Specifications

M&K Sales Training Outline
page 11
May 98
http://www.mksound.com
Ultimately, the amount and quality of bass you get in a room are
dependent on the room itself and the location of the subwoofer in that
room. Low frequency bass sounds are affected most by the size of
the room and the method of construction used to build it. All rooms
are different when it comes to reproducing bass, and the quantity and
quality of that bass is highly dependent on the subwoofer's location.
A simple rule to remember is that you get more bass when you
move a subwoofer towards any wall or corner. Moving it away from a
wall or corner gives you less bass. Remember that the floor also
loads the subwoofer, and that maximum bass is found with the woofer
on the floor in a corner.
Our experience in measuring subwoofer performance (in hun-
dreds of rooms) shows that in the majority of cases the best
location is either directly in or very close to a corner.
All our measurements were taken using the MLSSA system's Adap-
tive Window technique, the only room measurement technique that
correlates well to the time and frequency domain characteristics of
the human ear-brain system. Third-octave techniques do not provide
sufficient frequency resolution or time-domain selectivity needed for
accurately determining ideal subwoofer placement.
Placing the subwoofer near or in a corner provides good loading to
the room, and is the best place to start when experimenting. Placing
the subwoofer in a corner maximizes bass output, but in
some rooms
it may negatively affect the quality of the bass. In these cases, place-
ment away from the corner is indicated.
One room position will exhibit the flattest response, with no peaks
and dips, and the highest output (room gain). Typically this is the
corner closest to the listening position. If the seating is in the rear half
of the room, this is a rear corner.
Virtually every room has a set of frequencies that are either over-
emphasized (response peaks) or lacking (response dips) because of
the room's dimensions. When this happens, the sound is “boomy”
and unclear - not just at those frequencies but overall. The goal is to
achieve a smooth sound quality, with the entire bass spectrum equally
prominent.
Installing subwoofers
Optimizing Subwoofer location in a room