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Subwoofer placement - does it matter?

So room size is 15x20 and it’s a b&w asw2000 with a 12 inch driver, big.  Seems it would do the same where ever it is since wavelengths are so big. 
Does it matter where you place it in this room?


emergingsoul
emergingsoul OP
1,096 posts
 
If I need to measure it, it seems it can’t be heard.  Diff spots in room are diff for sound which makes sense.  It sucks that main speakers generally don’t do well with wide dispersion, which is another issue.

erik_squires
16,017 posts
 
Hi OP,

So the buzz words you are talking about are "room modes" and "Shroeder frequency" and "standing waves."   They are VERY much in play in your average living room, creating almost perfect nulls and up to 200x power (~ 20 dB or more) magnification in tight bands.

I strongly encourage you to read up on the subject outside of here. It is exactly because of these issues that trying to get a flat response down to 20 or 16 Hz is the most dangerous and vexing problem for most audiophiles. In these depths is where the mermaids and dragons live.

Best,

Erik
m-db's avatar
m-db
969 posts
 
This is an easy place to start.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV3oLLMgS-M

Even if you can’t locate your subwoofer in your rooms main mode locating it the general area can help the effect at your listening position.
jon_5912
601 posts
 
@emergingsoul  You can measure it if you want to understand it.  bass is difficult to get right.  In my opinion the way to go is main speakers that have a slow drop in response starting at a fairly high frequency.  Mains that are flat to 20hz are likely to cause all sorts of bass problems when they are placed in the best position for the rest of the frequency spectrum. Full range mains are a terrible idea. And you almost certainly want multiple subs.  
mike_in_nc
1,139 posts
 
@emergingsoul
If I need to measure it, it seems it can’t be heard.

Is that a question, or have you made up your mind?

You certainly will hear that bass is uneven. How well you can translate that into varying effects at different frequencies, and how they change with position, is difficult to say. Most mere mortals find a graph helps -- a lot! That way, your experiments can be a lot more systematic.

And when adjusting phase, a graph helps a lot. There are makeshift ways to do it without, but you can do it in 30 seconds with a sweep or pink noise and acoustics measuring software.



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