Sub placed behind couch?

[Riff Magnum]

Anyone put the sub behind the listening position? I'm fixing up my living room and moving stuff around and it seems a really good spot, space wise, to put my future sub would be behind our couch. I figured since bass waves are omni that it might work, as long as the sub doesn't give away it's location.

[Sir Terrence]

Originally Posted by Riff Magnum

Anyone put the sub behind the listening position? I'm fixing up my living room and moving stuff around and it seems a really good spot, space wise, to put my future sub would be behind our couch. I figured since bass waves are omni that it might work, as long as the sub doesn't give away it's location.

It might cause some acoustical problems in that location. Just because bass waves are omni, does not mean you can just put a sub anywhere. There are performance issues that come with the positioning of the sub within rooms. If the couch is far from any walls, it is likely you will experience destructive cancellations at the seating position, not to mention the lack of low frequency support. You may also have some timing problems with the output of the sub arriving before the mains.

Subs should be near walls to get the best performance.

[Marcusarilius]

I just relocated my sub there. And I'll tell you what. The front mains sound much clearer / less muddled without the low frequency coming from the same direction.

I like the extra seat rumble under my ass too! Woo Whooooo!

[Beta Man]

Is this your only option for placement? Are there any other places you could put it? Behind the couch is a bad place for it, unless your couch is 10-12 feet from the wall behind it, and you can place it closer to the wall.... but that depends on your room.

[Marcusarilius]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

Is this your only option for placement? Are there any other places you could put it? Behind the couch is a bad place for it, unless your couch is 10-12 feet from the wall behind it, and you can place it closer to the wall.... but that depends on your room.

I'm going to design a chair built around my sub for accurate dispurtion from the sweet spot.

[Metalheadisme]

From my experience, every room is different- one of the best ways to see if it will work is to just try it!

[nycomet]

Originally Posted by Marcusarilius

I just relocated my sub there. And I'll tell you what. The front mains sound much clearer / less muddled without the low frequency coming from the same direction.

I like the extra seat rumble under my ass too! WickyWoo Whooooo!

Are you serious? You should get D-Box seating instead. It's like riding a

[Show spoiler] roller coaster!

[haste]

My 12" klipsch is right behind my futon in the living room. works great. all calibrated too.

[OkoPeeKee]

[QUOTE=Marcusarilius;893048][COLOR="Navy"]I just relocated my sub there. And I'll tell you what. The front mains sound much clearer / less muddled without the low frequency coming from the same direction.

I have a cheap sub that gets lost when I put it out front with my mains. I recently moved it behind my couch (which is about 10 feet from the wall behind the couch) and it seems to be the best sounding location for it. It seems to blend very well there. I have heard that it is ideal to place your sub within your front sound stage but this is what works best for me. When I eventually upgrade to a higher end sub I will experiment with different locations. Like others have said, I believe it's all about the room.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by Sir Terrence

It might cause some acoustical problems in that location. Just because bass waves are omni, does not mean you can just put a sub anywhere. There are performance issues that come with the positioning of the sub within rooms. If the couch is far from any walls, it is likely you will experience destructive cancellations at the seating position, not to mention the lack of low frequency support. You may also have some timing problems with the output of the sub arriving before the mains.

Subs should be near walls to get the best performance.

+1

[sterryo]

Originally Posted by Riff Magnum

Anyone put the sub behind the listening position? I'm fixing up my living room and moving stuff around and it seems a really good spot, space wise, to put my future sub would be behind our couch. I figured since bass waves are omni that it might work, as long as the sub doesn't give away it's location.

from Hsu Research website

What is the best place to put a subwoofer?
Due to certain principles of acoustics, the corner of the room is almost always the ideal location to place a subwoofer. The next best location to place a subwoofer is along a wall. Home theater aficionados may like to place the subwoofer to the side or behind the seating, near the listener, as this will provide better upper-bass impact. For the best experience, avoid placing the subwoofer or your seating in the middle of the room, because there is a bass void there.

[Sir Terrence]

Originally Posted by sterryo

from Hsu Research website

What is the best place to put a subwoofer?
Due to certain principles of acoustics, the corner of the room is almost always the ideal location to place a subwoofer. The next best location to place a subwoofer is along a wall. Home theater aficionados may like to place the subwoofer to the side or behind the seating, near the listener, as this will provide better upper-bass impact. For the best experience, avoid placing the subwoofer or your seating in the middle of the room, because there is a bass void there.

No matter how many times you tell folks this, people are going to do what they want to do. I always get told "its sounds great there"(by the side of the couch). Its great until I pull out my RTA and began to measure huge dips and peaks in the response in multiple position within the room.

Our ear/brain mechanism has this tremendous ability to ignore problems if we believe something is satisfactory. Our ear/brain mechanism has a tough time hearing problems in the deep bass, and accessing how bad they are. Our hearing is just too insensitive in that area. Most folks just calibrate the amplitude of the subs in relation to the mains. In this case you are aligning your room modes to the mains, not the output from the sub itself. If you want to get the ulitmate performance from your sub(and hear what it really sounds like) you must do a frequency sweep first, equalize out the room modes(nodes can be ignored, they are inaudible), and then calibrate the subs to the mains. That way any room modes are reduced in amplitude, and a more accurate calibration to the mains can be acheived.

[Riff Magnum]

In my living room i would have the couch about 8 feet from the wall and there's a corner that's empty for it, but i'm actually thinking about turning my spare bedroom into the home theatre. It's smaller in there so i wouldn't be able to do it behind the couch, but i might be able to get away with a couple bass traps and some reflective/absorption panels on the walls and there's less light to deal with. I also like the idea of getting a smaller tv, but it still looks huge. Would a 58" be too big at about 8 or 9 feet away?

[Sir Terrence]

Originally Posted by Riff Magnum

In my living room i would have the couch about 8 feet from the wall and there's a corner that's empty for it, but i'm actually thinking about turning my spare bedroom into the home theatre. It's smaller in there so i wouldn't be able to do it behind the couch, but i might be able to get away with a couple bass traps and some reflective/absorption panels on the walls and there's less light to deal with. I also like the idea of getting a smaller tv, but it still looks huge. Would a 58" be too big at about 8 or 9 feet away?

I sit 8ft away from a 65", so you should be okay.

[jkwest]

Originally Posted by Sir Terrence

No matter how many times you tell folks this, people are going to do what they want to do. I always get told "its sounds great there"(by the side of the couch). Its great until I pull out my RTA and began to measure huge dips and peaks in the response in multiple position within the room.

Our ear/brain mechanism has this tremendous ability to ignore problems if we believe something is satisfactory. Our ear/brain mechanism has a tough time hearing problems in the deep bass, and accessing how bad they are. Our hearing is just too insensitive in that area. Most folks just calibrate the amplitude of the subs in relation to the mains. In this case you are aligning your room modes to the mains, not the output from the sub itself. If you want to get the ulitmate performance from your sub(and hear what it really sounds like) you must do a frequency sweep first, equalize out the room modes(nodes can be ignored, they are inaudible), and then calibrate the subs to the mains. That way any room modes are reduced in amplitude, and a more accurate calibration to the mains can be acheived.

ok...but, what about a two sub placement?



I just added the 2nd sub to my room and set the crossover frequency to 180.

i haven't noticed any sound problems, but, I don't have any testing equipment besides the Audessy that is in my 605.

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by jkwest

ok...but, what about a two sub placement?
.

I think the point which should be taken from Sir T's post is the fact that you need to get use an SPL meter, etc. to set up your gear, because your brain will fool your ears into "THINKING" what your hearing is good... So room-layouts, Speaker Specs, your astrological sign, your favorite movie, the name of you dog, etc... isn't going to be enough information for ANYONE to say... "Oh... well you should definitely put the sub 72.34 inches from the left wall, 63.32 inches from the back wall, facing west, set between the 5, and 6 level, at 120hz "

[Sir Terrence]

Originally Posted by jkwest

ok...but, what about a two sub placement?

The two front corners are usually the best spot. Test have been done on placing them both in the same corner, but they have shown the response is not quite as even over many seats as each being placed in opposite corner in the front of the room.

I just added the 2nd sub to my room and set the crossover frequency to 180.

Unless your receiver is doing the crossover instead of the sub, 180hz is waaaay too high. It is likely male voices are coming from that sub, and it is extremely directional at that point. Subs should never have a crossover higher than 80hz, it gives its position away.

i haven't noticed any sound problems, but, I don't have any testing equipment besides the Audessy that is in my 605.

I do not like anything that does processing, but won't let me see the changes it makes. Also your version of audessy analyzes at 1/3 octave resolution. That will not give you enough resolution in the deep bass to deal with fine tuning of your system. When talking bass frequencies, you rarely hear problems, but you can certainly see them with a RTA.

[jkwest]

Originally Posted by Sir Terrence

Unless your receiver is doing the crossover instead of the sub, 180hz is waaaay too high. It is likely male voices are coming from that sub, and it is extremely directional at that point. Subs should never have a crossover higher than 80hz, it gives its position away.

I'm sorry SirTorrence, I meant I set the Phase Switch to 180 deg...not the frequency response...my bad. I have that set to 60Hz...I just wanted this one to cover the deeper hits in comparison to my other sub...

[m_tyson]

Originally Posted by Riff Magnum

Anyone put the sub behind the listening position? I'm fixing up my living room and moving stuff around and it seems a really good spot, space wise, to put my future sub would be behind our couch. I figured since bass waves are omni that it might work, as long as the sub doesn't give away it's location.

I have 2 matching subs behind the couch. The subs are against the rear wall, 8 feet apart, and 4" behind a 13 foot wide couch which is resting on 2 buttkickers and rubber isolation pads. This setup works very nicely in my room. There is no perception of bass approaching from behind the couch.