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What process did you use to integrate multiple subwoofers for 2 channel listening?

Today I will be trying to integrate up to three subs. Two are matching Rythmiks F12SE, and one is a REL R-328. The Rythmiks have a variety of adjustable parameters, including phase, crossover, and gain. There are other switches and passes on the sub, but I'm going to try to keep it basic to begin with. The REL has variable gain and crossover; the phase on REL is either 0 or 180.

I have REW for measurement. I will be buying a few more furniture sliders this morning, on doctors orders. ;-)

QUESTION: If you have multiple subs, by what process did you integrate your subs? One at a time? More? Which adjustments did you try first and in what kinds of increment?

I know that trial, error, measuring, and listening will all take time. Rather than look for a needle in a haystack, I'm curious what sequence or process was most effective for you.

Thank you.
128x128hilde45
hilde45's avatar
hilde45 OP
5,006 posts
 
@mapman 

It helped that that room is thin dense carpet pad over solid concrete foundation. No floor resonance issues there like I have upstairs to deal with. If you have those, tackle those directly with isolation pads or equivalent under speakers.
I'm on concrete, too. 2/4 walls are brick. Not a symmetrical room but not much resonance.

@gosta  The guys on the hifi podcast just described a guy who spent 150k on a room for listening using treatments, and other tools and it still has problems. 
totem395
390 posts
 
My steps on bass integration/room Eq. 

1st do appropriate room treatments, *this is the foundation for all that follows.
 2nd add multiple subs 2/3/or more.
 3rd add a crossover to eliminate mains from the sub                              
 4th integrate DSP in the Sub range.

Took my room size and layout out of the equation.





              
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
See my posts on bass and room treatment. A huge amount of boomy bass was eliminated with vibration control- Townshend Podiums and Pods- and a lot of the rest went away with F1 cables. Yes wire contributes to resonance problems.   

If I had gone the traditional tube traps first approach I would now be struggling to restore that which was being unnecessarily removed with expensive bulky tube traps. 

It's a new millennium, boys. One sub is out, DBA is in. Panels are passe, HFT are hot. Podiums trump traps. Etc, etc.
audiokinesis
2,747 posts
 
@hilde45 wrote: "...the orange "morning" line is speakers only.  Improvement from "Morning scan, without subs" to "Afternoon scan, with subs" mitigates the dip significantly at various points, e.g. pulling up a null by 10 db at 129 hz, by 8 db at 241hz."   

Maybe I'm just slow, but eyeballing the curves I would have thought that Orange was WITH subs, and Green was speakers ONLY.   

Anyway assuming that's the only difference, AND that the microphone locations and other measurement conditions are identical, the curves imply that the subs are active pretty high up.  Where are you rolling off the top end of the subs?  

Incidentally the dip around 270 Hz and peak around 540 Hz look to me like floor bounce artifacts (perhaps modified by the ceiling bounce) and imo should NOT be EQ'd away.  

Duke
hilde45's avatar
hilde45 OP
5,006 posts
 
Been testing all day, off the computer. I've definitely improved things a lot with systematic adding in of each sub and then doubling the amount of treatment at ceiling first reflection points. I'm now dialing in a variety of room treatments. Be back when I can.
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