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Cabinet for subwoofer

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John L

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Cabinet for subwoofer

PostTue May 30, 2017 3:47 am

A question for the audiophiles amongst you:

My Hauptwerk has an M-Audio BX sub-woofer and a pair of Behringer B2031As. I'm looking into having custom built speaker stands made in solid oak for the B2031s, to stand either side of the console. One option is to make the stands a bit wider and quite a lot deeper, so they can enclose the PC on one side and the sub-woofer on the other.

The sub-woofer stand would be open at both front and back and just a centimetre or two wider than the BX. However, to be consistent with the PC stand, it would be some 5-10cm deeper than the sub-woofer. The back of the stand would also be fairly close to the wall, perhaps 10cm away.

I'm mindful of the considerable volume of moving air that comes out of the back of the BX on those 16 and 32 footers but I don't really understand how that interacts with/contributes to the sound coming out of the front. So my question is: will enclosing the sub-woofer in this way have a deleterious effect on its sound reproduction?

What does the team think? Grateful for any insight.

John.
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scottherbert

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Re: Cabinet for subwoofer

PostTue May 30, 2017 8:51 am

Difficult to say exactly, since subwoofers tend to sound differently in different room placements. Since this is a custom cabinet build, perhaps something as simple as having the back open for the sub chamber so the back wave can escape? I think having it enclosed with a back on the the 'box' would be deleterious to the sound, but I'm just guessing here.

~S
"Life is just a dream, it is in death that we truly awaken!"
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1961TC4ME

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Re: Cabinet for subwoofer

PostTue May 30, 2017 11:20 am

Although getting your monitors up and off the floor / console on stands is an excellent idea and has proven very productive for me in adding realism, I'd be apprehensive about the sub idea. I don't know where your sub is located now, but having it off to one side of the console (and probably quite close to you as well) would likely result in too much of the low end being focused and coming at you from one given direction instead of blending in with the rest of the sound. I've found subs are best placed either directly behind you near a back wall or off in the corner of a back wall. Also, with the sub that close to the wall as you propose would likely hinder it's performance. If it is a ported sub with the ports to the rear as many are, it should be out away from the wall a ways to work best. I've got 2 subs, one smaller 10" off to my right near the corner of the front and side wall facing to the rear, and the other larger 15" located at the rear facing forward, both pulled away from the wall about 6+ inches. Is this perfect? I don't know and there's always room to experiment, but as things are now the lows blend in very well with the rest of the sound and there's no perception of the lows coming from mainly one area of the room.

Just my 2-1/2 cents worth.

Marc
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engrssc

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Re: Cabinet for subwoofer

PostWed May 31, 2017 4:00 am

Placed in a corner, a sub"s effect is effectively increased by the physical corner.Even tho low end bass is non-directional (sort of) I've found an advantage to having 2 subs, in opposite corners, lessens the increased low end given proper sub level settings.

Rgds,
Ed
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John L

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Re: Cabinet for subwoofer

PostWed May 31, 2017 4:36 am

Many thanks to everyone that has commented on this question. I hadn't really thought about the issue of sub woofer position within the room but on reflection (see what I did there?) it's not surprising that it would have a significant effect. Therefore not wise to constrain positioning options by building it into a cabinet. I shall proceed accordingly.

Although I am an electronics engineer turned computer/telecoms person by profession, most of my electronics activity has been at radio frequencies, so low frequency audio is rather mysterious to me. I was, however quite amused when I worked out that the reason all 16ft stops of one particular note sounded much louder than the neighbouring notes was that one dimension of the room was a precise half wavelength. It demonstrated that the room is actually quite high Q, which was a bit of a surprise.

Lots of new things to learn here! Thanks again.

John.

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