Help--re: location of subwoofer

Last night I moved my subwoofer from the sidewall of my listening room to the front wall next to my left main speaker. I did this for aesthetic reasons. You know what happened---the audible bass from the subwoofer basically dropped to near zero. The subwoofer was working like crazy, but I heard almost no bass from my listening position. As I walked toward the subwoofer, the bass response grew louder and louder.

I moved the subwoofer back to the sidewall, and everything returned to normal. Now I wonder if my main speakers (full range speakers set to large) are producing any audible bass??

Does anybody have an explanation for this?

 

Room modes would be the most likely cause. Not sure how much you want to get into this, but for some interesting reading you might try going to http://www.harman.com/wp/index.jsp?articleId=default and then select the link for 'Part Three: Getting The Bass Right.'

 

Try putting the sub on a large piece of wood for reflection. If the sub is on carpet, there IS a big difference between hard and soft floor in this respect.

 

Sub

Try turning it around and have it facing the wall. You get a good bounce. Also it's easier to reach the contols. I believe they are non directional. I have seen them facing the wall in stores. Good luck
Peace
N

 

Hi Johnny,

How's it going?

Radio Shack sells a meter that is very improtant to help you determine the best location for your subwoofer. They're suppose to work very well.

 

In many rooms the best location is in a corner. THis excites the maximum number of room modes, which can even out the bass response.

 

actually its response is not very accurate at subwoofer frequencies. But if you simply want to see if positiokn 'A'' is louder than position 'B', it works.

 

Krabapple is right. The corner of a room is the usually a good location.

 

I agree, the corner should privide the best bass. The weird thing is that when the subwoofer was moved to the corner, there was almost no bass output. Well, it wasn't actually in the corner, it was 4 feet from one wall and 1 foot from the other wall. Tonight I'll move it directly into the corner.

Get this, the sub is ported with the port facing the front of the cabinet. When I moved the sub into the corner, I could feel the air coming out of the port from 15 feet away, yet there was almost no bass.

 

This might be a bit of a "duh", but you don't have the sub wired out of phase, do ya?

Just an idea. Sometimes you have to check...

 

That's a great white paper. I'll read it tonight. Thanks!!

 

Hi Johnny,

Try another corner. I had a similar problem and moved the Sub to another
corner of the room.

 

That's a great meter and it is essential when setting up a surround system. The meter is about $30. The meter to get is the analog meter, not the digital meter.

 

Hi Johnny,

You're right the analogue meter is the one to get. If you know anyone
who is in the HT business they might have a meter that they could lend to you.