Home Theater Hacks

Hack #52. Optimize Subwoofer Placement

Once you've selected a subwoofer, you can figure out the best location for it with a little patience, a lot of trial and error, and a six-pack.

Although you don't need to worry about room size [Hack #50] when choosing a subwoofer [Hack #49] , once you have your subwoofer, you should spend some time finding the best location for it. This often is the difference between loud bass and clear bass—an important distinction.

Basic Principles

A subwoofer for home theater tends to have the biggest impact if placed in a front corner with the longest unbroken walls on either side. This gives the sound the full length of the walls to reflect off of and reinforces the lowest possible frequencies.

However, many music lovers sometimes find the corner placement to have too much enhancement. What sounds great for movie special effects might overemphasize sounds for music.

Tip

Remember that the goal of a music system is to exactly recreate the original artist's sound.

To find a happy medium between powerful bass and maintain a good musical balance, you can put the subwoofer at one-third (or even three-fifths) down the length of the longest wall. This causes the subwoofer to "see" two smaller walls on either side. Although the sub no longer reinforces the lowest frequency, it still has the smaller wall sections to reflect from. This can create a more level response. However, even this is not a perfect solution in every case. The room walls and ceiling will reflect ...