Subwoofer Placement Challenges

[sholling]

I'm looking for a few ideas. I'm having a heck of a time finding a sweet spot for my TSC T250 10" front-firing/front-ported sub. The room is just so full that there doesn't seem to be a good spot. The space is divided into a washroom and bedroom by a wall and I have the TV and 3 speakers wall mounted there.

I've tried two locations. My original plan was to place the sub in location "A" but the sub is pretty directional and the thick carpet and the bed absorbed all of the deep bass.

I've temporary moved the sub to location "B" on top of the dresser and it's helped a lot. But that seems like a sucky location for a sub plus it's big and ugly sitting there.

I could:

1. Move the sub to where the bookcase is and point it the only way it would fit - east toward the headboard.
2. I could save up and buy a small down firing sub and put it there.
3. Save up for a smaller/prettier sub and keep it at Location "B".
   or
4. Someone here that's smarter than me (that's easy) could come up with a better solution that doesn't cost a lot or mean moving furniture. One limitation - I can't put a sub near the dog bed - they scare her.

Room Diagram

 

[bpape]

Have you considered position A but laying on it's back firing up toward the ceiling?

Bass should be relatively non-directional unless you have a high crossover point in which case firing into the bed might absorb some of it.

Bryan

 

[sholling]

I hadn't thought of that but will give it a try. I'm crossing over at 80hz but all of the punch and rumble get's muffled. FWIW I have the identical sub in my home office and had the same issue until I moved it into a rear corner pointing at the listing position in the center of the room. It was almost like someone had flipped a "Good Clean Bass - On" switch. A complete night and day difference.

 

[sholling]

Problem solved. I moved the highboy toward the stereo cabinet enough to allow the sub to fit on the other side and fire out into the room. It now officially rocks.

 

[bpape]

Sweet. Glad it worked out for you.

Bryan

 

[pjoseph]

How many feet would you say the new location is compared to point A in your drawing. I am also trying to find a good spot for my sub and just curious on how long that lenght is which sounds like had great results.

Thanks

 

[sholling]

I only moved it about 4'. It just never sounded right at "A". It was like there was a blanket over it. I have no clue why, but I moved it and dialed everything in again with the SPL meter and tape measure and it sounded like a whole new sub. I suspect that it's an issue specific to this model of subwoofer. I have two of them and could not get the one in my office to sound right until I moved it into a corner. I tried 4 places before I found the sweet spot for that sub/room combination.

 

[highfigh]

I only moved it about 4'. It just never sounded right at "A". It was like there was a blanket over it. I have no clue why, but I moved it and dialed everything in again with the SPL meter and tape measure and it sounded like a whole new sub. I suspect that it's an issue specific to this model of subwoofer. I have two of them and could not get the one in my office to sound right until I moved it into a corner. I tried 4 places before I found the sweet spot for that sub/room combination.

The 'It was like there was a blanket over it.' is usually caused by phase cancellations and when you moved it, the frequencies being canceled changed. It's impossible to not have some but I suspect that yours were right where the HP and LP cross over. Moving the sub changes where the nulls occur and it feels like there's stuffing in the ears.

 

[sholling]

Thanks. That's a very real possibility.

 

[highfigh]

Thanks. That's a very real possibility.

Also, 4' is a lot when you're in a smaller room. Keeping it away from the center of a wall keeps that standing wave from dominating the sound and when it's in the center of a wall, it's not only in the center of that wall, it's in a high energy location for the other dimensions of the room, too.

 

[westcott]

Proper subwoofer placement is an art and not many people are willing to go through the effort to properly calibrate a subwoofer or properly place it within the room.

An SPL sweep of the room with the subwoofer in MANY different locations is the only way to determine how it best interacts with your room and furniture.

I also suggest trying to keepthe subwoofer away from other large pieces of funiture. This also has a dramatic effect on the frequency response of the sub and the entire system.

If you keep moving the sub until you get as flat a frequency response as possible in the room without EQ, the better your entire system will sound.

It is a lot of work but is the best way to get good sound.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!!!