Where should a firing subwoofer be placed?

When sound pressure waves traveling through air encounter the boundaries of solid surfaces, like couches, shelves and walls, they’re partially absorbed by the solids. Their remnants are reflected back at angles equal to their initial angles of incidence. It’s crucial to take advantage of this phenomenon when placing powered subwoofers; fortunately, it’s usually not necessary to actually do the math.

Using a Room’s Shape as a Passive Amplifier
First off, never give sound waves a chance to dissipate or self-interfere so much that they become sloppy remnants of their former selves. For instance, placing a powered subwoofer in the dead middle of a room makes it sound weak and increases the effects of interference. Use reflection to make subwoofers seem more powerful, and guide their output towards the listener. Note that Down-Firing and Front-Firing subwoofers will have identical low frequency effects regardless of positioning.

Placing subwoofers in corners is a great way to allow sound waves to bounce off nearby surfaces and travel in unison before they get too far out of phase with one another and become a mess of conflicting tones. While sounds are eventually going to rebound from far-off walls and furniture in a fashion that can only result in destructive interference, starting them off in the natural amplifiers created by corners or alcoves can minimize such effects.

This principle is similar to how speaker cones function, and its effects are comparable. Placing a powered subwoofer in a corner or close to a wall tends to facilitate maximum sound pressure, but it also makes the sound more directional. As such, it’s important to arrange seating so that listeners are in the general path of the sound waves.

Creating Even Tone
Be careful, however, to remember that the walls in homes aren’t perfect acoustic resonators; rigid materials, like concrete and stone, deaden sounds as they absorb oscillations without flexing in response. In the process, they can create booming yet uninspired bass that lacks vigor and tonal differentiation. Before turning that den into a dream home theater, it may be necessary to complete that wall-finishing project.

Installing a single lonesome powered subwoofer in the corner of a room isn’t going to do the trick either. In most cases, it’s wise to place subwoofers in pairs of opposing corners to create a smoother bass profile throughout the space. While nulls are still going to occur where waves cancel each other out, the fact that more than one corner can serve as a relatively clean sound source makes it easier to overpower unwanted distortions and reflections without cranking the volume all the way up.

Zeroing in on the Ideal Setup
Finally, bear in mind that sound interference involves complex physics. For those who aren’t too interested in solving the wave equations associated with the propagation of sound in their home theater spaces, however, it usually suffices to experiment.

Before giving a home theater their stamp of approval, most audiophiles tweak things around. Once the subwoofers are mounted, it’s smart to listen to different sounds at various points throughout the room to determine where dead spots exist and how furniture and other objects play a role.

Shop our selection of Fluance Subwoofers

DB12 12-Inch Low Frequency Ported Front Firing Powered Subwoofer

The Fluance DB12 Powered Subwoofer is ready to rock your body with a powerful bass performance empowering you to become truly immersed in any music or movie experience from a mesmerizing bass guitar solo to a ground shaking movie explosion.

When it comes to A/V awesomeness, a subwoofer is an elite addition to any home entertainment system. There’s just something primal about a box made for the sole purpose of rattling your bones and delivering low tones. We think everyone should have at least one — but two is better. Unfortunately, as awesome as subwoofers are, they can also be mighty fickle.

Further reading:

• Best subwoofers
• How to master your equalizer settings
• Best speakers

Contents

Show 2 more items

Difficulty

Easy

Duration

30 minutes

What You Need

• Subwoofer

• Masking tape

• Tennis balls or rolled-up socks

• Measuring tape

• Speaker floor spikes

Unless you’ve got a firm handle on the science of acoustics and a deep understanding of how your A/V equipment works, placing and setting up a subwoofer for optimal performance can sometimes wind up being a case of trial and error. Though it is impossible for us to anticipate and respond to the myriad variables that your distinct room will introduce (things like floor type, ceiling type, room dimensions, etc.), we can point you in the right direction.

Here’s what you need to know.

Why a subwoofer?

You get way more (and far better) bass for your dollar from a box purpose-built to belt it out. Subwoofers are less obtrusive than the sort of floor-standing speakers with drivers big enough to pull off the same task. Also, subs have dedicated power onboard, lessening the strain on your A/V receiver or multi-channel amplifier. In short, they are a more efficient route to satisfying low-end needs.

The proper integration of a subwoofer will also improve the overall sound quality of your system, adding an increase in depth and width of your system’s soundstage, as well as better sound from your loudspeakers since they’ve been relieved of a lot of the heavy lifting.

Today's tech news, curated and condensed for your inbox

Check your inbox!

Please provide a valid email address to continue.

This email address is currently on file. If you are not receiving newsletters, please check your spam folder.

Where should I put a down firing subwoofer?

Can you put a down firing subwoofer on carpet?

Which is better front firing or down firing subwoofer?

Is a down firing subwoofer better?