Putting RSW 12 sub in a media niche?

[bacevedo]

OK - now that the RSW subs are out, I am going ask a question and hope some of the knowledgable people here can answer it.

I am building a media niche for my home theater system.

I will have a niche on the floor for my sub. It will have a wall on each side, behind and above it. The front will be open (covered with a grill cloth material).

The dimensions will be 20" X 20" X 28" (H x W x D).

So if I put an RSW 12 in there, it will have about 4 inches around it, plus about 5 inches behind it.

What will this do to the sound?

Will putting a sub in an enclosure like this compress the bass - kind of like putting a port too close to the wall? Will it make it boomy and one noteish? Will it help extend the frequency response? What good things or bad things will it do, and how bad will they be?

I am just trying to figure out what happens when you put a sub like the RSW 12 into a cut out like this.

My local stereo shop here has a whole bunch of these media niches with subs in enclosures like this, and it sounds pretty good. But I don't know if it could sound better in their environment if the sub was somewhere else.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Bryan

I want to clarify what I mean by media niche. It will be built out of drywall, and studs (either 2 X 4 or steel for exact dimensions). This is not a furniture type armoire - it is more of a built-in-to-the-wall media niche that looks like it is part of the house. So it will be drywalled, textured, and painted to match the rest of the house.

This message has been edited by bacevedo on 09-21-2001 at 10:27 AM