Subwoofer Phase Control


Does a continuous phase control make subwoofer placement easier and more flexible? Most audiophile subs have this feature but some other (well regarded) brands, like REL, do not. Why is this?

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Showing 1 response by erik_squires

AFAIK the "phase" control is really just a delay, with a theoretical 180 degrees being the equivalent of 1/2 the travel time of the upper frequency.  So for a subwoofer with a 100 Hz max 180 degrees would be 1/200 = 0.005 milliseconds (if I did the math right).  90 degrees would be half that or 0.0025 milliseconds.  

If you are using a HT processor this should be dealt with by the speaker delay calibration.  

If using this with high passed speakers the correct setting is the one when the inverted high passed speakers + sub have the deepest null at the crossover.  Otherwise it should be set for the smoothest response below the low pass filter setting.