# Sub placement/design for music - 2.1 setup



## birdie2000 (Jan 27, 2007)

I know this has been discussed before, but IIRC it was more for home theater whereas I'm curious what the best method is for music. Would it be better have two subwoofers, each directly underneath the bookshelf speaker? Or would a single one be better? Would you still place it in the corner, or would you place it centered with your 2 speakers? Also, for sound quality with music, is down or forward firing better?


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## Xander (Mar 20, 2007)

It is mostly dependent on the room. In a non-perfect room it is not ideal to have 2 subs due to increased standing waves and cancellation. I would recommend having just one sub and play with room placement while using sweeps and a decibel meter (or an RTA if you have one) to measure in room response and get the smoothest response. The worst area to deal with will be around your crossover frequency. If you can get a continuously variable phase control on your crossover it could help a lot.

What are your main speakers? How low can they go comfortably?


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## Tommythecat (Apr 6, 2006)

It is actully better to use multiple subs in order to decrease modes and nulls throughout the room.


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## Diru (May 23, 2006)

Two subwoofers will cause massive comb-filtering j/k

If your going to do one sub, xover 50hz and lower. I can't hear where 50 comes from in a room as much I can hear 80hz.

Ok here comes the twister.

50hz and lower mono is ok for one sub
50hz to 80hz I would lean to full stereo subs at these freq, one mono could still sound good.
If your x-ing 80`s hz, then full stereo.


I think thats worth a buck and a quarter.


Whats that other thing, oh yeah. Location location location


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## birdie2000 (Jan 27, 2007)

So what are the recommendations for location? I know it's very important, that's why I asked.  That's mainly what I would like to know. For music purposes only.

My main speakers are Klipsch bookshelves. I'll get the model number when I get home. I think the freq. response goes down to 45 or 50 on them, but I haven't had a chance to really play around with them properly. Right now they're sitting on the floor with the ports about an inch away from the wall and the bottom end is kinda funky because of it. I'm about to start finishing my basement at which point I'll be buying stands and will have better options for speaker placement. I'm mainly just doing research for my home system right now. 

The reason I asked about multiple sub enclosures is because I have 4 of those $5 eD 8's and 2 or the $13 eD 12's, as well as a 240w @4ohms Dayton plate amp. I'm going to make a setup for the garage and one for the home. In the garage I need loud bass, in the home I just need to extend my speakers' frequency range down to around 30Hz or lower, don't need to be loud. Don't know which drivers I want to use where. Was considering two pairs of 8's with each bookshelf and running them off of the "B" speaker terminals on my receiver. And then the 240w on the 2 12's in the garage. But now I may put the 8's with the plate in the garage and the 12's in the house if I'm not making stereo subwoofers.

This is all very much a budget setup and my expectations take that into account. The bookshelves were indefinitely lent to me by a very generous individual, the receiver is a hand-me down from my parents, and of course the subs are dirt cheap. If I can get by with powering the subs off of the receiver I'll realistically have about $50 total into my home setup. So that's a consideration too.


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## Diru (May 23, 2006)

birdie2000 said:


> So what are the recommendations for location? I know it's very important, that's why I asked.  That's mainly what I would like to know. For music purposes only.
> 
> My main speakers are Klipsch bookshelves. I'll get the model number when I get home. I think the freq. response goes down to 45 or 50 on them, but I haven't had a chance to really play around with them properly. Right now they're sitting on the floor with the ports about an inch away from the wall and the bottom end is kinda funky because of it. I'm about to start finishing my basement at which point I'll be buying stands and will have better options for speaker placement. I'm mainly just doing research right now.



No, not the corner. The corner is great for the HT bump of lesser HT subs.

45-50 ehhhh.......

Is this going to be your listening room?

Get them Klipsch on stands. Away from the back wall[hip shot, around 3 feet]. Place your sub about 3 feet out , either to left or right of center. Inside of the main left/right stands. You want to sit in a equal length triangle, but not up against the back wall.

Hell, what am I talking about you don't even know what sub yet, is it sealed or ported. How is its group delay. Whats the room size and shape.

blah


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## birdie2000 (Jan 27, 2007)

Sub will almost undoubtly be ported. I have no idea what group delay even is. I'm pretty much a newbie with this stuff lol.

Room size is about 24 x 18ish.


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## Diru (May 23, 2006)

birdie2000 said:


> Sub will almost undoubtly be ported. I have no idea what group delay even is. I'm pretty much a newbie with this stuff lol.
> 
> Room size is about 24 x 18ish.




Here is a most general jpg to get started on.












No fair you added an edit lol


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

2 subs in stereo, place each one around each bookshelf where they sound the best. Highpass the bookshelves at 100Hz, tune, and dump a **** load of power to everything.


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## rsvchad (May 28, 2007)

I personally prefer stereo subwoofers, but it is not always feasible. Since this is a 2.1 system and I'm guessing it will be enjoyed solely by you then one sub should suffice just fine. For placement you can use the law of acoustic reciprocity to your advantage by placing the subwoofer at your listening spot and playing tones, pink noise or even music through it and walking around the room to see where the best response is found. The spot in the room where the subwoofer sounds the best while playing at your listening position will be the spot the subwoofer should be placed.


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