Bass dead zone

[Actran]

Alright. I've repositioned and crawled until my knees were sore and have confirmed (by ear anyway) that from the floor to about 5 feet off the ground right at my main viewing position appears to be a near dead zone for bass in my room.

As soon as I sit in any other chair in the room or even just stand up at the main listening position, suddenly I'm hit by bass. It's nothing I haven't been able to fix with gain, but that solution doesn't work when watching a movie at night and the family is trying to sleep.

My questions:
What is a good enough, inexpensive SPL meter for someone like me who will use it twice. I don't need extreme precision, just something more quantitative than my ears

Is there any easy to use tool that can take the geometry of a room and estimate sound profiles? My room is an enclosed, carpeted media room, but it's not square or symmetric...about any axis. I'll try to add some images.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Have you used Audyssey XT or XT32 + Dynamic EQ or similar room correction EQ?

As far as SPL, I use a Galaxy digital SPL.

Amazon.com: Galaxy CM130 Sound Level Meter: Electronics

 

[GranteedEV]

It sounds like your issue is a floor-ceiling mode. You might want to get some small sealed subs that can be placed above the centerline of the room.

 

[JohnA]

Can you just move the sub?

 

[shadyJ]

I use this meter, it seems to work well enough.

It sounds like you have a cancellation issue. No EQ is going to take care of that for you. You have to either move your listening position, move your sub, or get another sub and place it in a location where it fills in that null. My choice would be get another sub, because by only moving the subwoofer, you are just shifting the null, and could end up in a null in a different frequency.

 

[j_garcia]

You used the "crawl" method to determine the null? Why not use it to locate the best sub placement? Another way to help correct it is to move the seating position slightly - less than a foot can make a difference. Do you sit right up against the wall?

 

[Actran]

Thanks for the SPL meter recommendations. I read some things above that I haven't tried yet and a few I have.

I have run EQ to no avail Audessey (Denon 2312 with stock mic)

I did the sub crawl with it positioned right in front of where I would sit then walking the room to find a good spot, but even placing it in the "best" spots found with that method leave the issue. I also tried moving it around the entire perimeter of the room with no effect. Granted, "best" was by ear. I'll try again when I get the meter.

I never thought about placing a sub off the floor above the centerline like GranteedEV suggests. will that kill the "tactile" portion of the base by taking it off the floor? In the other seats, I hear and feel the bass. I don't want to lose that part of it.

I sit about 4 feet away from the back wall of the room (this is where I need to get home and take some pictures) and I havent tried moving it forward or backward. It's such a perfect visual spot I haven't messed with it. I'll play with that.

I had planned on doing a DIY second sub anyway, but I was worried that i might not see much benefit due to this cancellation effect. I got discouraged when I started noticing the issue with my single sub. Knowing that the additional sub may cancel the cancellation is good to information.

Thanks all. I'll try some of this stuff out and get some room images up.