Do you guys advise against corner placement?

[55katest55]

I have a small room, which leads into a larger space, though all i care about is my seating position really and i will be close to the subwoofer so it shouldnt matter too much...anyway, would you advise against placing it in a corner?

I know ideally i should do a sub crawl. I may end up only having room in the corner though.

 

[timoteo]

You will get some that say dont & others that say do. Here are the facts: you will get more reinforcement of certain frequencies due to boundary gain aka help from the walls. Every room is different & based on where you sit changes things. I used to have my dual subs flanking my avr cabinet which put them just inside each tower. However after doing the sub crawl i found out that one of the subs was setting in a null. Therefore it had to work harder to be at same dB from my seat as the other sub. So i found that the front right corner gave a powerful but not bloated response. So now i have both subs stacked in that right front corner. I was able to have them both at the same trim & was even able to turn the gain down 2dB. All the while still getting more output & headroom.
My recommendation is to take the time to do the sub crawl it is very much worth the effort REALLY!! If it is the onlymlocation you can put it then try it out. Only your ears can be the judge. Now you may loose some detail by corner loading it but again its up to your layout. I like mine in the corner. You may or may not there is no definate answer!
Hope this helps!!

 

[bikdav]

Well said and very true Timoteo. I have mine in a corner and that is far and away the best location for it.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

Every room is different, and I have occasionally seen people get abysmal results with corner placement. But a good corner (that being one with uninterrupted walls in both directions) should definitely be one of the locations evaluated. I’ve had good luck with corner placement in asymmetrical family-room environments. As others have noted, you will probably get a peak in response at a certain frequency, but that can be easily addressed with a dedicated parametric EQ.

By the way, the “sub crawl” is highly approximate at best, not to mention just plain outdated in an age when you can get freeware for taking in-room measurements. Just because you manage to find a location with less “boom” by crawling around, that doesn’t mean that location is delivering smooth response across the entire range. You may have merely traded “boom” for a hole in response.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[PhiPsi32]

Can you give me an example of the "freeware" for taking in room measurements?

 

[timoteo]

By the way i should have been a bit more specific on my approach. I didnt JUST listening for clean bass when i did the "crawl". I had an app on my iPhone that lets me play bass tones. (20, 30, 40, 45, 60 & 90hz) So with pen in one hand & my trust RS-SPL meter in the other hand, id play each tone. Then crawl around, listening for good bass, then writing down the output. I did that for each of the test tones. So there was a tad bit of "scientific" proof to what i was hearing.

If you dont have an SPL meter...get one! Many uses.

Even if you dont, your ears & the "crawl" will leave you better off than going, "well the sub looks cute here...plop!!"

Getting free software & measuring you rooms response...much better!!

And yeah id love to know where to look for these free programs as well.

 

[avnetguy]

By the way, the “sub crawl” is highly approximate at best, not to mention just plain outdated in an age when you can get freeware for taking in-room measurements. Just because you manage to find a location with less “boom” by crawling around, that doesn’t mean that location is delivering smooth response across the entire range. You may have merely traded “boom” for a hole in response.

For the software google REW

Room EQ Wizard (REW) is a great tool, even when used with a cheap RadShack meter it tells you all you need to know. I wouldn't setup a room for HT or music without it now.

Steve

 

[DS-21]

One of the subs should probably be in or very near to a corner. The other couple should be as far away from that one as possible.