2 Subwoofer Setup and Phasing Questions (1 Viewer)

[Eric A]

I posted this over at AVS and I thought I would try here as well for additional thoughts.

I have recently purchased 2 Earthquake subs for my 16x20x9 room. I placed one in the front left corner replacing my old sub and calibrated it perfectly using Avia and my ears. After trying numerous other spots for the second I placed it on the opposite side of the room on the same wall and calibrated it into my setup while the other was running. Next came phasing. When I placed the second sub in the system I immediately noticed that the 1st sub became much louder and more localizable. Xover is set at 80hz. Next I inverted the phase on the 2nd sub and it got a bit better but the 1st sub was still very localizable. Finally I inverted the 1st sub's polarity and switched the second one back to in phase and I got the smoothest response without any localization. My question is can this be okay? When running one sub in the left corner it sounds much better in phase with the rest of my speakers but adding the second makes just the opposite true. I am wondering if I am missing something. Thanks for the help

 

[Andrew Pierce]

Try stacking them in one corner. That way the distance from each sub to any spot in the room is the same -- no phase issues, no standing waves causing the subs to cancel out out in some spots, reinforce in others. Assuming your mains go deep enough the subs shouldn't be localized.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

I have also heard that the best/easist way of using 2 subs is to stack them in a corner...

If possible, you use one as a dedicated LFE channel, and the other for the crossover bass from the other 5/6/7 channels.