Subs sound bad at distance

[Old Onkyo]

I sit 10’ back from my soundstage, subs dialed in with Audyessy app. Sounds great! But if I move to a table 7’ behind the sofa, the sound is muddy and boomy On movie tracks.
How do I calibrate for the whole room?

 

[ryanosaur]

I sit 10’ back from my soundstage, subs dialed in with Audyessy app. Sounds great! But if I move to a table 7’ behind the sofa, the sound is muddy and boomy On movie tracks.
How do I calibrate for the whole room?

Sadly, you won't like the answer: get more subs.

This is in line with what makes the subwoofer crawl work. Since low frequency soundwaves are so long and powerful, they move around as they will. How one or two Subs excite room modes in a given open space is based on the geometry and frequencies at work.
If you take one sub and dial it in to your LP, you might dip your head and lose all Bass response. Add a second in a good spot, and suddenly that space might be large enough for you and another. But move three feet away and you may get Boom or you may get nothing.
That you are hearing a Boomy/Muddy sound makes me think that that table spot is right around one of your room modes. Instead of it being a null point, it is concentrating there and getting boomy. Just short of trying to move the Subs and get better sound at both positions, or adding 2 more Subs... or moving the table... there isn'yt much you can do, I'm afraid.
So going back to the Sub Crawl, when it is in your LP, and you move around the room, you would hopefully find that you have the Subs in good places where they perform to their acoustic best. If you do, and you go to the table, you should, in theory, hear what you are hearing now with your Subs in their home locations.
You might be able to rearrange the subs in a way that will both sound good at your LP and the Table, but that may be a little more that 2 Subs can handle if that Table is at a Modal Point in your room.

Hope this makes sense, my friend!

 

[Old Onkyo]

Sadly, you won't like the answer: get more subs.

This is in line with what makes the subwoofer crawl work. Since low frequency soundwaves are so long and powerful, they move around as they will. How one or two Subs excite room modes in a given open space is based on the geometry and frequencies at work.
If you take one sub and dial it in to your LP, you might dip your head and lose all Bass response. Add a second in a good spot, and suddenly that space might be large enough for you and another. But move three feet away and you may get Boom or you may get nothing.
That you are hearing a Boomy/Muddy sound makes me think that that table spot is right around one of your room modes. Instead of it being a null point, it is concentrating there and getting boomy. Just short of trying to move the Subs and get better sound at both positions, or adding 2 more Subs... or moving the table... there isn'yt much you can do, I'm afraid.
So going back to the Sub Crawl, when it is in your LP, and you move around the room, you would hopefully find that you have the Subs in good places where they perform to their acoustic best. If you do, and you go to the table, you should, in theory, hear what you are hearing now with your Subs in their home locations.
You might be able to rearrange the subs in a way that will both sound good at your LP and the Table, but that may be a little more that 2 Subs can handle if that Table is at a Modal Point in your room.

Hope this makes sense, my friend!

Makes sense.

The back of that room has a large opening. One of my first projects after Covid, is to have a solid core barn door installed, although it won’t seal perfectly, I can’t help but think if I can close the room off I will get better sub performance.

Then ....

 

[Old Onkyo]

I lowered the crossover on the mains to 40, the boominess is gone, at least on two channel plus subs.