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cebbigh
04-10-2004, 09:40 AM
I currently have my sub placed in the left right corner of my room behind a horse of a rear projection tv. The principle viewing area is a sofa pressed against the rear wall which is 14 feet away from the front wall. The sofa has a space of approx 2' between it and the left wall. I have heard the with subs that "near field" placement produces a good effect, but generally "near field" refers to placing the sub a few feet behind the listener in the posts I have read. In this case the sub would be tucked in just to the left of the listening space in the left rear corner. Would it make sense to try placement of the sub between the sofa and the left wall at the rear? Would this have any negative effective on the perceived soundstage? In essence the sub placement would be directly underneath the left rear surround which is approx 8-9' above the floor in that corner. Because of the limitations of the room and the size of tv I think these are about the only two places I can place the sub. I kind of expect the replies will be along the lines of try it out, but I was hoping for opinions before disrupting my otherwise happy household on another potentially fruitless project.

uncooked
04-10-2004, 10:03 AM
i dont know if it will change anything. its already in a corner, all you will be doing is moving it closer to you. it will sound louder if you move it becuase it is closer, but then you will get sick of the loud bass sound and just turn it down until it sounded like before.

you could try it but i dont think it will do anything. as long as a sub is near a corner of a room and somewhat good placed, it wont change much by moving it. the one good thing is that most likely you will be turning the sub down becuase it is closer, so it wouldnt be driven as hard and would last longer. but its not a big deal.

how about saving up a bit and on boxing day or a big sale go out and buy a sub somewhat matching to yours and put it behind you ;) that makes a difference. front and rear subs sound awsome. i have a 10" at the front and a 8" in the back there both the same company so they sound great together.

This Guy
04-10-2004, 11:29 AM
the closer they are to the main speakers the better it will blend with them. I say keep it up front, but if it doesn't sound good there y not try it in the rear? Both can sound good, but I couldn't tell you witch would be best.

-Joey

Woochifer
04-10-2004, 03:20 PM
There's no universal answer because every room's acoustics are different Some rooms would benefit from a front wall subwoofer placement, while in others the only way you can get any kind of decent bass is with corner placement. What you should try out is to put the subwoofer on your sofa (remove the cushion first) and run a test tone. Go around the room and listen (you should do this low to the ground, yes crawling around is a good thing). Where the bass sounds full and free from excessive boominess is the best spot in the room for the subwoofer. If you already have spots in mind, just listen to how the bass sounds in those spots and decide which spot has the best bass.

If you're really limited in where you can place the sub and have problems in every location, then you should get a parametric equalizer. That will allow you to compensate for any problems created by your room acoustics and filter down any problematic frequency peaks that make your bass sound overly boomy. With a Behringer Feedback Destroyer, Radio Shack SPL meter, and Stryke test tone CD, you can get fantastic bass for minimal investment. There is a bit of a learning curve involved, but the results are well worth it. IMO, a properly tuned subwoofer will outperform a far more expensive untuned subwoofer. A guide to using the BFD for subwoofer equalization is linked below.

http://www.snapbug.ws/bfd.htm

cebbigh
04-10-2004, 03:55 PM
Tried it. So far it seems that the placement near the couch does help the higher range of the bass. I think it actually does help blend the sound. Will see how it goes for a few days before making a judgement. I know that the location/placement of the sub is not supposed to be something that you can detect like the mids and the tweeters. That was really, I guess, my main concern. Until they come out with truly cheap wall mounted monitors I am going to be limited as to where I can place the sub. It just sounds counter intuitive to have it away from the screen. But I have to admit that I can't really tell now that I've done it.