More Than You Probably Want to Know About Room
Acoustics
The acoustical characteristics of your listening room has a major effect on sound quality. This
is so important, it bears repeating (so feel free to re
-
read the first sentence). If your room has
good acoustical qualities, even mediocre speakers can sound pretty good. In turn, if your room
has poor acoustics, high
-
end speakers can sound lacking. Acoustical qualities are determined
by the dimensions of your room and the amount of sound
-
absorbing materials present.
Because this manual covers the installation of your new subwoofer, we will concern ourselves
with how your room
’
s acoustics affect bass. Bass distribution is strictly determined by a
room
’
s dimensions. A room with evenly distributed bass will deliver the same volume of bass
in different seating positions. Obviously, you can
’
t do a heck of a lot about the dimensions of
your room. Don
’
t worry; few rooms are close to perfect. You can however maximize the
evenness of bass distribution by properly positioning your subwoofer (if you have that
flexibility) and or using multiple subwoofers.
While virtually all of today
’
s Audio/Video receivers and processors include microphones and
room correction circuitry that can help to smooth bass frequency response, they will not
correct for bass distribution problems.
Positioning Your Subwoofer
The position of the Speedwoofer in your room has a tremendous effect on the results it
provides. There is a wealth of information online in forums and review sites regarding
subwoofer placement. If you have the flexibility to place your Speedwoofer in different
positions, we suggest doing some experimentation to determine the best spot. The goal is to
get an even volume of bass in your various listening positions. Here is some basic and by no
means complete information about subwoofer positioning.
•
Bass distribution in a particular room is determined by the dimensions of the room. Every
room has locations of peaks (where bass is increased) and nulls (where bass is substantially
decreased). If your seating position is in a peak, the amount of bass can be reduced
through equalization. However, if your seating position is in a null, bass cannot be
significantly increased (attempting to do so wastes power).
•
Placing a subwoofer near a wall will increase the volume of bass. Always allow a few inches
between the wall and your subwoofer. This is necessary for airflow to the amplifier and for
airflow emanating from the rear port or vent.
•
Placing a subwoofer in a corner will further increase its output.
Here is an example of one method commonly used to determine subwoofer position. Connect
your subwoofer and temporarily place it in your listening position (on the sofa, etc.). Then,
while playing some music with a constant bass track, crawl around the perimeter of your room
and find the spot where the bass seems to have the best quality and quantity (don
’
t let
anybody see you, otherwise you
’
ll have some explaining to do). Then, place the subwoofer in
the spot where you heard the best bass. You can repeat this for different listening positions
and see if you can find the best subwoofer position that accommodates the most listening
positions.
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