Subwoofers

Martin,

Could you kindly advise me which is the best way to install subwoofers?

I note in some of your answers to users you assume that a powered subwoofer would exist by itself in a channel.

At the moment I have 4 stereo channels... at the organ, front pew, back pew and noises.

I have 2 powered speakers inside the console to handle all the noises and rattles.

The other 3 channels (bench, front pew and rear) each feed straight to a powered subwoofer which in turn feeds left and right powered speakers.

Is this an appropriate way to set up my speakers?

I am about to add 2 extra speakers (without a subwoofer) to handle special stops, such as an oboe, clarinet or chimes.

Stephen

Hello Stephen
I have sufficient audio channels to dedicate a pair to the sub woofer (which sums he Left and Right channels internally).
I feed the sub audio channels with a mixdown of all the perspectives of the sample set.

I have used a set up where the main perspective output was connected to the sub and the speakers (one pair) were connect to the sub. Circuitry in the sub forwarded the audio output above the cut-off frequency to the main speakers as you are doing.

I prefer having the sub on independent audio channels.

If the speakers you are considering adding are the same as you those In one of your other output perspectives have you considered adding these as another set of speakers to one of your existing perspectives? This will spread more of the sound across the speakers and improve the sound of the organ. It will make more/better use of the new speakers than reserving them for a a few special stops.


Iain

[mdyde]

Hello Stephen,

Do you mean that you currently have three powered subwoofers:

- One for your 'bench' stereo pair of speakers, and:
- One for your 'front pew' stereo pair of speakers, and:
- One for your 'rear pew' stereo pair of speakers?

If so, there's no problem at all with doing that. The only advantage of using a separate channel/pair on your audio interface for a subwoofer is that you could mix all of your other stereo pairs down to it, thus only requiring one subwoofer overall (instead of three). I.e. it could potentially have avoided the need to buy multiple subwoofers. Deep bass is hardly directional, so there isn't a significant acoustical advantage in having separate subwoofers for separate 'perspectives'. There are a couple of other advantages in having multiple subwoofers (as you currently do):

- The subwoofers probably feed their attached full-range speaker pairs via cross-overs that avoid the deep bass also being sent to the full-range speakers, thus reducing the load on the full-range speakers.
- Each subwoofer could be a little less powerful, due to the (deep bass) load being spread amongst the multiple subwoofers.

[I'll move this topic to the 'Amplification' section of the forum once you've had a chance to read it.]

Edit: P.S. Iain and I replied at the same time.

Thanks Iain and Martin.

Yes, Iain I think it s one of your responses that caused my question.

It seems I may have overspent on subwoofers, but I have them now.

The idea of the new speakers, which I am making inside KRK boxes, is to have the unusual stops (some beautiful stops) coming from a unique direction. Not what the organ maker envisaged! I just think it will sound interesting, especially when using the HW top note coupler.

Stephen

[mdyde]

Thanks, Stephen.

[Topic moved here.]