Here are the facts on what bass frequencies are directional

Posted by Richard BassNut Greene on November 30, 2006 at 08:22:38

In Reply to: conventional wisdom posted by vacuous on November 28, 2006 at 20:03:08:

The location of a subwoofer playing pure sine wave tones can be determined at any frequency if the other speakers are turned off.
Below 40Hz. you would have to rely on the feel of bass pressurization on your body -- you can often "feel" whether the sub is on the left or right side of a room if you concentrate on this. Not that this applies to real music listening!

With real music playing, localization is almost entirely from content in the octave from 100 to 200 Hz. There have been many studies on this subject.

There is almost no localization from content under 80Hz. assuming almost all the output over 80Hz. is coming from the main speakers (this masks the location of the subwoofer) and the subwoofer is no more than 3-4dB louder than the main speakers. If a subwoofer is set way too loud, or has a lot of much harmonic distortion (such as a small cheap sub in a big room), it will usally be audible as a separate sound source.

A subwoofer with minimal output over 80Hz. will not reproduce male voices. This can be tested with all other speakers turned off and a recording with a typical male voice from your music collection. If you hear the voice at all, then you have output over 80Hz.
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Richard BassNut Greene
My Stereo is MUCH BETTER than Your Stereo

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - Subwoofer placement - donato777 10:50:16 11/28/06 (17)

Re: Subwoofer placement - tantra 11:27:00 11/29/06 (0)

What is the frequency response of the subwoofer? - vacuous 18:57:51 11/28/06 (10)

Re: What is the frequency response of the subwoofer? - jimbill 19:18:11 11/28/06 (9)

What precisely do you mean "set at 35Hz"? ... - andyr 23:36:34 11/30/06 (4)

Re: What precisely do you mean "set at 35Hz"? ... - jimbill 10:26:02 12/02/06 (3)

You are running your sub at "mains line-level through your sub bcoz your preamp doesn't have a separate sub output" ... - andyr 11:27:57 12/02/06 (2)

Re: You are running your sub at "mains line-level through your sub bcoz your preamp doesn't have a separate sub output" - jimbill 14:39:18 12/02/06 (1)

Then you don't have much guidance as to ... - andyr 17:27:32 12/02/06 (0)

Re: What is the frequency response of the subwoofer? - Bruce from DC 07:30:46 11/29/06 (0)

conventional wisdom - vacuous 20:03:08 11/28/06 (2)

Here are the facts on what bass frequencies are directional - Richard BassNut Greene 08:22:38 11/30/06 (1)

Good explanation; thx. (nt) - vacuous 16:14:13 11/30/06 (0)

Re: Subwoofer placement - Impoverished Audiophile 11:59:18 11/28/06 (4)

Place sub where you sit and crawl around the room doesn't work well - Richard BassNut Greene 07:55:56 11/30/06 (0)

I beg to differ. - jimbill 14:23:23 11/28/06 (2)

Re: I beg to differ. - Impoverished Audiophile 17:26:32 11/28/06 (1)

Re: I beg to differ. - donato777 20:44:14 12/02/06 (0)

Follow Ups

Here are the facts on what bass frequencies are directional - Richard BassNut Greene 08:22:38 11/30/06 (1)

Good explanation; thx. (nt) - vacuous 16:14:13 11/30/06 (0)

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