Subwoofer distance from the listening position ?

Question

I have a home theatre setup, where, when I sit facing the screen, my equipment rack comes to the right side of me, just next to the seats. I have placed my subwoofer between the equipment rack and the right side wall.

Now the problem-

The distance of my subwoofer from the listening position is around 2 metres (if measured in a straight line). There is my equipment rack in this path and while sitting the subwoofer is not even visible because of this. When I use automatic setup with a microphone, I get a distance of 7 metres (I suspect that this is after a bounce from some wall). Is there some other way to calculate for this kind of sub placement?

I don't want to change the sub position as this placement gives me the best low frequency response, with no smearing, tight, and without any boom. The listening position also has to remain the same. The subwoofer is a front firing, ported design.

Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

Answer 1

Subwoofer can kept anywhere between your front speakers. Positioning the front & rear speakers make lot of difference on surround effect. but subwoofer has nothing to do with the positioning.

Answer 2

Hi. If you don't want to change the position of your sub.and you are getting the best sound,why are you asking where to put it.?

EDIT....I only know about subwoofers as an addition to a high fidelity sound system .Because the wavelengths of a sub. are long (one 20 hz note is 56 feet long) most rooms are too small for the low notes of a sub to develop.If the longest dimension of your room can accommodate half of one cycle,you can still hear it,but it wont sound the same as a full cycle.I guess they mean that a sub in your setup should be 7 meters from your listening position. But in my opinion ,the sub should be where it sounds best to you, I am not familiar with the latest Receivers,where subwoofer bass distance has to be calculated.There are too many things to consider.The quality of low bass depends heavilly on the total room volume,room shape, structure ,furnishings and other objects.reflective surfaces ,absorbant surfaces and many more.

You say you are not bothered about stereo as you have a dedicated setup for audio,.But do you use two main front left and right speakers for your main sound on either side of your screen? (which are really stereo speakers) If so then the subwoofer should be positioned midway between the two speakers.A lot of wrong information is given out about subwoofers ,such as : bass isn't directional,you only need one subwoofer,or you can put it anywhere.Let's set the record straight : Bass is directional in a room - the room causes it to be directional ( think about it ).This statement will generate plenty of "thumbs down"Everyone else disagrees with this . The only way a sub can be omnidirectional is out in the open with no walls or ceiling to bounce the sound about, or in a anechoic chamber.So,placement is important so that the bass blends with the rest of the sound. To integrate a subwoofer properly into a system you must place the sub. at the same end of the room as the main speakers. To make the bass less directional and blend better you need to cross it over at a low frequency and ideally use a pair of subs.Two subs are better than one.Stereo sound is still recorded in both bass speakers.Since a sub is the extension of the bass of your two front speakers,two subs make more sense and the low bass sound will be better balanced.

Answer 3

Unfortunately, I have found that the microphone-based setups are usually not helpful.  It's a good idea, but there are simply too many parameters that effect what things sound like to our human ears and brains...it's just too hard to figure out everything to measure, and then to measure it accurately.  Better to skip to the actual listening and let the better-calibrated instruments in your head tell you what's going on.

I would start with a delay setting consistent with what you can measure out on your floor - generally one millisecond per foot difference between the distance from your head to the mains versus from your head to the sub (same for the rears & center).  

That should put you in the ballpark, but at that point it is valuable to do some trial and error to get everything aligned in time and space.  Try putting on repeat a scene on a ship with some dishes sliding around (lots of these!) Do the dishes sound like they're sliding in a coherent way, or do they suddenly jump to the rear, or somehow into the middle of the room?  Adjust your delay and level settings by small increments until things are nice and solid.  A movie like this will also have lots of nice wave effects which are also good for this and will kick in the LFE output to get your sub in line as well.