imaging help

[mikert456]

o.k heres my problem. One side of my room has a window and the other side has a opening to my kitchen. Originally I thought my bass(kick drum and bass guitar) was always located on the side of the subwoofer because of the subwoofer. However I've noticed that even when I move the sub to the opposite side the problem still persits. As well percusion always come from the right side too. On other systems with the same music the percusion and kick drum are usually located close to the center. Does bass start in the upper octaves and if so what can be done to remedy this problem? Would better imaging speakers help with this? Im thinking going from the paradigm moniter series to the studio series. I've got fairly heavy curtains and the problem is still there.

[markw]

Somehow, turn of your mains (and center and surrounds if need be) and listen to JUST the subwoofer's contribution to the overall sound. Most amps will tolerate a no speaker situation for quite a while, but try to not make it permanant.

Now, play one of those bass heavy tracks and you will see that the sub's contribution to the overall sound is less than you thought. More like a muffled, low frequency drone that slowly decays off into a silent oblivion.

The reason... Most music starts with a pluck or some other initial impact (bass guitar is plucked, a tympani is struck with a mallet, ec...) of some sort. This defines the overall sound of the insturment.

So, what you think of as one sound is actually a series of different frequencies. The initial impact is somewhere in the upper bass/lower midrange, which is handled by your mains, and the decay (the actual lows the sub reproduces).

The higher the frequency, the more easy is is to locate the source. Since the initial impact is above the sub's range (sometimes more than you think), it will be possible to locate it's source location.

The best thing you can do is to set the sub's high end to as low a frequency as possible and try to keep the sub between the two speakers. In any case, some frequencies will be able to be localized no matter what.

Only the sub's contribution, which is the decay of a plucked bass guitar, for instance) has a shot at being non-directional.