I have my forward-firing/rear-ported sub sitting directly to the left of my couch and up against a wall. It sits about a third of the way to the front of the room.
Does it matter which way the driver/port faces? Is having the driver face you optimal?
If I fire my sub directly into my couch, I'll have about 5in of clearance to the wall for the port and 2in clearance for the driver to the couch. Is that sufficent breathing room?
I ask only because I see a wide variety of subwoofer designs so it makes the answers to my questions less clear. I'm thinking that driver direction and clearance make a big difference, but there are downward firing subs with not much clearance (between driver and the ground), and the drivers are obviously meant to be fired into the ground. Some of these have phase controls. Why?
For the vast majority of foward firing drivers, I see them oriented with the drivers toward the listeners. Is this because of extensive listening tests, or convention? What does that say about downward firing subs?
