So i finally finished my LLT FI Q 15" driver with an EP2500 powering it. I will be moving into an "apartment" and need to figure out how to setup all my sound gear in my room.
I basically have 2 options, The first being something i think might work, and one that will work.
1st option is to do the usual thing and put it in the front left corner, pretty safe and generic place to put a sub.
2nd option which would make my life allot easier would be to put the sub in the middle of the wall and have the center channel actually be on top of the Sub with the left and right fronts next to the sub. This would help allot as i dont know how much room i have to work with and the sub takes allot of space, with it in the middle i could have the AV rack on the right side or really where ever i wanted.
The problem i see with the 2nd option is mainly the response. The room is a rectangle but i have no clue what the actual dimensions are.
Do you for see any real problems by center locating the sub? would it really be that bad?
I would assume the issue would be where does the sub work best, regardless of size. It would appear you are asking for our permission to place the sub in the middle. Center placement of a sub is seldom the best location. And placing another speaker on top of the sub is usually to be avoided. What exactly are you asking?
Placing your center on top of your sub probably would not be such a good idea. Just thinking how much my subs vibrate... I'm sure there are all sorts of sonic issues involved with this as well.
I suppose the sub vibrations would make their way to the center channel's woofers which is definetly not optimal.
I am more or less asking if i will be alright with the response i will get with the sub in the middle compared to the corner. is it still going to sound good, or will it need a good amount of equalization?
Trial and error with the sub placement, unless you have 2 subs (both centered opposite each other), the center position will generally not net the best results, but I have seen odder things. There is no set in stone answer here, you need to experiment, which is what I think Jan was hinting at.
I was trying to say we can't tell you much about how a subwoofer will sound in one location or another when we have no more information to go on other than what has been provided, which doesn't even include the room dimensions. Placing a subwoofer along the centerline of any room will normally excite the most room problems and do so with more symmetry than a corner placement would manage. Unless you don't care how the subwoofer sounds, I would not suggest you consider placing it in the center between the two speakers. However, with no more information to go on, I would say "suck it and see what comes out". It seems ridiculous that you would spend time asking rather than just trying the various positions when you move in. If the sound is OK with the sub in the center and you find no other position that sounds better, then the center will do. Do you want me to tell you which drawer to put the silverware in?
An effective - but not foolproof - way to place a sub would be to start with the sub at your listening position. Put the sub where your seat is, and walk around the room. Where the bass sounds best in is where to put the sub. Sit in your seat and listen. Then move it around to see if anything improves.
Dr. Hsu recommends it. Having the sub close to you will certainly allow you to dial it down with the same volume in your seat. That could help with neighbours if that's an issue.
And it might work well in this application. How can we guess? All we know is SH has a big subwoofer that he wants to put in a small room. With only that much information to go on, how are we to answer anything? But, if SH's sub doesn't have a phase compensation control, placing the sub behind him is less likely than most other positions to garner the best results. Unless he has one of Dr. Hsu's subwoofers, that is.
Note the professional cinema THX set-up and how the loudspeakers are positioned into the THX baffle wall and WOW look at that cluster array of JBL 4645C in the centre bottom part of the screen and placed above it is the JBL custom array yes centre yes this is how its done now JUST DO IT!
