Placement difference

[Shintsu]

Well, a bit of a noob question but will I notice any substanial difference in the sound of my subwoofer between these two potential locations (the boxes with the red X's in them) where the black X is my listening location and the top part is an L shaped desk, and the black squares next to the brown rectangle on the right side are my speakers. I was going for the top one originally as the bottom one will require me to move the brown rectangle next to it (bookshelf) but I didn't know if the sound would be any different if it were over there as opposed to in the other corner.

 

[sploo]

Both locations are in corners, so I'd suspect you'll get some reinforcement of bass from that (perhaps it may be too boomy).

My suspicion is that there wouldn't be much difference, but if you wanted to check, get hold of an SPL meter with a phono output (or a decent mic) and use a PC with a copy of ETF Acoustic to perform some frequency sweeps and measure the response in your listening position.

If I remember correctly, an unregistered copy of ETF will allow you to perform a basic measurement (I think it's just saving that's disabled).

 

[jostenmeat]

No reason to not try both.

However, in my experiences, I've never once, not a once, ever heard a corner loaded sub that didn't excite modes high enough to essentially make the sub localizable.

I've read that if one can significantly treat a room, and I do mean significantly, these modes can be tamed. When they are tamed, corner loading becomes beneficial from the boundary reinforcement, simply because the sub doesn't have to work as hard. Greater efficiency of setup = lower distortion = better SQ. Again, however, I've never heard a corner loaded sub that I liked . . . but I've never been in a room with more than 40 treatments either. YMMV!