Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Sub Placement

I am getting close to putting the drywall up in my basement and have a question regarding the placement of my Sub (which I need to order)...

I am currently build the basement to accomodate a 106" Projection Theater with recently purchased M60s, QS8s and a VP150. I would like to build some shelving in the area where I am planning to place the sub, and I was curious as to the pros/cons of building the wall "around" the sub. In otherwords, all of the sub would be in the wall, with the obvious exception of the grill...Is this ok to do or will it have a dramatic impact to the sound?

Hey there Wido, nice to have another front projection buddy around here There have been a few threads on this subject, and the norm is that you do not want to enclose subs, or any speakers for that matter. Will it work, yes, but you will likely not get the full benefit of the sub.

I am building a slightly bigger screen than yours, and am placing a stage built out of 2x8's below the stage all the way across. My mains and center for sure will be on the stage, not sure on the sub yet. I am running an extra line to the opposite wall, incase I want to have 2 subs at some point.

General rule of thumb is that you can get good perfomance by placing the sub near a corner, a few feet out from each wall. On the other hand, there is the crawling method tha Alan from Axiom has told us about many times. Basically, place the sub in the primary listening position on the floor, if you have a long enough cable then get down on your hands and knees and crawl around the room until you find the position where you get the fullest/best sounding bass. Of course you will have to have your receiver all configured first. I know it sounds funny but it does work. The LFE (low freq. effects) that subs create are not directional, meaning you don't have to have them pointing towards you. Some people set their subs behind them, you have lots of options.

Good luck, and hope to get some pics of my new HT room up soon. I'm taking Friday and Monday off to hopefully finish the painting....

Randy

60's 150 350 4-Qs8's
Denon 2805
Sanyo Z2 projector
Toshiba DVD
Samsung HD tuner.

Thanks for the reply. Given your response, I have a couple of options:

1) Due to the layout of the room (including furniture placement), I may need to place the sub about 4-5 feet to the left of the screen and let it fire back across the front of the screen.

2) I could also place the sub in the back of the room and let it fire down a different wall towards the screen.

3) I could place it next to the main seating between the wall and couch and fire it either forward or back.

In my ignorant opinion, I am thinking that option 1 is the best? What are other's thoughts?

Thanks

I'm suprised others have not replied yet, come on guys Again Wido78, the sub is primarily for the Low sound effects. Anything around 80hz and below is none directional, so it really won't matter to much where you place the sub.

You don't mention how big your room is for the theater? Depending on how big your room is, and how much you want to spend on a sub, you have a couple of options. If money is an issue, I would start with a good sub that is not to expensive and place it near the front of the room, close to a corner, and at least a foot from each wall. You may have to move it around a bit a few inches each way until you find the right sound. If your room is real big, you may want to prerun another cable diagonal across the room for a second sub at some point in the future. Many people have reported good results with a diagonal pattern. You may find one sub is adequate. Another option, if money is a none issue, you could get an awesome sub, like the EP500 or EP600 Axiom.

Either way, I think I would start with a sub near the front of the room, just leave a little slack in the cable for placement adjustments.

Randy

I waited long and hard before I made my decision. Its pretty obvious, if budget permits, to buy the ep500. I personally did not want to bother with a low end sub, as I had one already... I wanted to go all out and make the credit card bank some money on intrest. . HOnestly though...buy what you can afford...but if you can hold out for the ep500 then it is your best option for today and the future. I dont even have it yet and that is my opinion. These guys on this board really love the 500...which is why I decided to just buy it and suffer the consequences.

Cheers.

-Tarun

Also remember Wido, the 350 is no slouch either Others on the boards have gone with SVS or HSU subs, as for the money, they are hard to beat.

Randy

60's 350 150 4-Qs8's
denon 2805

Chris, since the very low bass frequencies handled by a sub are essentially omni-directional, there doesn't have to be a concern about the direction in which it's "firing". The best location for a sub in a room that isn't square or nearly square is generally in the corner behind or alongside the main speakers. Your suggested option 1) is probably closest to this.

As far as sub placement and a wall unit goes;
Find the place the sub sounds good in before building a wall unit or shelf to place it in. I found the sub had to be moved out of the corner about 4 feet and along the wall to get good clean base.

I also did the crawl method and found only 2 or 3 spots that worked best in my room. I started out by placing it to match the system and room, but the sound was not very good.

Place the sub first for sound quality and then think about a wall unit is my advice.

Troy

Not sure if that was answering your question or not but from what I have read about sub placement is placement must be based on flexibility with lots of trial and error.