Tip of the Day: Corner Loading a Sub

[admin]

Tip of the Day: Corner load a small but potent sub to take advantage of low frequency room gain. Keep the wife happy aesthetically while getting the deep tactile bass you desire. This can be accomplished with a small sub employing a HPF with a gradual rolloff. The EMP ES1010i is one example that works well in such situations.

Check out the EMP ES1010i Subwoofer: http://www.emptek.com/es1010i.php


Discuss "Tip of the Day: Corner Loading a Sub" here. Read the article.

[GranteedEV]

does it actually work that way?

As far as I know, corner loading simply excites the most room modes.

To get actual room gain, you need the room to be sealed so that it acts pressure vessel, and on that note placement won't matter much because this occurs below the room's fundamental frequency.

[SaviorMachine]

What kind of article is this?

[gene]

does it actually work that way?

As far as I know, corner loading simply excites the most room modes.

To get actual room gain, you need the room to be sealed so that it acts pressure vessel, and on that note placement won't matter much because this occurs below the room's fundamental frequency.

True but if you look at my review of the ES1010i, you can see the room response at the listening area was flat to 20Hz despite the sub rolling off around 30Hz. In any decent sized room you will get a bump in the 20-40Hz region towards the back of the room so if the sub has a gradual rolloff, you should see a boost at those frequencies.

[gene]

What kind of article is this?

It's NOT. It's a tip of the day as the page title indicates, and something we plan on doing routinely to help neophytes.

[gmichael]

I corner loaded an 18" 4000 watt sub. Is that too small for this to work?

[ratso]

it was actually dr. floyd toole that recommended corner placement with a single sub. it was his position that you should get as much output as possible and deal with room modes with active eq, room treatments and changing your seating position.

[josko]

I had a hard time with my sub (SVS SB13) in the corner. I did get some enhanced levels near 20-25 Hz, but ended up with pernicious 20 dB+ nulls near 81 and 110 Hz. I moved the sub around a lot, finally settling on a location between my left front and center speaker and maybe 8" away from the wall. I lost maybe 3 db in the 20-25 Hz range but also reduced the 81Hz null to something <5 dB, and the 110 Hz is behaving better, too.
IMHO, the overall sound is a lot better with that sub out of the corner.
Now I'm planning to go after the 110 Hz null with room treatments. I'm at a bit of a loss since I really don't know what bass traps I want or where to put them. (Kinda hate to just blindly buy some and hope for the best.) Would anybody know what kind of a mode is at 110 Hz in an 18' x 24' room? I believe that if I can figure out the mode shape, that would lead me to correct placement of bass traps, but I have not been succesful trying to figure out mode shape by playing a 110 Hz tone and moving around the room with my SL meter. I assume I want the bass trap where SL is the highest near a wall, no?
Does anybody have an organized procedure for reducing a null like this?

[Steve81]

Now I'm planning to go after the 110 Hz null with room treatments. I'm at a bit of a loss since I really don't know what bass traps I want or where to put them. (Kinda hate to just blindly buy some and hope for the best.) Would anybody know what kind of a mode is at 110 Hz in an 18' x 24' room? I believe that if I can figure out the mode shape, that would lead me to correct placement of bass traps, but I have not been succesful trying to figure out mode shape by playing a 110 Hz note and moving around the room with my SL meter. I assume ZI want the bass trap where SL is the highest near a wall, no?
Does anybody have an organized procedure for reducing a null like this?

There may be a few applicable thoughts on this thread:
Room treatments

Floor/ceiling bounce was one possibility mentioned, and it could be applicable in your case. A calculator was provided which you could check:

http://mehlau.net/audio/floorbounce/