I moved my sub-woofer

[ForeverAutumn]

and I can't believe the difference in the sound! I've been doing some rearranging of my home office and I had to move the sub-woofer to make room for a new filing cabinet. It's a small room so the only place that I could put it, where it would be out of the way, was to raise the bottom shelf of my bookshelf and sit it on the floor underneath. The SW is now under a pine shelf and sitting between two pine cabinets, facing inwards so that the speaker faces one of the cabinets.

I don't know if it's the effect of the soft wood, or what, but it sounds so much softer and warmer than it did before. I want to encase all my speakers in pine!

[GMichael]

I want to encase all my speakers in pine!

Will you burry them too?

[audiobill]

Hey, FA.

We've also played with sub placement in our HT area. The best sound came from where we bounced the low frequency waves off of the front viewing wall and then the side wall. Perfect!!

Enjoy the newer mellower sub sound,

Bill

[Resident Loser]

and I can't believe the difference in the sound! I've been doing some rearranging of my home office and I had to move the sub-woofer to make room for a new filing cabinet. It's a small room so the only place that I could put it, where it would be out of the way, was to raise the bottom shelf of my bookshelf and sit it on the floor underneath. The SW is now under a pine shelf and sitting between two pine cabinets, facing inwards so that the speaker faces one of the cabinets.

I don't know if it's the effect of the soft wood, or what, but it sounds so much softer and warmer than it did before. I want to encase all my speakers in pine!

...you have significantly changed it's operating environment by placing it in an alcove of sorts...now if you had before and after EQ plots/dispersion patterns, chances are you would be able to reconcile those changes to what you now hear...IME for one, whatever directionality that was originally present has been truncated by the cone firing into a wooden surface...you are hearing more of the lower freqs (which are less directional, therefor less affected) which would account for "softer and warmer"...there is probably also a bit of detail lost by doing this, but it may not be readily obvious...you would have to listen to a variety of lo-freq instruments (preferably acoustic ones) to pin it down I think...Appropriate sweep tones might reveal the newly created peaks and valleys...

jimHJJ(...but that's just a guess...)

[Hyfi]

My sub instructions said to place the sub as close to the main listening position and then crawl around the room until you find the spot where it sounds the best. Then you put the sub in that spot.

I also increased the sound of my sub by replacing the MonsteBass 100 cable with a regular component cable- Audioquest Sidewinder. That improved the sound quality and detail by a huge ammount.

[3-LockBox]

I don't know if it's the effect of the soft wood, or what, but it sounds so much softer and warmer than it did before. I want to encase all my speakers in pine!

I don't know if you want to do that...but you can enjoy a sub or any speaker anyway you please. I myself like having two or three different speakers and/or systems to listen to music just cuz a change of venue brings out nuances in music, even if you've heard that particular piece of music hundreds of times before.

[3-LockBox]

I find that subs are good for hiding large stains on the carpet.

[dean_martin]

I'm sure the so-called experts would have cringed beforehand. That's what's so funny about the equipment side of this hobby.

of course I'm no expert on sub placement so who knows whether the experts could've predicted your results or not? are you sure you didn't place it over the exact spot where the cat died under the house? not too long ago there was a thread that mentioned swinging a dead cat during a full moon improves system performance - ok, I'm rambling now.

[BarryL]

The instructions provided with mine said to place it with the speaker facing the wall, 8 to 12 inches from the wall. I've seen many people who place it with the speaker facing out. That's probably because they didn't read the instructions.

[GMichael]

I'm sure the so-called experts would have cringed beforehand. That's what's so funny about the equipment side of this hobby.

of course I'm no expert on sub placement so who knows whether the experts could've predicted your results or not? are you sure you didn't place it over the exact spot where the cat died under the house? not too long ago there was a thread that mentioned swinging a dead cat during a full moon improves system performance - ok, I'm rambling now.

That was for video. It improves the colors. Use a raccoon for subs.

[Woochifer]

A whole bunch of factors are in play, but the most significant change you can make with a subwoofer simply involves relocating it. In a small to medium sized room, moving a subwoofer or your seating location by only one foot can significantly alter the bass response of your sub. The reason has to do with the boundary effects created by your room. As reflected low frequency waves interact with one another, they can reinforce or cancel one another out, creating unevenness in the bass response. This effect will vary by frequency, and change as the subwoofer or seated location moves.

I suspect that if you keep the sub in the same location but put it flat on the floor, you could wind up with a similar sounding bass. In general though, you don't want secondary enclosures around a speaker or subwoofer simply because they can create reverberations that make the sound unfocused and less tight. The "warmness" that you notice might be a combination of the bass response having fewer peaks and cancellations at the new location, and the cabinets smearing the low frequencies and making them more reverberant. That reverb might subjectively sound nice, but keep in mind that those external cabinets will also create more resonant frequencies (i.e., that point where just the right note will create a booming ring).

[dean_martin]

That was for video. It improves the colors. Use a raccoon for subs.

Maybe we should tell Wooch about the raccoon. His response SOUNDS logical, but he didn't say anything about the raccoon. OTOH, we could keep this a secret until we get it patented.

[Dusty Chalk]

Will you bury them too?

LOL. I want pine speakers, now.

Q: How deep does the bass go?
A: Six feet.

[kexodusc]

LOL. I want pine speakers, now.

Q: How deep does the bass go?
A: Six feet.

ROFLMAO...you guys are too much sometimes...clowns, all of ya..

[GMichael]

LOL. I want pine speakers, now.

Q: How deep does the bass go?
A: Six feet.

Now that's low. Someone call SVS. We have a new plan for them.
And a new sales pitch. "Our subs will shake you to death!"