Subwoofer placement in a odd shaped room ?

[compdoc]

hi, long time reader and first time poster. Ive read all the articles on placement etc and the myths and facts on such but im still not sure if my current placement is ideal since I am limited on options since we have a kind of open concept livingroom with high ceilings and openings to a dining room and to the front hallway/entry which in turn circles around to the kitchen/dining room.

Current gear consists of a Denon 1712, Energy CC-10, Energy cf-50, 4x Energy Take2 classic satellites (7.2 setup), Velodyne DPS-12 and a Energy ESW-8 (came with the Energy Take2 system). Samsung 55" LED, Samsung Blu Ray, Silverstone HTPC, Digital box and Belkin Pure AV power Center.

Diagram of the current setup:
The Side surrounds are placed just above head level and the 2 back are positioned down and just infront of the seating area.

Anyway currently the Velo DPS-12 is on the front left wall with the Energy ESW-8 behind the sectional, placement is very limited with the center wall of the house not being a option. The tv wall as in this picture has no room :



My Question is, should i move the Velo to the back of the room in the corner? with the Energy ESW-8 moved up to the front side wall? Im using the Denons Audyssey MultEQ XT with both subs plugged in (daisy chain). The Vel DPS-12 does have a built in Eq for 4 different modes, so should i simply run the set up calibration with just the energy sub in, and add the dps 12 back into the equation after its complete? I would love to find a 2nd DPS 12 to match up subwoofers but have been unable to find one yet , thanks in advance for any tips and suggestions.

 

[j_garcia]

I am going to guess the ESW8 doesn't keep up with the other one. I'd just leave it out. Otherwise, keep it where it is since it has likely less oomph, having it closer to you will allow it to use less power to achieve useful levels.

 

[Rippyman]

What kind of software did you use to create your diagram, pretty nifty.

 

[Pyrrho]

With an odd room in particular, it is a good idea to place your subwoofer in your listening position and then crawl around the room to find the best sounding spot. It is discussed here:

Crawling for Bass - Subwoofer Placement | Audioholics

Also, I agree with j_garcia that you probably don't want to use both subwoofers if they are very unequal.

 

[compdoc]

What kind of software did you use to create your diagram, pretty nifty.

Create floor plans, house plans and home plans online with Floorplanner.com

Its a great Tool for fast and easy layouts etc while maintaining true ratio for walls etc etc with lots of premade furniture for drag and drop, Speakers already have sound field graphics built in which can be annoying when moving things around, but just drag to the side or leave till the very last.

As for crawling around with subwoofer placement, the current velo position has a tight bass responce in that general area its set to direct with the denon handling all crossover etc. The energy in the back could be removed however i felt lowering its x-over could just give some extra oomp ( even though it only goes down to 33hz )and letting the velo handling the majority of the work.

 

[j_garcia]

Lowering the x-over doesn't help. That sub is designed to work better higher up in the range, so I'd expect you'd be better off using it up top and lowering the xover of the Velo. If it doesn't have a similar output as the Velo, it will basically become the limiting factor for both subs. I thought MultiEQ XT can manage two subs? Might look into that if it can.

 

[compdoc]

Doing more reading, it seems trying to run both subs and especially non similar subs and summing them up and running Audyssey MultiEQ XT can create bass null fields ?

As for Audyssey MultiEQ XT from what im reading and guessing is right is that handling more then one sub it basically sums the 2 subs up together(using a y-splitter, the denon 1712 only has 1 sub output) and even with the same level output can produce deep nulls due to phase issues that the filter tries to correct from the combined subs but there are still issues.

If the subs were Equally the same distance and the same output checked with a SPL meter this might help ? Something i noticed the other day is when adjusting the Energy sub , i flicked the phase to 180 (the velo is set to 0) and the Energy sub seem to pick up and play more bass ? the output was noticeable. Could this be part of the phase issue that im reading about then ? I know subs in different phase are not typical but could this be part of the room acoustics as well?

As for the Energy playing higher and setting the velo to play lower with x-over settings. It seem the Energy sub had a hard time matching the Take2 classic sats in the previous set up. The transition in sound seem to have " holes " but the velo doesn't seem to have this issue, is it possible it was the room harmonics and the velo simply overpowers the front position issue.. so i should go back to the sub-woofer crawl again ? and check all outer positions where sub-woofer placement could be implemented?

As well as remove the Energy esw-8 from the equation ? Basically i want and willing to read and test for the best sound that i can with the budget im on and stopping the gf from turning up her eyebrows if i drag in more equipment

 

[compdoc]

Hi another question, would a full range rta meter(android app) on a tablet that shows the entire range with a sound file playing through the system give me some idea on better sub p placement. Moving around the room and checking for dips due to room acoustics and taking note of measurements. I just wonder if that would be more exact then Audibly saying yes that sounds better and/or checking on maximizing best sub placement taking into consideration room limitations?