it and stick wit it!

 

[Shagga]

Who, Bose? They only 'say' that in their promotional pictures. My curtains would play "someone-left-the-window-open-and-an-F4-tornado-blew-through" if I put my subwoofer behind them. Heck, it wouldn't even fit anyway. But one of those cute little Bose jobbies would.

Hehe!!....The idea behind the curtain thing was that so the sound was absorbed by the fabric which is good acoustic logic. We all know that the best room to play music or whatever are rooms that have good acoustic absorbtion. i.e. walls covered with fabric absorb the sound waves and stop them bouncing all over the room distorting the sound. But you alrady knew that.

 

[Antoneo]

I think if you really wanted to get the most "bass" out of the subwoofer, you could buy a Sound Pressure Level (SPL) meter and try out different placements of the sub.

 

[flood]

The easiest way to find the proper place for your sub is to place it where you sit while it is playing... walk around the room and find the spot where you hear what you like. that is where you should place your sub.

The idea behind the curtain thing was that so the sound was absorbed by the fabric which is good acoustic logic

Actually, draperies will have very little effect on sound below 100hz. Their absorbent properties are best in the upper frequencies.

bose is suck btw. :-]

 

[Confused]

I have my Inspire 5300 sub on the little shelf on the computer desk i have my keyboard and mouse on, and it's right in front of my feet (or sometimes under them, like it is now!), and the bass is fine for me all around my room, with it only 2/3 of the way up (right at the end of the line along the top part of the sub volume)! Plus, that's the only place it will go for all the wires to go

I like it having the bass coming up through my feet, plus it means i don't have to have it as loud, and it doesn't go through to the living room directly downstairs

Confused

 

[Goi]

Rooms with too much fabric, cushion or other kinds of sound absorption material will sound "dead", absorbing all the higher frequencies. This will take away the life of the sound. A better solution would be to put acoustic panels that reflect sound in a diffused, random, yet more uniform manner. Also, flood is right on both accounts.

 

[Shagga]

A better solution would be to put acoustic panels that reflect sound in a diffused, random, yet more uniform manner.

I agree, the curtain example made because most ppl have curtains as opposed to Panels all over their rooms. But, yes acoutic Panels I suspect are the best. Why do you think Cinema's do it this way.

 

[MasterHoss]

Come on guys, it's a freakin' set of multimedia speakers. Placement of the subwoofer is predicated upon your taste of bass. If you want some extra boom, place your subwoofer so that your driver is in close proximity to 2 walls... like a corner wall if possible or at least 1 wall. Let the bass port breathe. If you don't like the way your bass sounds in this placement, keep moving it around and experiment. As stated before, avoid putting your bass port against the wall.

 

Mine is on the floor as a foot rest. Gotta love the klipsch sub.

 

[Goi]

I agree, the curtain example made because most ppl have curtains as opposed to Panels all over their rooms. But, yes acoutic Panels I suspect are the best. Why do you think Cinema's do it this way.

Hmmn, where I am, and I suspect all over most of the free world, cinemas and theaters often just put lots of padding on the walls to absorb sound rather than reflect it. Since theaters are pretty large compared to rooms in a house, echos are a real, serious problem, while it might not be that much of a problem in homes. Hence the padding makes more sense here. I've never seen any cinema put speciality acoustic panels(those weird looking panels that look like buildings jutting out of a landscape), so they usually sound pretty dead. If you talk in the cinema you'd notice that you don't hear any echoes at all, and your voice often sounds stifled, that's what I mean by dead sound.

 

[Mavrick007]

Originally posted by: Goi

I agree, the curtain example made because most ppl have curtains as opposed to Panels all over their rooms. But, yes acoutic Panels I suspect are the best. Why do you think Cinema's do it this way.

Hmmn, where I am, and I suspect all over most of the free world, cinemas and theaters often just put lots of padding on the walls to absorb sound rather than reflect it. Since theaters are pretty large compared to rooms in a house, echos are a real, serious problem, while it might not be that much of a problem in homes. Hence the padding makes more sense here. I've never seen any cinema put speciality acoustic panels(those weird looking panels that look like buildings jutting out of a landscape), so they usually sound pretty dead. If you talk in the cinema you'd notice that you don't hear any echoes at all, and your voice often sounds stifled, that's what I mean by dead sound.

Yep, they have to, otherwise you would hear the other movies playing down in the other 9 or so cinemas, but I do think that they do have reflective panels placed so that the accoustics are directed in specific directions and then other panels dampening so that it blocks the sound from outside of the cinema.

 

[ObiDon]

The easiest way to find the proper place for your sub is to place it where you sit while it is playing... walk around the room and find the spot where you hear what you like. that is where you should place your sub.

Yep, what flood said. Of course, these ARE just computer speakers so my Altec Lansing sub doubles as a foot rest also.
Actually, right now I'm too lazy to properly place my HT sub as well. So, it's kind of in a corner with the crossover turned low to get rid of all the extra upper-bass boominess. Mmmm...rumble!

 

[shyguy74]

I have mine under my desk so I have a footrest