Second subwoofer advice

[mkygod]

I got one of those older SVS cylinder subwoofers many years back (SVS 20-39 PCi) and want to add a second subwoofer to my room. My room is maybe 11x11, so this subwoofer is already overkill for it, but I was never completely happy about the unevenness of the bass in my room, even after installing a couple bass traps.

When I talk about "unevenness", i mean two things 1) the common problem in which certain parts of my room have different levels of volume and 2) certain frequencies sound louder than other frequencies (Modal frequencies i think they are called.), For example 50hz is quieter at my listening position compared to 80hz; this is also reflected in my microphone measurement (REW + Minidsp mic).

Will adding second subwoofer help to solve BOTH these issues or only one of them?

Second, is which subwoofer should i get for the second one? I'm guessing another ported SVS 12" subwoofer with similar specs since it is commonly advised to get an identical subwoofer, but I've also played around with the idea of adding a smaller sealed woofer just to have that bit of better bass response and control.

 

[TheWarrior]

Hi!

I'd call SVS and see if the PC-2000 would play well with yours, or if you might need to upgrade to the PC-12 plus.

If you're near ATL, I have a pair of PC-12's, but built my own sub, so I've only been using one.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

When I talk about "unevenness", i mean two things 1) the common problem in which certain parts of my room have different levels of volume and 2) certain frequencies sound louder than other frequencies (Modal frequencies i think they are called.), For example 50hz is quieter at my listening position compared to 80hz; this is also reflected in my microphone measurement (REW + Minidsp mic).

Will adding second subwoofer help to solve BOTH these issues or only one of them?

Hard to say for certain. A second sub can help with the first issue in some situations. In any room there something of a “bass hole” in the dead center of the room, where perceived bass levels are lower than at other locations. Perceived bass levels increase as you move from that point towards any room boundary, and again from a boundary towards a corner.

So the answer to your question depends on your seating arrangement. If all seats are some distance from any boundaries, or up against walls, a second sub could make a difference if the bass sounds different in the different locations (“different” as in frequency response).

However, if you have an arrangement like, one seat 8 ft. out from the wall and another up against a wall, there’s nothing that’s going to fix the discrepancies you’d be getting from that.

Regarding your second question, a second sub may help smooth response discrepancies, but nothing works as well at smoothing response as dedicated parametric equalization. You already have REW, so it’d be easy to equalize one or both subs if you added an equalizer.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt