Rectangle HT, Dual Subs, Best spots? (posted pics)

[Jaime Rittenhouse]

Good evening everybody...

My room dimensions are 19' wide, almost 12' deep, and 7' to 8' high. Approximately 1800 cubic feet. The black boxes and magenta boxes are all current speaker/sub locations. The only things that are really up for debate are the black boxes/sub locations as the others are quite acceptable where they are.

Right off i'd like to say that I did purchase the membership which has several PDF's regarding HT. In one particular PDF, it has to do with sub setup/placement. In that guide, it has sub placements which are 1/4L in from both sides on the front wall and 1/4L in from both sides on the back wall. They are labeled as 1 and 2 on the front wall and 3 and 4 on the back wall. In the image just below this, they are labeled 8 and 9. I am wondering if positions 8 and 9 are viable locations? If they indeed are, that would be ideal and I would be ecstatic. That would make sub placement so easy.

Also regarding locations 8 and 9, do the subs just face straight forward? Ports facing into the room?

Locations 4 and 5 are behind center as the couch/loveseat locations don't allow me to place them in the direct center on the side walls.

Locations 6 and 7 are not realistic as 7 would have to be offset from the center because of the center channel and I do not have signal run to the center stage.

Locations 1, 2, and 3 are certainly possibilities. I can even have them away from the walls a bit if necessary and adversely, I could also have them real close to the walls if that's a better option.

Evidently I did NOT do enough research for dual sub placements when I built this room, otherwise I would have considered another spot in the center front for another sub. However, since my front screen is a 120" diagonal, it's not exactly roomy up front. You'll see in the pictures below. The sub would easily cover the bottom of the screen. The good thing is, the projected image always leaves the lower 8" or more of the screen unprojected upon... /shrug.

Any thoughts, ideas, whatever? I'm about to replace my entire 7.0 setup as well as the VTF-2 sub so now it's time to evaluate sub placement for better sound optimization.

Regards,
Jaime

From my blueprint and edited...

Front sound stage...

Back of the HT...

 

[shadyJ]

I wouldn't worry about placing subs near wall jacks when you can get one of these things. I would place the subs for the best response. Try all locations and record their response. Pick the two spots that will maximally flatten the response. If two subs doesn't get you there, think about getting three! While there are guidelines to placement in rectangular rooms, such as asymmetrical placements, you can never be sure what is best without measurements. Read Gene's latest article for getting the most out of your subs.

 

[Jaime Rittenhouse]

Oh my, that was just posted today. Thanks for pointing it out.

I'll have to bust out my SPL meter and do the good ole crawl, oh how I hate the crawl. So many hours of testing ahead.

 

[Jaime Rittenhouse]

That Dayton Audio DA30... what is that? I just watched the video and I get what it's doing, I can feed it with a small headphone type jack, being fed by an MP3 player of sorts or it can be fed by a signal via RCA's... but I am failing to see how this enables me to place a sub where I don't have a sub feed?

 

[shadyJ]

Lol I was discussing that elsewhere, and accidentally linked to that here instead of this. My wires got crossed, sorry!

Also, if you have a calibration mic, use that combined with REW to see the response. Plotting out the response with a SPL meter will take a long time with all of those spots. If you want to do this right, you will end up needing calibration of some type anyway. Get REW and a calibration mic! REW is free, and calibration mics do not have to be super-expensive, like this one if you already have a sound interface with phantom power, or this one if you don't. Or just get the UMIK mic with a miniDSP and get it all done in one with good equalization capabilities.

 

[Jaime Rittenhouse]

Yeah, the last time I used REW, that's when I bought my SPL meter, an external sound card (sound blaster or whatever), and calibrated my two subs. It was very complex on getting everything set up and running properly. I'll mosey on over to avsforums and look at what's changed over the last 4-5 years since I used it last.

Fortunately I do have a calibration mic that came with my Denon AVR, maybe things have changed regarding what hardware is needed, etc.

Oh and yes, that's what I was suspecting you were trying to show me but, yeah, thanks for reminding me about that option.

 

[shadyJ]

The calibration mic that comes with the Denon is not what you want to use. It will only work with the Denon receiver itself, not with your computer or REW. I would be looking at the Umik mic, the Dayton UMM 6, or the Behringer mic.

 

[Jaime Rittenhouse]

Ok ok, now I understand what you're saying. I did order the miniDSP w/UMIK-1. Any recommendation for which add-in to get? I think it looked like the 2x4 Advanced would be the right one to calibrate two subs.

 

[shadyJ]

yes, the 2x4 + Umik should do the trick.