Steve_Cohen

Subwoofer Placement

I just rearranged my Home Theater and am now finding that I need to place my sub (polk sw-350) in an out of the way place which is next to my couch about 7-8 feet distant from the screen. Are there any negatives to placing the sub in such a location? I searched the forum and couldn't find anything that specifically answered that question.

Thanks for the advice.

imported_Brian L

Well, there are lots of opinions on sub placement, and no two room are alike. I like corners, others like anywhere BUT a corner. As for placing it close to the lisetnning position, Dr. Hsu, of HSU Research favors this.

I have not been able to try it, but will be doing so soon as I rearrange my listening room.

I guess the best advice I could give you is place where you want it to go, take some measurements and see what you get. Of course, at the end of the day, its the measurements that you do with your two ears that count the most.

BGL

Chris A H

I have my sub (PB1-ISD) on the wall opposite my HT and next to a couch (my main listening position). Had a HSU STF-2 in that position and though it sounded OK I could never get it calibrated to the point where it really blended with my mains, and the impact seemed like adding a woofer rather than a sub-woofer.

I sent is back and got the SVS, and it sounded somewhat better right out of the box. Then I calibrated it the same, but the biggest difference was the SVS had a variable phase control knob and the HSU had a 0-180 phase switch (which did nothing measurable nor audible when I flipped it). In the 105 degree postion the SVS turned into the sub everyone raves about.

In my room, the variable phase control made a huge difference in my sub's performance when placed near the listening postion.

imported_Brian L

Roger that! If I could figure out a circuit to build a line level, variable phase control, I bet a few could be sold.

One thing very interesting WRT sub phase is that the tests on Avia, DVE etc. are easy to use, and they will obviously show that one or the other of a two position setting is louder. No rocket science there.

But the Chesky Ultimate DVD has a test that plays a tone at the frequency of choice across the two mains and the sub(set it to match your crossover). First, the .1 channel and the mains are in phase, then it plays again with the .1 channel out of phase with the mains.

The instructions say to set the switch or knob so that the in phase setting is louder than the out of phase setting.

But with a two position switch, that is not possible in my room with the speakers/sub/listening chair in my normal locations.

What this showed me was that the out of phase tones were louder in BOTH positions. WTF? One position was still louder than the other, but neither setting resulted in the in phase setting tones louder than the out of phase tones.

I think Kevin Brown had posted here about this as well. I would have to guess that a setting other than 0 or 180 degrees would be the ticket.

And to further muddy the water, my uni player (Pio 45a) has a sub distance setting, which in effect is variable sub phase control. Using that, I was able to monkey with the sub distance and get the inphase tone to be louder than the out of phase tone.....but the question is, is that hosing anything else?

BGL