Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Subwoofers and dogs

And now for something completely different...

I'm planning a subwoofer purchase and recently emailed Hsu Research for advice. I included a floorplan of my house. Dr. Hsu suggested placing the subwoofer in a particular corner and told me I would need a much larger unit (VTF-3 in extended mode compared to VTF-2) if I put it where I had planned, away from major room boundaries. (My placement options are quite limited due to room characteristics and difficulty routing wires.)

I'm concerned because the corner Dr. Hsu suggested is right next to the area where two Greyhounds have their beds. One of the dog's ears could be no more than a foot away at times.

Does anyone know if close proximity to the subwoofer will affect the intensity of the sound experienced by the dogs? I know you're not supposed to be able to localize a properly adjusted subwoofer, but does that mean it's no louder right next to it then across the room? And has anyone noticed dogs being upset by a subwoofer?

My dog will happily sit less than 3 feet away from my sub while I watch DVDs. She might raise her ears during explosions, but otherwise could care less. With music, she seems to completely ignore all my speakers.

I think it depends on your dog, really. I seem to remember another post on this tpoic where some responded that their dogs didn't react and some responded that their dogs did react.

Would someone more resourceful than I care to dig up a link to that discussion?

As far as loudness vs. proximity to the sub goes, I can tell you firsthand that my sub sounds the loudest in the corner of the room exactly opposite of where the sub is. How yours will sound at different points in the room has a lot to do with the size and shape of your room.

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I know you're not supposed to be able to localize a properly adjusted subwoofer, but does that mean it's no louder right next to it then across the room?

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Well-calibrated subwoofer sound should be unlocalizable in "far-field" -- i.e., from at least 5-8 feet away. When you (or your dog) are much closer to the sub ("near-field"; say, less than 2-3 feet away), you always DO hear the sub working. Especially, if you are sitting at only 1 feet from a high-performance sub, you will not only hear but definitely "feel" the movement of the air or "wind" in front of the driver and/or the port during bass-heavy passages.

I cannot comment on whether your dog dislikes it or not.

I completely agree with sushi.
The first time i played around with sub placement, i had our EP350 right next to the couch. I thought my ears were popping from a high altitude landing.
It has since been moved up front near the M60s.

As for the dog issue, well we have two of them. The smaller black one has no problems with tv or stereo sound. In fact, if i am downstairs listening to loud music, she tends to come downstairs and sit with me.
However, our much larger pooch is afraid of most things that move and most things that don't. She perks her ears at dog noises during movies, growls at dogs barking on the tv (played throug the stereo or not) and runs upstairs when the EP350 plays any amount of bass consistent with that of a thunderstorm.
Although it has yet to be proven 100% that dogs have personalities, the 'weight of evidence' principle certainly applies from what i've observed.

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Although it has yet to be proven 100% that dogs have personalities, the 'weight of evidence' principle certainly applies from what i've observed.

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Now is that empirical evidence or anecdotal?

The weight of evidence principle is most certainly not anecdotal.
It is often applied towards concepts such as the 'greenhouse effect' or DNA testing for gulity suspects in which some variables may not be accounted for due to analytical constraints and yet the majority of measured parameters indicate evidence towards the hypothesis is true.

Send all replys to this one in PMs to Peter. :-P

after reading your post, i noticed your graphic. while your post was amazing, the graphic lead credability (sp?) to what you said.