Samwise Posted April 1, 2003 Share Posted April 1, 2003 Some of you may already know this but I learned this in school recently and thought it was pretty cool. We were learning about the ears and how they perceive sounds from different locations. One way is just through the shape of the external ear and how it amplifies sounds from certain directions, allowing us to localize aounds along a vertical plane. Another way is though the difference in time it takes the sound to travel to one ear compared to the other. The last way is through the difference in sound pressure level for a given sound at the two ears. What I thought was really cool was the professor explained why we only need one subwoofer. The reason is that the frequency of the sound produced by the subwoofer is so low and the wavelength is so long that the same wave of a sound can be going through both ears at the same time and thus we can't localize it. A normal midrange sound would have numerous waves travel to one ear before the other even receives it just based on the space between your ears and the wavelength of the sound. I guess medical school is good for something. By the way, I have two subwoofers, obviously not for surround sound, just for the extra power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InnovaZero Posted April 1, 2003 Share Posted April 1, 2003 That maybe true, but it largly depends on the position the sub is in, and the size of the room. Sure a 30hz wave is 11 meters long, but that doesn't mean it's fully hitting every area of the room with the same SPL...that is why subwoofer position is so important. Besides one side of your ear maybe hearing 105db while the other ear while hearing the freq., maybe isn't as loud since ears are directional. (For the most part) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samwise Posted April 2, 2003 Author Share Posted April 2, 2003 Good point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rol1 Posted April 17, 2003 Share Posted April 17, 2003 I think dts.org has a rundown on perceptual encoding as used by dolby in their ac3 codecs. Explains how 5 channels of bass thru 1 speaker and 1 channel of high freqs thru 5 tweets are used to save bandwidth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD1032 Posted April 22, 2003 Share Posted April 22, 2003 I'm curious about Klipsch's 5.1 subwoofer. Why they didn't make a huge one instead of just slapping two woofers together I don't know. One thing though--if you position the subwoofer incorrectly aren't the bass waves from one woofer going to reach your ear slightly ahead of the other one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InnovaZero Posted April 22, 2003 Share Posted April 22, 2003 Because larger drivers, say a 10" is much more money then an 8", and well the Dual 8" in the PM 5.1's have more surface area then a single 10"...all while being cheaper. Being side-firing, the bass if allowed to breath, will cover more area then a front-firing subwoofer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spimley Posted April 29, 2003 Share Posted April 29, 2003 now i've gone and done it... I bought a 5.1 system a month ago, at best buy with a replacement extra warranty. I accidentally bought a 4.1 on E-bay, (didnt' expect to be high bidder) Therefore, "why we only need one sub" intrigued me... I plan to convert the 5.1 to run the home system and throw away my rca bookshelves, and use the 4.1 for the comp... question will there be a noticable difference in sound quality between the 4.1 and the 5.1? (the specs indicated a difference in satalites but they LOOK the same...) i'm not a bass nut and rarely turn UP the system anyway but I still want quality front channel for my computer does anyone here own both or have tested both? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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