Placement of Single Subwoofer Affecting Sound of Main Speakers


Due to a recent furniture arrangement in the room, the subwoofer that was sitting dormant for several years had been reluctantly reinstated in the main system. I have been experimenting with the placement of the sub in the room. Due to limited placement options, the sub can only be placed in these 3 spots ;

1. In one corner of the room, very close to the side and rear wall (1 or 2 inches from the walls)

2. Just behind the left speaker, 5 inches from the rear wall

3. In between the speakers but very close to the left speaker, not at the centre of speakers.

 

To cut to the chase, I’ve briefly tried all options. The 1st option with the sub placed in the corner of the room gave the worst result. Now, the interesting part. Even though the sub was turned off, the sound quality of the system degraded. It appears that the physical presence of the box in the corner of the room made the sound worse.

I am currently settled with the 2nd option and this configuration sounds much better than the 1st option irrespective of the sub powered up or down.

The sub is currently on spikes as I’m still waiting for some Nobsound springs to arrive before I can plonk the sub on these.

I’ll be trying the 3rd option again although the WAF is the worst on this one.

Has anyone here experienced a worse sound quality from the system with the placement of the sub in the room? A sub that’s switched off and not working.

ryder

Showing 1 response by jheppe815

I can echo others in stating that integrating a sub or subs can be a big challenge. I’ve fought many rooms and many single sub setups over the years trying to get things to sound right.

My advice is to keep trying since that sub you have seems to be a very nice piece and should add quite a bit of enjoyment. Move things, change settings, etc. as you have been doing until your ears tell you it’s right.

I’m a firm believer in a dedicated outboard crossover too where you can just assign low frequencies to the sub (low pass filter) and roll off the low end to your main speakers (via high pass filters). As stated a million times on these boards, getting those low frequencies out of your main / satellite speakers really reduces intermodulation distortion and makes a world of difference.  For me (but other persons experiences may vary), having that dedicated crossover makes integration of low frequency cabinets much easier.  I've never had too much sucess with running the main speakers full range, then adding in a sub with just a low pass crossover (which is typically built into self powered subs).  24 db per octave minimal slope helps too on both high pass and low pass.

I have 4 systems in my home ranging from decent stuff to stuff that’s in the garage. Three of the systems have subs and I don’t think I could live without subs, especially on the two critical listening systems I have set up.