# Sinking a sub into the wall



## J Harker (Dec 26, 2012)

Hi chaps, greetings from sunny South Wales. Hoping to get some advice on my sub and I'm guessing you guys will know more than me so here goes...
My cinema room is built onto a (small) loft conversion. In order to maximise the room I'm considering sinking the sub into one of the hollow paperboard cavities down the sides of the room. Is this feasible? Will it ruin the sound quality or damage the sub? Could it overheat?


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## theJman (Mar 3, 2012)

Welcome to HTS.

Without having a picture of the cavity, and not knowing what type of subwoofer you have, it's difficult to say whether the sound will be negatively impacted. Overheating is a bit easier to predict though...

The short answer is a confined space is not where you want a powered subwoofer, especially if the amp is class A/B because they tend to generate an appreciable degree of heat. Cooling is done strictly by convection - without the aid of fans - so it needs space to "breath". Restrict the amount of air flow and you'll more then likely have a problem.


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## pyomarty (Dec 24, 2012)

Depending on what you have behind the wall you might want to do an Infinite baffle, for instance if you have a room behind the theater you can use that room as the sub "box" then it's out of the way and sounds sweet!


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## J Harker (Dec 26, 2012)

Thanks guys. The sub is a Philips SW968 if that helps. It came with the amp, a relatively basic out-of-the-box system. Quite old now but still does the job well. At least for me anyway. The cavities to the two sides of the loft are hollow spaces about a metre deep. I'll try and put some pics up.


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## J Harker (Dec 26, 2012)

Don't know why but I just can't post my pictures. Keeps telling me they're over the data limit.


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## J Harker (Dec 26, 2012)




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## tesseract (Aug 9, 2010)

Glad you could join us, J Harker. Nice room you have!

I've looked but can't find a picture of your sub. Is there a port tube in the box somewhere?


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## J Harker (Dec 26, 2012)

Thank you tesseract. Sorry, port tube? Is that the hole/vent bit?


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## J Harker (Dec 26, 2012)

This is a picture of the underside if that helps. I suspect the port tube is maybe the big hole?


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## theJman (Mar 3, 2012)

J Harker said:


> This is a picture of the underside if that helps. I suspect the port tube is maybe the big hole?


Yup, that's the port. Looks like there's another driver on the bottom of the cabinet as well? Either way, you should get it up off the carpet a bit more. Even if it's just a port on the bottom it will need more room to "breath", otherwise you're muting a good deal of your lower bass.


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## J Harker (Dec 26, 2012)

So do you guys see my idea with putting it into the side wall? I've been considering putting it on a wooden board to help get the benefit of that port. If I put it in the cavity with just the face flush with the paperboard...?


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## tesseract (Aug 9, 2010)

J Harker - if you are going to sink the sub into the wall, you will want to have solid sides all around the recess. Otherwise, much of the sound will be lost behind the walls. You are also limiting your placement options, where you put the sub may not be the best location to integrate it with the room for best sound.

Definitely get that port up and out of the carpet, perhaps a nice base cut to fit the dimensions of the sub?


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## J Harker (Dec 26, 2012)

I'm not sure of you can see it in the picture but the cabinet does have little legs to raise it up. The port is about 5cm off the carpet.


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## theJman (Mar 3, 2012)

J Harker said:


> So do you guys see my idea with putting it into the side wall? I've been considering putting it on a wooden board to help get the benefit of that port. If I put it in the cavity with just the face flush with the paperboard...?


Seeing as how the port is on the bottom I wouldn't put it in a cavity myself - doing so would probably diminish it's output pretty significantly. If you had a very large sub, with a lot of extra output, you might be able to get away with that. Judging from the size of your room it appears the sub probably doesn't have a lot to spare, so it may not be the best idea to mitigate any of it's abilities.

The one picture makes it look as though it's almost sitting on the ground, which is why I suggested raising it some. The board may not be such a bad idea though, assuming you don't mount it into the wall of course.


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## J Harker (Dec 26, 2012)

If I put it in the wall I was planning to do it so it's still on the floor rather than raised up. And it would be direct on the floorboards then. The cavity being big and hollow means I would have to build a sealed aperture for it sit in and that's what makes me worry about overheating. The other possibility is to purchase a longer sub cable and put it down the side of the sofa out of the way. But would that not ruin the effect even more?


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## drdoan (Aug 30, 2006)

Welcome to the Forum. Have fun. Dennis


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## J Harker (Dec 26, 2012)

Thanks Dennis.


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## tesseract (Aug 9, 2010)

J Harker said:


> The other possibility is to purchase a longer sub cable and put it down the side of the sofa out of the way. But would that not ruin the effect even more?


You might want to try it this way first. People get pretty good results putting subs nearfield. Try facing the sub one way, then turn it around and try it that way.


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## J Harker (Dec 26, 2012)

Not had great results putting the sub on wood. Makes for quite a harsh echoey bass. Not very smooth at all, much better straight on the carpet.


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## J Harker (Dec 26, 2012)

Guys I think I may have put my sub cable in the wrong way around. I've just noticed there's a little sticker on the cable itself with a black arrow on it. Do sub cables have to be a certain way around?? Will it matter?


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## theJman (Mar 3, 2012)

Is this some type of proprietary cable or just a standard RCA one? The former may have a specific orientation, while the latter does not.


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## J Harker (Dec 26, 2012)

Sorry I'm not really sure what you mean. It's this if it helps?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0000D8CG8?ie=UTF8&force-full-site=1&ref_=aw_bottom_links


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