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Subwoofer in the corner? Forget about it

Since installing new horn speakers, I have been learning a little about extracting their best performance. They require some effort and knowledge to get right - and the effort is the easy part.

Following "common wisdom", I placed the sub in the left corner, to the rear and outside of the left main speaker. The result was a disaster.

Boomy, one note bass, little tone and texture, very uneven response at different locations in the room, and no musical connection. This wasn't good enough for screening reruns of "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo" on a HT set-up.

I repositioned the sub to the midpoint of the right-side wall. Now, it is a little forward and to the side of the right main speaker. Initial results are promising: Lower bass output (expected going from 3 corner boundaries to 2 wall/floor boundaries), coupled with musical LF, toneful and engaging. The difference between just moving alot of air and making proper musical bass is huge.

Here are two articles I found interesting:

http://www.harman.com/wp/pdf/multsubs.pdf
http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/setup/loudspeakers/SubwooferplacementP1.php

both use models and measurements to confirm my listening experience - corner loading the sub is loud and rough, compared with other locations. And multiple subs are smoother than a single sub. Now, I just have to bite the bullet and make room for another refrigerator sized horn sub in my listening room.

scott

Listening room: 15' x 18', suspended wood floor
Music used to evaluate sound:
Rachmaninoff, piano concerto 2
Astor Piazolla, Adios Ninos
Saint Saens, organ symphony 3
Rodrigo, concierto de Aranjuez
Doctor John, Duke elegant
Joe Pass, Portraits of duke Elington
skushino

Showing 3 responses by redwoodgarden

redwoodgarden
150 posts
 
The boomy bass that most audiophiles hear is due to resonance of the walls, not the corner position of the subwoofers. The corner position of the subwoofer intensifies the bass by acting as a megaphone which also can intensify the boomy resonance. This wall distortion can be neutralized with proper wall treatment (resonant sound channels, a double layer of half inch drywall: one gray, one green board, and with ACS sound absorbing squares sandwiched between the two boards). As mentioned by Ekovalsky, a digital sound processor will also work well.

All of my speakers (a pair of Klipschorns and a pair of TacT W410 subwoofers) are designed to fit into corners. With the Marchand XM6 crossover set at 35Hz, the two pairs of speakers are flat from 12Hz to 12000Hz. This is possible only with wall treatment and tweaking the metal horns in the Khorn.

It is true that placing the subwoofers in the center or sides of the room will make the bass "smooth". But then a "smooth" sound is soft and quiet which defeats the purpose of a subwoofer.

redwoodgarden
150 posts
 
Stanhifi: Not so fast with the negative response. If you paid attention to what I was saying, you would have realized I agreed that the subwoofer was there to reproduce every low frequency note accurately. The difference with having the subs in the corner is that it improves the efficiency and speed of the low frequencies and allows them to be at the same dB level as the higher frequencies. In short...flat across the spectrum. Don't blame the corner for a one note, or boomy bass. Blame that on the resonance of your walls. If you bang on your walls with a closed hand and it sounds boomy, then you have a wall resonance problem that needs to be corrected as mentioned in my previous response. The wall should sound like your banging on a brick wall. A good sub in the corner will allow a recording of a 64 foot organ pipe bring out a sensation of an external heart massage. Nice!
redwoodgarden
150 posts
 
Scott, I think that you misunderstood me. Banging on the walls will create a "boooom" sound all around the room (in the corners as well as the wall). That boom is wall resonance and will make your room vibrate at that frequency as the sub creates low frequencies making that ragged output as you called it. Check out my original response to see how to avoid that boomy ragged sound. Your article said that subs in the corner will produce a powerful bass. Now, with the wall treatment, you can avoid the ragged sound.

Another hint to avoid boom is to create a false corner made out of several layers of medium density fiberboard glued and screwed together as I have done. The false wall should sound like a rock when you hit it. This false wall will concentrate the bass and make it fast, but smooth. If you still have this THING about putting the sub on the side or front, just place the false corner behind it there.
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