Can I put my subwoofer for my home theatre in a cabinet and still achieve good sound?

Question

I'm trying to hide my sub as the wife doesn't want a big black box in the living room. We have a built in entertainment center that I can hide that sub in and it'll be pretty much directly underneath and to the right of the TV. With the cabinet door closed, am I going to lose all the base I'm trying to achieve or can I just turn the sub up accordingly and still get the effect I'm looking for?

Answer 1

for best bass you should have the sub behind the furniture in some way, the wires can be unattractive though. Have you tried telling her the sub can be used to place things like a doodad or thingamagig on? This way the sound is not restricted and she has room for more c**p.

Answer 2

This is the worst place for the subwoofer placement that i have heard till now. Better to talk with your wife and then keep the sub in the room according to the best possible sound.

Check these two links-

Answer 3

SubWoofers no longer have to be big black boxes. There are subwoofers that get mounted into walls so you don't have to look at them. Small powerful subs that are easy to hide in more accoustically friendly locations and well styled subs that are nice looking. Check out Velodyne SPL8000R, Sunfire True Sub Jr. or other high performance but small sub. In the event that those won't work for you get a front firing sub for the cabinet and make sure the cabinet is secure. Check a furniture store or office supply store for felt or rubber stickers to put in the corner of the doors to eliminate rattle.

Answer 4

Sure you can, it sounds like your furniture was designed to house the speaker so it is clear many people think this is an OK thing to do.  It depends on the equipment you have and your audio standards as to whether you will be happy with this.

I have a Velodyne sub, pretty small, and in the livingroom we have it installed inside the wall unit cabinet also designed for this purpose, and I am pretty happy with it.  And I consider myself discerning.  The hardest thing was getting the cabinet perfectly balanced so it doesn't buzz when the bass is pumping.

We did this for the same reason, the living room looks better with the electronics as unobtrusive as possible.  I have a Denon receiver powering the system and it allows for microphone setup to compensate for the room and placement accoustics.  Sure it can't fix everything, but it did make the system sound better, especially with music, than before I ran the setup.

You have many options.  The best audio location for the sub is behind the seating area, so explore the possibility of that location with your wife, plus the cost/effort of running the sub cable.

Next, you could replace the sub with an inwall or on wall model.  Expensive - and you will still need to run cable.  

You could optimise your location outside of the cabinet in the front of the room and come up with "decorating" to diminish its presence.

Or put it in the cabinet and fiddle with your settings to get optimal sound, or get a new receiver that has mic equilaization to help you.

Answer 5

Sure, you can have descent sound.  I am a home theater installer, so Ive done this plenty of times with good results for the average customer without disappointment.  Bass is non-directional and creates low frequency vibrations which can travel through walls doors and cabinets.  Think of when your driving in a car and someone pulls up next to you playing really loud rap music.  All you can hear is bass.  That's not because that's all they are listening to, its because bass travels through objects easier.  Now, if your an audiophile i would not recommend it, but for the average listener it will be OK.  A problem you might run into is the cabinet doors vibrating and making noise.  To fix this you can either crack the door slightly or put some foam strips around the doors where they make contact with the cabinet. Hope this helps.

Answer 6

I hid my subwoofer under a corner or side table.

Answer 7

huh?

Answer 8

In this situation you best bet is to port the base by modifying the cabinet. You will have a resonance problem with it without. But I have seen it done, I was not happy with the result but others were, so I say try it both ways.