Searching for matching(?) Subwoofer solution

Hi HLEEID, While these guys argue you should go to the TBI website and take a look at their subs, they are the most musical subs that I’ve ever heard. I used a pair with my Sonist Concerto 2’s and the bass sound was very organic sounding, they will totally disappear and it just sounds like your speakers have more bass with the same quality as the rest of the spectrum.
As far as stereo bass I don’t know the science, but when I used two of the TBI subs in stereo the sound stage increased in size or at least that was MY impression.
They do come up used from time to time and would be worth it to check them out.
good luck! TISH

Hi racamuti,

Will take a look.  I am also going to take a step back and address room concerns as indicated by tablejockey.  Perhaps move things around. Get some damping material ready, etc. before deciding on the actual subwoofers.

At this point, given the smallish room size and relatively dedicated chair (listening) position, I am leaning towards two versus four subs.

Seems like speaker placement is more important with main speakers versus subwoofers, no?

I realize the best way to determine placement is by experimentation but are there any guidelines to use as a starting point?  Don't dos? i.e.  don't place in corners or too close to walls, windows, etc?

Thanks everyone!

Hi hleed,

I think you’re already on the the right track because you’re just going to have to experiment. Once you figure out where your furniture can and cannot go, you already have an idea of where you want your main speakers, how far apart from each other and how far they should be from their back wall.

There is a misconception that all subs are ’omnidirectional’ only. That is not necessarily true. If you sit in your office chair and close your eyes with you main speakers turned off or unwired and play some music with only your subs you will sense where the subs are being played in your office room with your hearing whether they are coming from the left, right or center of the room with your ears alone and you will feel with your body which part of the room the tones are coming from.

Since I listen to mostly music than use my system for 4K dvd watching I have my front firing subs in the corner of the opposing walls about 4 to 5 inches from the back wall and the outside wall from the subs, if this makes any sense. This way I get a total enveloping of the bass sound in the entire room because they are in opposing corners and you have to leave room for you sub interconnects. This suits me quite well since I’m a bass head.

My subs are front firing and in the same general plane or in line with my main speakers along the same wall. In other words sitting on my couch I’m looking at my mains and subs. In my situation the mains will always be closer to each other than the subs are to each other. Some folks will put a sub directly behind their couch or chair for watching movies to feel the effects of the exploding bomb/space shuttle track rumble. But you also have to have the room for that too. I’ve even known people who didn’t have enough room to put their dual subs in opposing corners or one behind the couch stack them on top of each other, since they had the same footprint! And they actually sound damn good too!

Do you want front firing subs? Or down firing subs? Sealed, vented or ported? Here is a link for you to get a good visual idea of how forward firing, down firing, vented, ported and sealed subs look and there different sizes and price points:

https://www.powersoundaudio.com/pages/subwoofers

You’ve got some decisions to make!

Hello Hans,

     I just wanted to let you know that taking any of tyray's advice on his last post is done at your own peril.  There's so much bad advice and false information in his post that it would take me hours to catalog them all and explain each of them to you.  Unfortunately, I don't currently have the time to do this.  So, I suggest you're better off just disregarding his entire post
     He obviously lacks the knowledge and experience required to be giving good information or advice to anyone about attaining good in-room bass response performance.  I believe he just doesn't know what he doesn't know.
     From what I could learn online, your Ologe 5 are high quality speakers that are just lacking high quality low frequency output below about 48 Hz.
    I have no doubt that your overall office system sound quality performance will be significantly improved by a single good quality sub, properly positioned and configured, since it will provide the missing frequency range from 20 to about 50 Hz.  But my experience is that 2 subs will sound twice as good as 1 sub and 3-4 subs will sound twice as good as 2. 
     The reasons multiple subs perform so well is due to the total bass output duties being shared so that no single sub is operating near its limits, the combined bass power and impact being increased, there being increased power reserves for better bass dynamics and the presence of multiple points in the room producing bass results in the perception of smoother and faster bass response that better integrates or blends with the main speakers' midrange and treble output.
    In your situation, I would describe your choice as between good, better or best.  In other words, between 1 sub, 2 subs or 3-4 subs. 
     If you're currently unsure or don't want to take a risk, I'd suggest a good way to begin is with 2 SVS SB1000 subs, 2 SVS PB1000 subs or one of each because I'm certain this type of sub setup will deliver significantly better overall sound quality performance,  costs $1,000 or less with no shipping costs, allows a 45-day free in-office trial period and, if not completely satisfied with their performance, offers a full refund with free return shipping.  
     I understand you've decided to take some time to get your room straightened out.  When you're ready and whichever option you eventually choose, however, I'm still willing to help you with step by step procedures for optimum sub hookup, positioning and the setting of sub volume, crossover frequency and phase settings.  Just send me a pm when you're all set.

Later,
Tim

    
  

Dear @cleeds   @noble100  @hleeid : Atmasphere that has first hand experiences on the overall recording proccess posted in other thread what oput true ligth on that mono/stereo subs issue:

"""  Its not so much the limitations of the format as it costs a lot of money to pay an engineer to work a way around "out of phase bass". If you spend the time with the recording, you can usually find a way to master it without having to process it. But that takes time and at $500/hour most often bass processing is used. This is a simple circuit that senses when bass is out of phase and makes it mono below about 80Hz for a few milliseconds until the event has passed. This makes mastering LPs less expensive!
But CDs do exist where out of phase bass exists. This can happen because a microphone is out of phase with the rest of the recording when a bass guitar or bass drum is recorded. For this reason, the recording engineer has a phase inversion switch on every channel of his mixer but he may not have thought to use them.

If the recording is done in its entirety with only two mics, out of phase bass will not exist.  """

In the other side we can think that we can't be aware the direction where are generated  fundamental frequencies as low of 40hz-20hz or even lower.

Well certainly not through our ears but a human been not only hear through the ears but from all body: ears, skin, bones, skin hairs, head hair and the like. The skin hairs are truly sensitive to very low bass frequency and we have a fenomenal transducer name it brain.
So we can be totally sure we can't identify direction of very low bass frequencies.

Now, I read through the AK site the quality myths about low bass range and I disagree with.

When we are talking of two channels system MUSIC dedicated listen quality of the subs drivers and the overall subs design is way important because MUSIC start with the fundamental frequency but what we really listen is where MUSIC belongs that are the harmonics of that fundamental frequency/note and those harmonics will be developed with the quality level depending of the quality level of the fundamental note reproduced by the susb.
Harmonics are what put the color and rythm in live MUSIC and home systems. As better quaklty be the subs as better will be the room/system experiences we have.

The first 3-4 harmonics are the ones due its SPLs the ones normally we can listen but the 7-8 or even up harmonics puts some kind of small/tiny " colorations " to what we are perceiving.

So we can't disgard the quality of the subs. Not all drivers and driver materials has the same qualiity level that's why manufacturers choose diffrenet build materials from different metalic ones to kevlar or puilp-paper. Obviously that the amp and crossover electronic quality design and quality parts are very important too.

In a two channels MUSIC only normally we are looking for quality  because the main speakers have a high quality levels and if the harmonics developed by the subs are not at same quality level then we can't really enjoy the listening experiences.

@hleeid  , first determine where you can get the best ubication for your speakers through listening tests. Where do you achieve the best listening experiences in the mid/high frequency range? and after that it will be more easy to find out ( by tyesting it. ) the two self powered subs you need.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.