Why The Hell Sound Better Far Away?

[HomeTheaterVirgin]

Okay so Im in the market to start my first hometheater system for right now Iam using a HTIB I bought 3 years ago.It has no Hd sound or anything well I have it connected to my blu ray player by optic cable.When I watch blu rays and sit at at my couch it sounds okay but when i sit behind the sofa sounds alot better and I can feal the bass.

[kpkelley]

Two questions:

Have you calibrated your system?

Do you have your front speakers toed in?

[aramis109]

Room acoustics at play. You're probably getting some bass reflection and so it sounds more "bass-y" back by the wall. Calibrating your system with autocal systems or an SPL meter can definitely help.

[LembasBread]

Originally Posted by HomeTheaterVirgin

Okay so Im in the market to start my first hometheater system for right now Iam using a HTIB I bought 3 years ago.It has no Hd sound or anything well I have it connected to my blu ray player by optic cable.When I watch blu rays and sit at at my couch it sounds okay but when i sit behind the sofa sounds alot better and I can feal the bass.

Sounds like you've got some dead spots where those low frequencies get canceled out from the reflections in your room.

Have someone move the woofer around while you sit at the listening position playing a low frequency test tone and listen to where the bass sounds strongest. Would work even better if you had an SPL meter. Or you could move your listening position.

[HomeTheaterVirgin]

Originally Posted by kpkelley

Two questions:

Have you calibrated your system?

Do you have your front speakers toed in?

No as far as customizing sound all I have on the reciever is tremble +1+2+3-1-2-3 bass the same way and speaker level the same way.

[StimpsonJCat]

Where is your couch in the room?
If you have the couch in the middle of the room it will be in a bass null.

[HomeTheaterVirgin]

yea couch is in the middle of the room

[StimpsonJCat]

Originally Posted by HomeTheaterVirgin

yea couch is in the middle of the room

Acoustically it is the worse spot for it. Any way to re-arrange?

Can you move it forward a couple/few feet or back?

[mike from nyc]

Originally Posted by LembasBread

Sounds like you've got some dead spots where those low frequencies get canceled out from the reflections in your room.

Have someone move the woofer around while you sit at the listening position playing a low frequency test tone and listen to where the bass sounds strongest. Would work even better if you had an SPL meter. Or you could move your listening position.

The correct answer. You are sitting in a dead zone - this happens in almost every room.

[mike from nyc]

Another suggestion for optimum placement is to put the sub on the couch and then crawl along the floor on the wall or walls you can put the sub (w/o getting your SO mad at you). This is a one person solution which could make your life easier. Adding, if your budget permits, a second sub will probably help also.

[Rob J in WNY]

HomeTheaterVirgin,

You have some golden suggestions going on so far. Right now, you are most definitely sitting in a "null" or "cancellation" zone for bass. In my own living room, the way it's arranged, I can't keep the sub along the front soundstage. I cannot hear practically any low frequency output from it if I place it along there.

In my living room, the sub provides solid audible output (from my listening position) when it is placed alongside the wall to side of my couch - nowhere near the front soundstage!

Definitely experiment with moving the sub around. Try to keep it along a wall if you can. The "subwoofer crawl" that Mike from NYC suggested above is one of the most effective ways to find a great spot for your sub.

If you want to get even more serious, once you find a great location for your sub, you may try experiment with raising it a bit higher off the floor a bit. Sometimes doing this can improve its performance at your listening position even more.

Most companies will say something along the order of "bass is non-directional, so you can place the subwoofer anywhere in the room." Although low frequencies are non-directional, enclosing those frequencies into a room, such as your living room, will subject those frequencies to reflections, standing waves, potential interaction with other speaker output or environmental sounds, and thus, you get cancellation zones in your room. In other words, the placing the subwoofer "anywhere in the room" is not going to work out in all rooms.

If you want to take the time to learn a LOT more, check out the Subwoofer Forum on this site. In particular, see the "sticky" posts at the top of the page with information prepared and written by site member "Big Daddy." They contain both basic and advanced information and theory on many aspects of subwoofer characteristics, and are all excellent reads.

Good luck!

[Fors*]

Originally Posted by Rob J in WNY

HomeTheaterVirgin,

You have some golden suggestions going on so far. Right now, you are most definitely sitting in a "null" or "cancellation" zone for bass. In my own living room, the way it's arranged, I can't keep the sub along the front soundstage. I cannot hear practically any low frequency output from it if I place it along there.

In my living room, the sub provides solid audible output (from my listening position) when it is placed alongside the wall to side of my couch - nowhere near the front soundstage!

Definitely experiment with moving the sub around. Try to keep it along a wall if you can. The "subwoofer crawl" that Mike from NYC suggested above is one of the most effective ways to find a great spot for your sub.

If you want to get even more serious, once you find a great location for your sub, you may try experiment with raising it a bit higher off the floor a bit. Sometimes doing this can improve its performance at your listening position even more.

Most companies will say something along the order of "bass is non-directional, so you can place the subwoofer anywhere in the room." Although low frequencies are non-directional, enclosing those frequencies into a room, such as your living room, will subject those frequencies to reflections, standing waves, potential interaction with other speaker output or environmental sounds, and thus, you get cancellation zones in your room. In other words, the placing the subwoofer "anywhere in the room" is not going to work out in all rooms.

If you want to take the time to learn a LOT more, check out the Subwoofer Forum on this site. In particular, see the "sticky" posts at the top of the page with information prepared and written by site member "Big Daddy." They contain both basic and advanced information and theory on many aspects of subwoofer characteristics, and are all excellent reads.

Good luck!

That was a very nice post Rob!

[callas01]

I think also it could be the imaging of the speakers, I know that my energys owners manual says to sit twice as far away from the speakers as the speaker are apart from one another, for the best possible imaging and listening position. Unfortunately, my living room isn't that big...