Sub Set-Up Advice

[Jeff R.]

So I am in the process of moving to a new house currently and will have some various options on how I set up my subwoofers. See my sig below to see what I am working with, but a pair of sealed 10" eclipse subs and a pair of sealed 15" Ultimax subs.

I will be setting up a 3.2 system for watching TV and listening to music. This system will be in a large living room and will have openings that go to various places so no ability to close off the room.
I will also have a HT that will be a smaller room, roughly 12' x 15' x 8' that will be able to be closed off.

So I have three options in my mind....

So I can keep my system basically just how it is use my 10's for the TV/Music and the 15's for the the HT however I am concerned that the 15" will just be pure overkill in that little room. I was building them originally for a 40' x 20' x 12' room in my last home.

Or

I can move the 15's down to the TV/Music area and then move the 10's up to the HT area? The question is will the 10's be large enough for the small room or will they struggle to keep up, they are very good for their small size.

Or

The move complex option of using a 10 and 15 in both areas and do some tricky setup where I have the 10" sub play from like 80 hz - 50 hz and the 15" sub play from 50 hz to 20hz. My concern is that will be very difficult to setup without really investing into some good setup equipment and lots of time and patience.

What do you think?

Thanks

Jeff

 

[fuzz092888]

If the family room system isn't going to get played very loudly and if you're mainly going to be watching TV, then I definitely wouldn't put the Ultimax subs there. I would keep the Ultimax subs in the HT setup even though it's a smaller room. Just because you won't be using the Ultimax subs to their max potential doesn't mean you won't appreciate the additional headroom and extension they provide when watching content that will actually make use of it.

 

[Jeff R.]

I will be playing the system loud in the family room. It will only be music. So not much ultralow frequency demand.

 

[fuzz092888]

I will be playing the system loud in the family room. It will only be music. So not much ultralow frequency demand.

Then I would say that my recommendation stands.

 

[Jeff R.]

So after reading the thread about can one have a subwoofer to big for a room, Ed Mullen had some comments about room gain. Would my small 10's follow suit to his predicitons..and I would likely stand to gain down low with my sealed configuration.

 

[fuzz092888]

It depends on the subs. All sealed subs experience a 12db/oct rolloff starting pretty high up and aren't flat to the deep frequencies without EQ. The small 10's probably have some EQ built in if they are commercial, plus they will get some room gain. My guess is that they will get the room gain, but be fine, especially in a larger space. I wouldn't worry about them. As for the 15" Ultimax subs, how do you plan to EQ those? They will experience the rolloff as well if they are in sealed cabs and the best way to mate them to the room without causing any issues with room gain is to measure them in room with no EQ to find the natural in room rolloff point and then apply the EQ. This will keep anything from sounding boomy or accentuated and get you flat response to however deep they'll go/how much power you have on hand.

 

[Jeff R.]

My 10's are DIY and I use a miniDSP.

My 15's I will either run them with a Behringer 3000 iNuke DSP or go with a standard Pro Amp and then use another miniDSP.

 

[fuzz092888]

My 10's are DIY and I use a miniDSP.

My 15's I will either run them with a Behringer 3000 iNuke DSP or go with a standard Pro Amp and then use another miniDSP.

Even better, I must've read too quickly about the 10's. Did you/do you find the in room roll off point before applying boost? I believe Ed's advice was geared more towards people who buy commercial subs that can't adjust what they're starting with or don't have the interest to.

Like with my dual LMS Ultra build, even though they're huge capable subs in a not so large space, they still roll off naturally at around 80-90hz in room, which is only slightly lower than my predicted rolloff of ~100hz, so I'm not getting a ton of gain. It just depends room to room.

I would go with a miniDSP for the Ultimax subs just because I find it easier to apply EQ and boost and then adjust it as needed with the miniDSP.

Did I answer your question? I feel like I rambled a bit.

 

[Jeff R.]

I think I got it. Thanks for the help.

I think I may need to buy some slightly better mic and calibration gear. I did it rough last time with an I-phone test tone generator app and and I-phone spl meter. It was rough but gets me in the ball park.

 

[fuzz092888]

I think I got it. Thanks for the help.

I think I may need to buy some slightly better mic and calibration gear. I did it rough last time with an I-phone test tone generator app and and I-phone spl meter. It was rough but gets me in the ball park.

All you really need for cal, especially since you use miniDSP's is a USB mic and a download of REW. Calibrate your sound card, take a few measurements and export the cal files using REW to the miniDSP and you're done. That's how I EQ'ed my dual opposed.