Best setup for two subwoofers.

If you want a very informed opinions, go to Scott Wilkenson's Home Theatre Geeks podcast. Home Theatre Magazine reviewer. A few weeks ago he had an episode with Dr. Floyd Toole and this guy KNOWS SPEAKERS AND SPEAKER DESIGNS! and much of the podcast was on sub woofer and sub woofer placement and design along with general speaker design.

That said TWO subs will provide for you the best compromise in bass for the most listeners in a room if each sub is equal distant down front and/or back walls or side walls. IE: Put each sub down the front wall the same distance away from each side walls. Or you can put one sub midway down the front wall or near to it and the other sub reversed down the back wall. Or try putting each sub mid way down each side wall of your room. Doing any of these will balance out bass and suppress room anomalies for more than one listener.

Again check out Home Theatre Geeks podcast and listen to the Floyd Toole episode.

From what I understand the only concern one truly has to worry about with two or more subs is that they are not placed in a way where one is out of phase with the other. By setting up multiple subs in ways where they generally mirror each other or sit along side/front walls equal distance from corners will generally have each sub work in tandem reinforcing the bass signal and keeping boom and nulls to less effect. Now of course if you have subs with a variable phase control you can with effort tweak the subs to work more in phase and thus positioning errors will not be quite as much an issue in terms of phasing.

Now of course two subs if not sitting in a best compromise situation for what may be determined as the best sitting locations for listeners can still aggravate boom and tubbiness of bass along with nulls in bass.

Dr. Toole suggests the best choice if budget allows (and factoring extra electricity useage) is FOUR subs each in a corner. They will cancel out well over 85% of the room effect of boom, tubbiness and nulls. They will provide the smoothest bass for the most listeners in room. On top of that they will work more efficiently as the corners reinforce their output causing the sub amps to work less hard. He suggests you may be able to settle for even smaller subs say 4-10's rather, than 4-12's or 4-15's. In such a case where you use FOUR subs one in each corner it no longer matters what your room is shaped like. It could be square, long rectangle, short rectangle, L shaped, or whatever.

If you want the easiest placement for multiple listeners with only TWO subs again setting each up down a wall and out of a corner and where each is relative to each other similar in the room placement you will get a better compromise for more listeners in room.

If you only have ONE sub the best thing to do is to put it as close to a mid placement on a wall, front, side or back to give the best compromise for multiple listeners in room. If only one listener will likely ever listen then put the single sub in a corner but understand once another listener or more then sits he/she/they will get a compromise in sound that may not be too pleasant for them.

Duke,

The best thing I can suggest to you is to log on to Scott's Home Theatre Geeks. Look up the Episode with Dr. Toole and enjoy listening to one of the most respected men audio reproduction of sound, how humans perceive sound and speaker R&D.

http://twit.tv/htg16

You will find his assertion that 4 subs placed in each corner of the room will give the most efficient and likely best sound of sub bass for multiple listeners in room. Four subs placed mid way on the 4 walls may give better general fidelity but are not as efficient in bass output to power input.

Dr. Toole is also fine with two subs placed generally midway on walls if costs are an issue.

Duke,

Thanks and I'm glad posts like we've put here can be informative for each of us and others here. This is to be a fun hobby for us audio/video geeks as Scott Wilkenson would likely say. Too often, too many of us fret needlessly over things that can just take the fun out of the hobby.

I remember first hearing and reading about Dr. Toole back when I was a young kid in the early 80's. We had a KICK A$$ audio magazine here in Canada back then called Sound Canada and it was quite simply one of the finest audio magazines at the time and guys like Ian Masters, Dr. Toole and others wrote cool stuff in it often. Even though much of Dr. Toole's stuff was over my head then, today as a hobbiest and one who tries to keep an open mind I've learned things from him and other respected persons in the field.

If I may, I was very much anti-multi channel for music until recently. I got my Oppo BDP-83 with the AIR Record sampler Blu-ray and that was an aural revelation for me in how good properly engineered multi-channel sound can be. Mark Waldrep was also on Scott's podcast a while back, check it out to get his ideology on AIX Records and their efforts at making superior quality, hi rez multi-channel sound.

For me when listening by myself with a stereo LP, CD or tape, well I think that sounds the best if you can sit in the stereo sweet spot and you play back a good stereo recording. But a proper, hi rez multi-channel recording on good consumer gear that is properly setup and calibrated KICKS REGULAR STEREO'S A$$! 1-2-3 years ago I'd never admit to that. But having heard hi rez multi-channel sound on an AIX Blu-ray sampler disc with my modest but well setup system BLEW ME AWAY!

Well I sided tracked things bad enough, back to your regularly scheduled programming, LOL!