can—if you like—deal with that both with changes in placement or in the position
of your sub's level control (or, less likely but possible, the crossover frequency
chosen). We say “if you like” because there is no such thing as too much bass for
some listeners, and we don't want to be dogmatic. You are definitely the one who
has to be pleased, unless your Significant Other chimes in to the contrary.
As you go outward from the corner along the wall, the general consensus (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 a conventional
enclosed subwoofer in your listening chair, then play music with lots of bass
through the system, something with steady low frequencies (such as organ
music) or continuous test tones, not movie material. Move around the perimeter
of the room and note where the bass sounds best; if you place the in-wall
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 simple
recommendation for the placement of an in-wall subwoofer would be in either of
the front corner walls 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 subwoofer
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 subwoofers,
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. Recent studies have shown that two
subwoofers placed in the center of two opposite walls so that the subwoofers and
listening area are on a line, will give the smoothest possible bass performance.
The two opposite walls could be the left and right walls or the front and back
walls. It may be fine to use two lesser subs to equal the performance of one with
stronger specs.
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