Subwoofer placement _and_ _aiming_

[teukros]

Hello again. I spent more than an hour searching and googling, so apologies if this has already been discussed but I didn't find the answers to my questions...

I have the makings of a great system: a Panasonic TH-42PX77U 42 inch plasma tv, a Yamaha RX-V663 receiver, an Onkyo T-4120 tuner, some cheapo Samsung DVD/VCR player I found at J&R, and those wonderful speakers recently acquired from the Audioholics store: 2 RBH TK-5CT tower speakers, 2 RBH TK-5C Bookshelf speakers, a RBH TK-515C Center Channel Speaker, and last but not quite least, an EMP E10s powered subwoofer. Woof!

Nothing is hooked up yet (except for the tv, the Time-Warner DVR and the cheapo Samsung). I've been trying to do my homework and I've read (during my lunch breaks) almost the entire RX-V663 manual, and I've researched a lot of questions online at night before going to bed.

I'm having problems planning my subwoofer placement in a fairly small apartment living room. Along the entire back (south) wall is a sofa which is really too big for this apartment. I just bought the receiver and the speakers and I can't afford a new sofa this month! So for now, it stays. In the northeast corner is a steam radiator (oops) and an African grey parrot in a large wrought iron cage (oops and oh my!) And in the northwest corner is my 42 inch tv with the tower speakers on each side. At this time, the (unpowered and unconnected) subwoofer is in the corner behind the speakers and tv.

I've read in lots of places that the subwoofer should be in the corner. But when I say it is in the corner, I mean that it is in the corner. One side is less than an inch from the front (north) wall, the opposite side is about three inches from one of the tower speakers, and the subwoofer cone is aimed right at the west wall which might be as much as two inches in front of it.

My real question concerns subwoofer aiming. Is it a bad idea to have the cone aimed at the wall when the wall is only two inches away? Would this create lots of noisy reverberations? Is there any chance it could damage the subwoofer itself?

Is it a bad idea to have the subwoofer cone aimed at the woofer of the tower speaker (less than a foot away)? Is it a bad idea to aim it at a DVD player (two to three feet away)?

Would it be a bad idea to aim it at the bird?

My only other option is probably to move the sofa closer to the center of the room and put the subwoofer in the west rear corner back there. I might move the sofa anyway to have someplace to put the bookshelf speakers. But then the subwoofer (and for that matter, one of the bookshelf speakers) would be about three feet from my head.

 

[mazersteven]

Take the subwoofer and place it in the seating position (Sweet Spot). Then you walk around the entire room listening to where the subwoofer sounds the best. That is the position you would place the sub. If this position is not good, then you should place it as close to that position as possible.

 

[TLS Guy]

Hello again. I spent more than an hour searching and googling, so apologies if this has already been discussed but I didn't find the answers to my questions...

I have the makings of a great system: a Panasonic TH-42PX77U 42 inch plasma tv, a Yamaha RX-V663 receiver, an Onkyo T-4120 tuner, some cheapo Samsung DVD/VCR player I found at J&R, and those wonderful speakers recently acquired from the Audioholics store: 2 RBH TK-5CT tower speakers, 2 RBH TK-5C Bookshelf speakers, a RBH TK-515C Center Channel Speaker, and last but not quite least, an EMP E10s powered subwoofer. Woof!

Nothing is hooked up yet (except for the tv, the Time-Warner DVR and the cheapo Samsung). I've been trying to do my homework and I've read (during my lunch breaks) almost the entire RX-V663 manual, and I've researched a lot of questions online at night before going to bed.

I'm having problems planning my subwoofer placement in a fairly small apartment living room. Along the entire back (south) wall is a sofa which is really too big for this apartment. I just bought the receiver and the speakers and I can't afford a new sofa this month! So for now, it stays. In the northeast corner is a steam radiator (oops) and an African grey parrot in a large wrought iron cage (oops and oh my!) And in the northwest corner is my 42 inch tv with the tower speakers on each side. At this time, the (unpowered and unconnected) subwoofer is in the corner behind the speakers and tv.

I've read in lots of places that the subwoofer should be in the corner. But when I say it is in the corner, I mean that it is in the corner. One side is less than an inch from the front (north) wall, the opposite side is about three inches from one of the tower speakers, and the subwoofer cone is aimed right at the west wall which might be as much as two inches in front of it.

My real question concerns subwoofer aiming. Is it a bad idea to have the cone aimed at the wall when the wall is only two inches away? Would this create lots of noisy reverberations? Is there any chance it could damage the subwoofer itself?

Is it a bad idea to have the subwoofer cone aimed at the woofer of the tower speaker (less than a foot away)? Is it a bad idea to aim it at a DVD player (two to three feet away)?

Would it be a bad idea to aim it at the bird?

My only other option is probably to move the sofa closer to the center of the room and put the subwoofer in the west rear corner back there. I might move the sofa anyway to have someplace to put the bookshelf speakers. But then the subwoofer (and for that matter, one of the bookshelf speakers) would be about three feet from my head.

It doesn't matter a hoof or a woof where you aim it. Those frequencies are omni directional. If it is aimed at the wall though, I would leave at least a four inch space so as not to build up pressure between the wall and the woofer cone, and add loading to the cone.

 

[teukros]

It doesn't matter a hoof or a woof where you aim it. Those frequencies are omni directional. If it is aimed at the wall though, I would leave at least a four inch space so as not to build up pressure between the wall and the woofer cone, and add loading to the cone.

Thanks for the quick reply, this answers my question. I still won't aim it at the bird though, I understand they are acutely sensitive to low frequency sound.

(oh I made a mistake about my Panasonic plasma tv, I was quoting it from memory. It is not a TH-42PX77U, it is a TH-42PZ77U. Oops. Just to set the record straight.)

 

[TLS Guy]

Thanks for the quick reply, this answers my question. I still won't aim it at the bird though, I understand they are acutely sensitive to low frequency sound.

(oh I made a mistake about my Panasonic plasma tv, I was quoting it from memory. It is not a TH-42PX77U, it is a TH-42PZ77U. Oops. Just to set the record straight.)

It still won't matter a hoof or a woof to the bird if you aim the woofer to the bird or not. If the bird really is sensitive to LF, you can't use the woof, or have to move the bird to another room.

 

[mazersteven]

My Grey does flip out when I'm watching movies. Very Sensitive.

 

[teukros]

My Grey does flip out when I'm watching movies. Very Sensitive.

Mine should be ok. He's a strong New York bird. He has been in bars before where they were playing LOUD music and he didn't freak (of course I didn't stay long because I was worried about his hearing). And I will never play my music THAT loud.

Anyway, the talk about experimenting with subwoofer placement brings to mind another question. Because if I want to experiment with placing the subwoofer anywhere in the room, I will need a cable long enough to reach anywhere in the room! But if I eventually decide that it belongs in that corner behind that speaker anyway, I will have a lot of slack cable. So is it ok to coil a (quality) subwoofer cable (or a speaker cable) with many loops, or does this have an impact on the quality of the sound?

 

[TLS Guy]

Mine should be ok. He's a strong New York bird. He has been in bars before where they were playing LOUD music and he didn't freak (of course I didn't stay long because I was worried about his hearing). And I will never play my music THAT loud.

Anyway, the talk about experimenting with subwoofer placement brings to mind another question. Because if I want to experiment with placing the subwoofer anywhere in the room, I will need a cable long enough to reach anywhere in the room! But if I eventually decide that it belongs in that corner behind that speaker anyway, I will have a lot of slack cable. So is it ok to coil a (quality) subwoofer cable (or a speaker cable) with many loops, or does this have an impact on the quality of the sound?

For a subwoofer cable it will make no difference.

 

[DTS]

While we're on the subject of birds (), our Mitred Conure has been in the same listening area (living room area) as the rest of us for over 15 years, he's still squawking. He's heard a lot of movies. The first movie we watched with the addition of a sub woofer (probably 6 or so years ago) was The Italian Job, when they blew the safe (the first real impact for all of us) we heard him fall off his night time perch to the bottom of the cage, he kind of grumbled as he climbed back up. It was pretty darn funny.

 

[jamie2112]

While we're on the subject of birds (), our Mitred Conure has been in the same listening area (living room area) as the rest of us for over 15 years, he's still squawking. He's heard a lot of movies. The first movie we watched with the addition of a sub woofer (probably 6 or so years ago) was The Italian Job, when they blew the safe (the first real impact for all of us) we heard him fall off his night time perch to the bottom of the cage, he kind of grumbled as he climbed back up. It was pretty darn funny.

That must have been a freakin hoot. I am laughing right now

 

[donz0r]

LOL!! birds...