Best place to put a single subwoofer?


I know there are many opinions regarding subwoofer placement. I have had multiple subs (4) all in the same listening space. Way too much! I have had matched pairs hooked up in stereo. Right now I own only 1. It is part of my dedicated 2 channel music room and not a theater system. I have a pair of MBL 101e Mk2's which are excellent speakers IMHO, and they produce POWERFUL bass in their own right. However I am a bass freak (as noted above), so the harder it hits the better. Plus I tend to listen to a fair amount of rock music which I like to play loud, (hence MBL 101e's). Right now I have my sub positioned dead center between the two Radialstrahlers and it does ok. But I feel as though I'm missing something and that I ought to do something to increase performance, although I'm not exactally sure where to go with it. Not too many places I can move it to, but input and suggestions would be much appreciated. I have tried moving it closer, and then farther away from the wall but have not noticed any dramatic improvements. What about bass "suck out"? Could I be having some cancellation issues? What things would you Audiogoners do to improve on (already good) bass performance?
martinmobile
Hello Everybody. Hello MrD, Thanks for the feedback. I am not rolling off the last octave and I am in fact running the MBL's full range. I am not a big fan of routing the audio signal through Hi-pass filters in the subs crossover. I have found that to degrade the sound to the main speakers, in my experience, so I run my sub straight from my preamp, X'd-over at between 50 and 65hz. My MBL's run full range. (I did the same thing with the Martin Logans and the plethora of subs that I mated with them. Allways full range).
I agree about the running of stereo subs as I have indeed done that. Dual Velodynes, Dual Bagend Infrasub 18's, Dual Von Schweikerts, and even Dual Sunfire "True" Subwoofers-God forbid! (which by the way were absolute pieces of shit for music. I refer to them as "nuclear bombs in a small box"- No pitch definition, 1 note bass pieces of poop that they were!). Yes it is difficult to make a pair of stereo subs integrate properly, and does not take much to overdrive the hell out of the listening room.
I have given some thought to the fact that maybe I "over-damped" the wall with all those big panels I had made, and have considered taking a few of them down, like maybe 2 of them. Leave 3 up? But I have not done that yet. The one thing I am mindful of is how much that wall behind my MBL's reinforces the sound, making the overall musical presentation rather "bright" and "strident" sounding. Not a good thing IMHO. Been there, done that, didn't really like the effect. Room definately sounds better with a "dead" wall behind the speakers. But I should try taking a FEW of them down and see what the effect is. Good suggestion MrD.
As for the tubes in my preamp going "microphonic"?? I haven't a clue. How would I know? What is "microphonic" anyway? (showing my tube ignorance now. This B.A.T. preamp is the first AND only piece of tube gear that I've ever owned. Always had solid state my whole life.) I have heard the term "microphonic" used, but wouldn't know if something like it is occuring with my toys. Please enlighten me if you would?
Martinmobile, microphonics are the result of unwanted vibrations via acoustic (airborn) or mechanical feedback, usually re-amplified through the system. These can enter (or exist in) the preamp chassis and screw things up. IME tubes are more prone to this, although, it is everywhere and in everything. I believe heavily in "tube dampers", as I feel the sound is cleaner and tighter. BAT might have included them with the pre amp. They look like garden hose washers (as an example) and come in different shapes, sizes and colors. There are so many tweaks available to "tighten" up the sound. You are free to email me and I can discuss some of these with you. Taking panels off the speaker wall would be an experiment to see if " slam" is increased (brightness too, unfortunately). Let me know. MrD.
Sthomas12321. FYI . This sub question was for a dedicated 2 channel music system, as indicated in the op. Thank you