dual subs.....how & where to install?

My subs sound their best, (most musical)....behind, and just to the inside of my speakers. My room is 25' wide...this places the subs at around the 1/3rd room width points on that wall with the fronts at 24" out.

I also got good bass levels in the front room corners...not musical, even though that placement did measure fairly well.

I also tried the two side walls...not as good as the front wall in my room.... also, not as musical sounding.

My mains are planers and I'm "very" happy with the locations I'm at now...It's been truly a game of inches.

Dave

This is a highly debated subject. You are correct, most subs are detectable even at low frequency. Hearing is not the only thing at play here. First off I would suggest lowering your cut off frequency down to 30Hz since your Studios are 3db down at 33Hz. Localization is very easy on a sub with a 60hz cut off anyway. Set at 60hz you probably have too much bass in the 30-60hz range.

You can try the stero sub set-up i.e. one near each speaker. Effectivly, you are creating fuller range stereo speakers with the two subs. The drawback can be cancellation of certain frequency's due to the sub spacing. Think about it like dropping two stones in the water some distance apart. the waves colide and some cancel while others add. The stereo effect is difficult to distiguish as the frequency goes down, so low frequency tends to sound mono. Stereo seperation becomes less important and sound wave cancellation can become an issue. Stacking subs is like throwing one bigger stone in the water. There is probably not much stereo information below 30hz so you may find it gives you better impact. You will need to experiment with your room and set-up to see what works best for you.

I'm aware of at least two schools of thought on the subject.

The first would recommend placing one sub to the extreme right of the listening position, and the other to the extreme left of the listening position. This works with the ear/brain system to produce the greatest sense of hall ambience.

The second school of thought would recommend placing the subs as asymmetrically as possible, so as to maximally stagger the path lengths from each sub to room boundaries and then on to your ears, resulting in smoother bass over a large area. A low crossover frequency and/or steep slope low pass filter is beneficial in this application. This is the technique I use. In my room one sub is behind the right speaker and near a corner, and the other is along the left wall slightly behind (and much closer to) the listening position. Ideally, one of the subs would be elevated off the floor also.

Duke