[W.G.D.]

Pls, is it written somewhere that subwoofers must be placed against a
all -or- in a corner?

The practicality of the following question notwithstanding, can a subwoofer
be placed in space, meaning, let's say, hung, free-"standing", no support
other than by cables??

Appreciative,
Wayne

[Ethan Winer]

Wayne,

is it written somewhere that subwoofers must be placed against a
all -or- in a corner?

There are MANY variables that affect the bass response due to subwoofer
placement in a room, such as where the main speakers are, where you sit
while listening, the crossover frequency, and so forth.

When I bought my Carver Sunfire a few years ago, I tried a variety of
places. Then I looked in the manual :-) and it said to put it in one of the
front corners. Bingo, that was clearly the best place. More recently I got
an SVS PB12-Ultra/2 subwoofer and noticed that its manual also said a front
corner is best. By then I didn't even need to experiment. I put it there and
it's even more fabulous than the Sunfire.

That said, a front corner is clearly the loudest location, but it won't be
the flattest. Loud works for me! But I also have 40 bass traps in my living
room home theater and they reduce the problems (peaks, ringing) you get with
corner placement.

One tried and true method is to put the subwoofer at the listening position
on a chair, then play some bass-heavy music and crawl around on the floor
listening for where the bass is the most even. Once you find the best place
by ear, put the subwoofer there. One problem with this is the key of the
music affects what you hear. If the music has tones that align with the
room's modes, then this method can work pretty well. But if the music is in
a key that doesn't excite the room modes, then other music that DOES excite
the modes may sound unbalanced. One solution is to use pink noise instead of
music. But really, the only way to know for sure where the low frequency
response is flattest is to measure.

--Ethan

[W.G.D.]

Thank You Ethan for your based-on-experience inputs.

Reason for question: I saw an ad (from a noteworthy supplier) who placed a
small sub on/within the speaker system immediately surrounding his wall-hung
plasma.

Wayne


"Ethan Winer" ethanw at ethanwiner dot com wrote in message
...
Wayne,

is it written somewhere that subwoofers must be placed against a
all -or- in a corner?

There are MANY variables that affect the bass response due to subwoofer
placement in a room, such as where the main speakers are, where you sit
while listening, the crossover frequency, and so forth.

When I bought my Carver Sunfire a few years ago, I tried a variety of
places. Then I looked in the manual :-) and it said to put it in one of
the
front corners. Bingo, that was clearly the best place. More recently I got
an SVS PB12-Ultra/2 subwoofer and noticed that its manual also said a
front
corner is best. By then I didn't even need to experiment. I put it there
and
it's even more fabulous than the Sunfire.

That said, a front corner is clearly the loudest location, but it won't be
the flattest. Loud works for me! But I also have 40 bass traps in my
living
room home theater and they reduce the problems (peaks, ringing) you get
with
corner placement.

One tried and true method is to put the subwoofer at the listening
position
on a chair, then play some bass-heavy music and crawl around on the floor
listening for where the bass is the most even. Once you find the best
place
by ear, put the subwoofer there. One problem with this is the key of the
music affects what you hear. If the music has tones that align with the
room's modes, then this method can work pretty well. But if the music is
in
a key that doesn't excite the room modes, then other music that DOES
excite
the modes may sound unbalanced. One solution is to use pink noise instead
of
music. But really, the only way to know for sure where the low frequency
response is flattest is to measure.

--Ethan