Near Field Subwoofer Revelation - From Ask Paul Video

Loudspeakers
21

No. Non-symmetrical placements are often better sonically. And two will stimulate the room better and more evenly than one.

Symmetrical placement looks nice.

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22

Really?

I know that in problematic rooms an asymmetrical placement of main speakers can be a solution. I saw this as an exception and I can imagine that then an asymmetrical sub placement may be as well helpful.

But asymmetrical sub (2) placement in symmetric rooms with symmetric main speaker placement and symmetric room node behavior rather as a rule than an exception would be new to me.

23

Sorry - was not suggesting it was a rule. And didn’t realize you were talking about symmetrical rooms. I’ve found very few rules about subs that apply to every situation. That seemed to be what the second paragraph of your prior post was suggesting.

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24

Just saw your post. REL Carbon Limited subs work great with the RAAL SR1A headphones.

25

Yes I assumed more or less symmetric rooms with symmetric speaker placement as rather the rule than the exception. I think most of us have it. For asymmetric rooms everything is a trial and error procedure anyway and placement of everything asymmetric by definition.

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26

I’m no expert, but I do have a near field sub setup in my room and can share my thoughts based on my experience.

I have two subs on either end of my sofa aimed directly at the listening position in the middle of the sofa. I previously tried a distributed subwoofer array with 4 subs placed around the room. While the bass was clean and even throughout the room, which is what a distributed sub system promises, I was always bothered by the lack of timing, punch and impact in the bass and mid-bass. The bass always seemed “blurry” which makes sense because a distributed array uses delays and eq between the subs to eliminate nodes and nulls. Near-field setup changed all of that and was much simpler to set up.

Here are my thoughts/responses to some of the the questions that have been raised so far…

  • One of the big advantages to near-field subs is that it takes your room out of the equation. Symmetric vs asymmetric shouldn’t matter much, if at all, to near-field subs. As usual, set your main speaker position first in their optimal position. Mine end up slightly asymmetrical in my listening room because of a stairwell leading out of the room behind my right speaker.
  • You want them perfectly symmetrical and aimed directly at your listening position. I have tested by ear and with measurements aiming them straight at the mains and straight back toward the wall behind the sofa. Facing them toward the listening position sounded best to me.
  • In my mind, symmetrical and stereo setup is critical for two reasons:
  1. even with your subs crossed very low, there will be frequencies coming through that are directional and panned L/R in the stereo field. This is less of an issue with far-field subs than with near field. In the near-field these frequencies are much more audible from the listening position. But that also means in the near-field you get a much more enveloping and spacious listening experience. The effect is subtle but it is there.
  2. This is just a hypotheses that I am not technically competent to measure/test, but it would seem that where ever the midpoint is between your two subs in a near-field setup will exist cancellation and a null. I don’t want that null to be pulled to the left or right of the middle of my head. Therefore with the subs equal distance from my listening position, I have the sound from each sub hitting my ear before any cancellation is happening.
  • DSP is handy because you most likely will need to add delay so that the subs are in perfect time alignment with your main speakers. You may also want to additionally EQ your subs for near-field use. Unless you’ve purpose built subs for near field setup, the subs you own were designed to be placed in a corner and/or behind your main speakers.
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27

Good points. I agree👍🏼

28

Thanks for sharing, just a few questions:

Are the subs at what distance from each other (woofer to woofer) and from your head (listening position)?
Are they on the floor? It means, if you have a couch or a chair where you seat on, it makes a difference I suppose.

TIA

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29

The subs are at either end of my sofa so about 96” from each other. I sit dead center between them. I have them each elevated about 18” off the floor so the center of each driver is about 24” off the floor. They are sealed 10” DIY subs with SEAS drivers. Just what I happened to have on hand but they are doing a great job in my setup. If I were to start over from scratch (and I’ll probably end up doing this at some point) I would use a 15” or 18” driver just for the sake of reducing distortion, and build them into a cabinet that raised them up to the height off the floor that I’d want.

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