nitely the one who has to be pleased, unless your Significant Other chimes in to
the contrary.
As you go outward from the corner along one wall or another, the general con-
sensus (with which we tend to agree) is that while bass output diminishes
somewhat, it also becomes more uniform throughout the room, with fewer of
the “standing waves” that produce peaks and nulls at various points.
Chances are things won’t be so simple, so the best method for positioning a
subwoofer, although a rather undignified-looking one, is to put the subwoofer in
your listening chair, then play music with lots of bass through the system some-
thing with steady low frequencies (such as organ music) or continuous test
tones, not movie material. Move around the room and note where the bass
sounds best; if you place the subwoofer there and yourself in your chair, you
should get the same bass performance. Bear in mind that the test only works if
you have your ears as high off the floor as the subwoofer will be, so don’t be
afraid to crawl around. A recommended starting point for the placement of this
subwoofer would be in either of the front corners of the room (on either side of
the main speakers).
Multiple Subwoofers—Why Two Subs Are Better Than One
Since the objective of most people who buy subs is to make sure of plentiful
low frequencies, the only situation most of us will run into that makes sub-
woofer placement really difficult is the factor we all fear—the “bad” room that
just won’t let you get satisfying amounts or quality of bass. There are rooms
with troublesome dimensions, especially as you approach a perfect cube (with a
closed door). There is unlikely to be any combination of speaker and listener
position that will be free of obvious acoustic anomalies.
In such a case, the best way to iron out those anomalies is with two sub-
woofers, placed carefully to work with each other. This can also be true when
the problem is too much, or too uneven, bass. The overall system needs all the
help it can get, and that often means the use of two subwoofers, each one of
which corrects for the acoustic problems excited by the other. For excellent
results from this solution, the two subs don’t have to be identical. It may be
fine, in fact, to use two lesser subs to equal the performance of one with
stronger specs.
The same “crawl around the room” method as previously described should be
used for determining the location of the second subwoofer, except in this
instance one is listening for the minimum amount of bass output. This is a rec-
ommended starting point for determining the best placement for your sub-
woofer(s).
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