Dual subs...should placement be symmetric?

[menglish6]

Trying to figure the placement for dual subs. One of them basically has to go in the front corner (i.e. corner loaded), however, I have a bit of leeway for the other one.

Should I corner load the second sub as well so that it matches?

 

[ImcLoud]

Trial and error...

you will get a better answer if you throw a few pics of the room up... or at least a drawing...

 

[fuzz092888]

Trial and error...

you will get a better answer if you throw a few pics of the room up... or at least a drawing...

Or something like this

Subwoofer Placement Guidelines — Reviews and News from Audioholics
Subwoofer Placement - The Place for Bass Part 1 — Reviews and News from Audioholics

 

[menglish6]

Thanks for all the responses so far. Here's a rough sketch-up of the space. Right now I'm playing with the extra room behind the couch for the second subwoofer.

The reason that I started wondering about this question is that I've read in a couple of places that if you pair two subwoofers where one is more powerful than the other, it basically has no effect, the smaller subwoofer doesn't really help improve the headroom or room response (hence the recommendation for identical subs). I was thinking that because corner loading a sub is supposed to increase room response by...6db? 3db? it might create this same situation where the corner loaded sub is doing all the work.

 

[menglish6]

Not sure why that image link is broken. If I right click on it and "open in new tab" it goes to the correct place. Do I need a minimum post count for images to display?

 

[Matt34]

Not sure why that image link is broken. If I right click on it and "open in new tab" it goes to the correct place. Do I need a minimum post count for images to display?

Yes, I believe you need 25 posts.

 

[fuzz092888]

Thanks for all the responses so far. Here's a rough sketch-up of the space. Right now I'm playing with the extra room behind the couch for the second subwoofer.

The reason that I started wondering about this question is that I've read in a couple of places that if you pair two subwoofers where one is more powerful than the other, it basically has no effect, the smaller subwoofer doesn't really help improve the headroom or room response (hence the recommendation for identical subs). I was thinking that because corner loading a sub is supposed to increase room response by...6db? 3db? it might create this same situation where the corner loaded sub is doing all the work.

You wouldn't want both of your subs on the same wall like that. The purpose, if you read the articles, is not simply to increase output, but to smooth bass response (I'm sure you knew that). Which means that if you are sitting at the listening position in your current setup it may seem like a lot of bass is coming form your left side instead of all around you.

Don't worry about corner loading one. That can be adjusted with RC or simply turning down the gain on that one. Some sort of subEQ would also help smooth everything out.

A big reason for matching subs is that one may be much more capable than the other and I'm not talking about gain. If you have one sub that reaches distortion much sooner than the other you may end up with bass from one sub that sounds clean and tight, while the other sounds bloated and awful. Mixed together and you get more awful than good.

 

[menglish6]

So you think I should move the front corner loaded sub to the right side of the tv?

Looking at the Harman papers it does seem that this approach ought to perform well, I just wonder how much the large open space to the side would change thing. Given that I've got a 4311, running Audyssey ought to just "do the right thing" for me with respect to potentially needing to compensate for levels eh?

 

[fuzz092888]

Yes, either that, or move the one in the back corner to the front right. I think moving the corner loaded one to the front right would work the best though.

Yes the 4311 should make everything play nice and do all the dirty work