Hi there,

I am considering upgrading part of my HT for better music listening. I have my fronts, Centre and sub in an enclosure behind an acoustically transparent screen. Do you think I can still get away with this for high quality music listening or do you think I need to move the sub into the room? I will take the bookshelf fronts out and into the room for music listening but the sub would be a challenge because of size and weight considerations.

I would be very surprised if an AT screen had any effect on the longer sound waves a sub-woofer generates.

I don't have an answer, but thought the question was more about whether the enclosures would affect the sound, not the screen(?)

I had not thought of the enclosure, so all bets are off(yeah, I have no clue...).

The difference in a speaker's response near a boundary are two fold. An increase in bass output. An interference notch due to SBIR interaction -a form of comb filtering.

For a subwoofer the notch is not an issue because it will occur at frequencies higher than its crossover point. More at issue is boundary gain (3-9db depending on proximity to corners.) Ideally your single sub would be front ported or sealed, located midwall at a floor corner, and flush with face of wall with area around it closed in tight with drywall. This ensures the bump in output is even over its range and you can simply turn the bass down in your AVR.

You can search out papers from Harman if you want the explanation of room modes and placement for rectangular rooms. You are on the right track pulling your bookshelves into the room.

Thanks for the responses. I think a practical test is to manhandle my Paradigm sealed sub out into the room as a start to see if there is any difference. I just hope my back is up to the task!

You could place the sub on a plate attached to drawer slides which would allow you to, at the very least, slide the sub out and back in its enclosure easily for music.