Best place to put a single subwoofer?


I know there are many opinions regarding subwoofer placement. I have had multiple subs (4) all in the same listening space. Way too much! I have had matched pairs hooked up in stereo. Right now I own only 1. It is part of my dedicated 2 channel music room and not a theater system. I have a pair of MBL 101e Mk2's which are excellent speakers IMHO, and they produce POWERFUL bass in their own right. However I am a bass freak (as noted above), so the harder it hits the better. Plus I tend to listen to a fair amount of rock music which I like to play loud, (hence MBL 101e's). Right now I have my sub positioned dead center between the two Radialstrahlers and it does ok. But I feel as though I'm missing something and that I ought to do something to increase performance, although I'm not exactally sure where to go with it. Not too many places I can move it to, but input and suggestions would be much appreciated. I have tried moving it closer, and then farther away from the wall but have not noticed any dramatic improvements. What about bass "suck out"? Could I be having some cancellation issues? What things would you Audiogoners do to improve on (already good) bass performance?
martinmobile

Showing 2 responses by shadorne

Rule of thumb. Place on left or right hand side of listener against the wall. Position sub 4 to 6 feet in front of main speakers. I find this position tends to help fill in any suckouts left by the mains and room modes.

Your best approach, however, would be to take some measurements to confirm what is going in with your room modes.

The first thing to learn about bass is that if it is consistently big, impressive and heavy then Houston you have a problem - your bass is crap.