The details of sub placement

[christ1]

I have a Paradigm PW-2200 sub that I am going to place somewhere along one wall to find out what the best location along that wall (the right side wall). Thus, I plan on putting the sub at the couch and listening for the location of loudest, cleanest bass.

But I have some questions on the details of this procedure. Can I just put the sub on the couch, where I sit, or should it be on a table in front of the couch? And what sound should I pump through the bass for listening? Should it be the "white noise" my receiver will output for calibrating the speaker noise levels? Or should it be a bass heavy movie scene or music? Also, should only the bass be outputting sound, i.e. the other speakers should be disconnected? Finally, should the volume output by the bass be higher or the similar to the normal listening volume?

Another thing-when I am listening along the floor, isn't the bass inherently going to increase in volume as I move closer to the sub (just like any other speaker), so that the loudest bass will always come from a spot closer to the sub? In most cases the sub is placed next to or near the front speakers, but in my case that will be the farthest area from my couch, and will not be the loudest location.

Thanks.

[Quiet_Hollow]

I have a Paradigm PW-2200 sub that I am going to place somewhere along one wall to find out what the best location along that wall (the right side wall). Thus, I plan on putting the sub at the couch and listening for the location of loudest, cleanest bass.

Sounds to me like you already have a place in mind, along the wall. No need to do the crawl test IMHO. Just keep the sub <2 feet or >8 feet from the corner of the room. If you decide to place it >8 feet from the nearest corner, then make doubly sure that the distance you end up with doesn't also equal the height of the floor to the ceiling and/or the distance to the wall on the other side the room. With this criteria, along the wall in a normal room, that should leave you with only a couple of choices for placement. The crawl test is an empirical way of arriving at the same goal.

For source material, anything with good bass guitar, kick drum, and male vocal action going on. Low level is fine, no need to go deaf while you're trying to be critical of your system.

Another thing-when I am listening along the floor, isn't the bass inherently going to increase in volume as I move closer to the sub (just like any other speaker), so that the loudest bass will always come from a spot closer to the sub? In most cases the sub is placed next to or near the front speakers, but in my case that will be the farthest area from my couch, and will not be the loudest location.

Yes, it does just as you say. That's why it's not important at this point to be explicitly listening for overall volume. That can be adjusted later on.

[christ1]

Ok, so I will not be crawing on the floor-which is good.

Even along the wall it want to put it, I have less places that I can put it than I implied. The middle third of the wall is exposed brick with a pellet stove. There is also an central air vent I cannot cover and the back corner has a half width bookshelf angled in the corner. I also have a vaulted ceiling (from 12' to 9' from front to back). The 8' you refer to, is that the height of the ceiling you assumed I have? So I do not want the distance from the wall to equal the ceiling height and to equal the distance to the opposite wall, correct? That would create standing waves, right? Also, the brick, bookshelf in the corner and vaulted ceilings will help to break up any standing waves or other unwanted effects, correct? Right now I have the sub in the corner formed by the wall and the exposed brick the same distance back as the couch which is the main listening area. At this location the distance from the sub to the back wall (which is the corner with the bookcase) is less than the celing height and less than the distance to the opposite wall.

The last thing is that I cannot turn the base up too much (using the dial on the sub) before I start getting an "echo" coming from the sub when men with deep voices are talking (it happened with the local newscaster). I guess the lowest voice frequencies get sent to the sub resulting in an "echo" effect. It seems to happen only with deep-voiced males but I like this bass level with everything else. Is this created by the position of the sub? The sub is only a few feet from the listening position, so would moving farther away help (i.e. closer to the front speakers)? Changing crossover frequencies on the front speaker did not change anything. Of course, lowering the sub volume will get rid of it, but then everything else seems like it could use a bit more bass. Or are deep-voiced males a challenge for any system.

Hopefully this is understandable and I did not just ramble on.

[derrickdj1]

The way I setup a single subwoofer:

1) Try to place sub near mains for better blend with mains

2) check the autocalibrtion to see if the sub is a 75 db and move it along that wall in 1-1.5 ft intervals and sit in various spots in the room since my sub is not in a dedicated HT with seats in rows

3) this give me a rough area for sub placement

4) Any further adjustment to subwoofer volume is done through the avr and the gain control on the sub is never touched again.

5) none of my sitting spots are on a wall

During this experimentation the loudest spot was not near the sub. Most likely a room mode and standing wave problem related to the room. I added a second sub in the room to smooth out the bass response in the room. If the bass is boomy I move it further away from the corner or wall. Everyone's room is different and experimentation is needed. If you can hear the sub as a separte speaker it is to loud and not intergrated with the mains. If the bass is not deep at a sitting location that is most likely a trough and move the furniture by 1 ft, forward or backward. If all speakers are set to small and xo at 80 Hz or lower and sub is still able to be localized, time for room Tx or faster sound processor in pre-amp. I don't crawl around on the floor, bad knees, lol. This does not require more sophisticated equipment.

[Quiet_Hollow]

The 8' you refer to, is that the height of the ceiling you assumed I have? So I do not want the distance from the wall to equal the ceiling height and to equal the distance to the opposite wall, correct?

No assumptions implied, just make sure the distances aren't equal. It's not about standing waves, it about avoiding strong cancellations.

Right now I have the sub in the corner formed by the wall and the exposed brick the same distance back as the couch which is the main listening area. At this location the distance from the sub to the back wall (which is the corner with the bookcase) is less than the ceiling height and less than the distance to the opposite wall.

This sounds good so far (see below), but are you wanting to move the sub from this location?

Hopefully this is understandable and I did not just ramble on.

I think I've got a pretty good idea of what you've got going on, but even a basic sketch at this point would really help clear things up a bit.

[derrickdj1]

A nice sketch will help. I had problem visualizing the room and where he can and cannot put the sub. So, I shared general guideline that I have used.