How Many Subwoofers to Use and Where to Put Them

Read Anthony Grimani's column in the May issue of Residential Systems...
"We need to stop reinventing the wheel where bass is concerned. I’ve met two industry veterans recently who’ve espoused very antiquated ideas as if they were new revelations of “purist” audio. We abandoned these ideas more than 10 years ago because they don’t produce smooth, tight bass for the whole audience. There’s a better way to do it.

We don’t use full-range speakers to play bass anymore. We don’t have separate subwoofers for each main channel or the LFE. That’s because in the worst-case scenario, that approach can lead to absolutely no bass in the main seating area of a home cinema because of inherent standing wave resonance issues. Let’s review."

>CLICK TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

For more info on our products and services, please visit our website.

Comments

What happened this time?! EQ With a Healthy Side of Hum.

What happened this time?! EQ With a Healthy Side of Hum. So I was on this job site the other day, with the classic set of challenges. The client had bought a high-end 2-channel system from the integrator: Wilson Duette speakers, Linn preamp, Moon/SimAudio power amplifier. After it was all up and running, the client complained there was "not enough bass". So, the integrator sold him a couple of JL Audio subwoofers and asked me to come along and make the whole thing work - setting crossovers, time-aligning the speakers, balancing levels, equalizing the response, and voicing. We used a trusty Ashly ne4400 DSP audio processor; it’s a pro-grade digital audio processor with EQ, crossover, delay, level - the works. When I got to the location, things were a far sight worse than just "not enough bass". The installation of the EQ hadn't gone quite right; they had no audio signal, but a *lot* of hum. Client was steamed. So in I dove. In cases like this, there...

THE GRIMANI FILES: Bringing Life to a Comatose Home Theater

This client was referred to us by the integrator, who completed this installation about 10 years ago. The room was a dedicated three-row home theater in an upscale neighborhood of Detroit. All the gear was state-of-the-art for its time - from the studio-grade speakers, to the professional HD video projection system. But the surround decoder finally gave up the ghost after several years of faithful service. The client heard that Dolby Atmos® was the latest thing, so he sourced a new processor. He expected it to be an automatic upgrade, but wasn’t aware that he also needed to add speakers for the Top and Wide locations. At any rate, it was time to install, configure, and tune the system for the new processor. I took the job and carved out two days - right before Christmas - for a quick jaunt from my temperate San Francisco Bay Area home to frigid Detroit. (Who doesn't like a little cold for the holidays?) While planning the trip, I found out that the system didn’t include any ...

Fun Room Details

In Deep Thank you for reading the high level article, now we will go into a detailed explanation of this project. This blog expands on the details from the " Home Theater Has Come Out of the Cave " article. The integration firm responsible for building this masterpiece is Audio Images of Tustin California. Our designs and engineering is only as good as the implementation and AudioImages came through on every detail. The Room Shell The physical issues that needed to be dealt with to accomplish these goals dictated a few design solutions: Sound Isolation The room had to be decoupled from the Great Room that is located directly above it. This prevents the sound leakage from disturbing the adults. Decoupling loosely means to build resilient wall and floor-ceiling structures with little to no connections to the house’s framing structures. The purpose is to limit every contact point that could mechanically transfer sound energy and interfere with daily use ...

Grimani Systems CEDIA 2018 Show Report

Search This Blog