Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Picky, Picky, Picky.....

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The air from a bottom firing sub has to make a 90 degree change in axis before it reaches your ear. Plus, the air most likely disperses in a radius after hitting the floor or floor plate, which means it is hitting rear and side walls directly rather than hitting a far wall and bouncing back as a front-throw speaker would do.

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One cannot think so linear with this.
I mentioned to someone before to think less linear and they got upset.
Think of sound in multiple dimensions (the drop of water in a calm pond moves water not just along the surface, but also below).
Have you ever closed a door in one part of the house and heard another door in your house rattle not a split second after? Or a window? Open a window and have a door down the hall slam shut?
How can a door that is 30-50 feet away be affected by a window so quickly?
Same as sound, it is pressure and not the physical action of a 3' by 3' blast of wind coming in the window, crusing down the hall, ricocheting off of each wall until it hits the door slamming it shut.

Sound is about "pressure" in the air. One cannot view it solely as a linear function of a single mass moving in a specific direction 'fired' by a woofer, hitting a wall, ricocheting exactly 90 degrees, etc. There is way more to it than that (although with increasingly higher frequencies this does become more the case).
Yes air molecules will interact with walls relative to distances to the pressure change source (the source of the pressure energy being exerted which decreases with distance) being part of the mix.
The very instant a woofer starts a 15Hz tone, whether down firing or not, the pressure change is already affecting items 50 feet away in your house. I highly doubt you would hear any difference with a down firing vs. forward, subwoofer. I once took my EP350 and turned it to face the floor and placed it on 2 stacks of hockey pucks at each corner for kicks.
I think i still have a picture of that somewhere in my files.

I understand the nature of pressure waves as well as the next hobbyist/layman, I suppose. I was simply trying to introduce an example of the variables that might apply to different subwoofer designs. And instantaneous is a little loose in this context. Regardless of how accurately the human ear can discern sound below 60Hz, it is still sound and as such still travels at 760mph at sea level, give or take. So the effect of the soundwave hitting a rear and/or wall then propagating throughout the room from a bottom-fire woofer will have different consequences than a than the effects from a front firing sub. Delay is delay. I suppose I could have prefaced my earlier comment by stating the obvious about the nature of soundwaves but most of us here understand the basics. I certainly wasn't trying to describe a pressure wave as linear.

If you use your own description and apply it to a front and a bottom firing sub you can see what I mean about the propagation of the waves from the cone. It obviously is not a simple problem since there is always much discussion such as this on these forums. The effects of resonance, room size, subwoofer design, cone size, etc. obviously play into this because if not you would be able to toss a sub in a corner and call it a day.


P.S. Dammit, Mark! You cooked this broth, you need to get back in here and eat it!

What makes that one on the right only for men?

It's pH balanced for a...

No, that's not right.

It's in a manly green...

No...

Women can't handle THE SUPER SNACK.

Probably not...

It's only sold in, ahem, exotic locales.

Probably not...

Good question.

Looking at the fine print, do the words "intelligent connoisseur" and "finer points in life" belong in the same sentence with "crispy pretzel"?

Clearly, you, sir, are not an intelligent connoisseur who enjoys the finer things in life.

Shoot.

Not to put too fine a point on it, you lack that certain je ne sais quoi that allows you to enjoy the finer points in life. You could, of course, pick up a pack of pocky and run them through a pencil sharpener. Then you'd have some fine crispy pretzel chocolatey points to enjoy.

No, you stick your pocky in a pencil sharpener and see what happens!