# Does a subwoofer have to be on the floor?



## Reinier

Does a subwoofer have to be on the floor or can it be on top of another piece of furniture? 

Right now I have my 5.1 setup like this:

http://i54.tinypic.com/24dpufr.gif









I am thinking of putting the subwoofer either on the left side of the TV or on top of another piece of furniture in the same spot, would it be a bad idea to do so?


thanks for your answers
- Reinier


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## Kal Rubinson

Good ideal. Getting it off a room-boundary (floor) can help with performance.

Kal


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## aceinc

I think the answer is, there are too many variables for anyone to definitively answer this question. 

Every room has its own characteristics that when combined with the speakers, including the sub, will determine optimal placement. In my opinion you have two choices;

1) Get all of the variables (room dimensions, furniture dimensions material and placement, anechoic speaker mearsurements) and lay everything out and using some very complex calculations find the optimal placement of your speakers.

2) Send the wife & kids out, bring over a freind, if available, and empirically test various placements for your speakers. Use test gear if available, or your ears if not.

The short answer to your question is, having the sub on either side of the screen or on top of other furniture is fine. However in your specific room any or all of those locations may sound wonderful, or bad (I evidentily had not read the rules, and used a word that is prohibited, sorry about that. Not a word I would have thought was offensive but rules are rules.). 

Paul


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## bambino

My suggestion to questions like this are always experiment and see what you like best.:T


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## GranteedEV

IMO yes. Other furnature will resonate whereas a good carpeted floor won't in the same way.


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## jackfish

I've seen some very good commercial implementations of subwoofers near the ceiling.


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## martinez331

My Def Tech BP7006's have subs built right into them and are located on top of my media center and sound awesome. My media center was built very sturdy though... no vibrations or shimmy's...


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## merc

Without knowing any details, my simple, very simple answer would be no... keep it on the floor and unless you have a small enclosed room, you will probably want it in the corner too.


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## Kal Rubinson

Read this and see why raising the sub is actually a good idea:
http://www.asc-home-theater.com/subtrap.htm
http://www.asc-hifi.com/sub-trap.htm


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## Ares

I have my sub on 15" stand which I built this was done because I have hardwood floors in my HT room which would vibrate since it's one of those floating wood floors. Besides that the bass has tighten up and I had to turn the volume on the sub down from just about half to under a quarter.


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## merc

The aforementioned subtraps look to be very effective as removing many thing which are negative, but also reduce the room effect of lowering your HZ impact of the sub when sub location is maximized for your seating location.

So, maybe spend the $500 bucks for a subtrap and try it and if it doesn't do what you want, send it back?

Of course, you could also spend that money on self bought and installed room acoustics and a cheap sub EQ and get possibly the same or better results? YMMV.


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## Reinier

thanks for the feedback guys, ill try it out and see how it sounds  its good to know that it isnt mandatory to have it on the floor because putting it on another piece of furniture would save me some space in the small room where I have the surround sound system setup


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## Kal Rubinson

merc said:


> .............................. but also reduce the room effect of lowering your HZ impact of the sub when sub location is maximized for your seating location.


Can you explain what you mean?


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## 1hagop

So... I just looked at ASC's pdf here: http://www.asc-home-theater.com/subtrap-flyer.pdf

So at 90hz it corrects a 9db drop and at 80hz and 75hz it corrects a 2 db drop. I do not know about you all, but my subs are all crossed at 80hz and to be completely honest if you can hear that 2dbs of difference I think you may be lying. 

Now, I have no problem with me getting bored one day I am off work and building a sub decoupler and trying it, but I am no way going to pay anyone any amount of money for 2db's. Matter of fact raising my 4' sonotubes a little higher sounds cool. Maybe more people coming over will ask "What are those?"

I would also have to say that moving a speaker closer to ear level may (MAY) just make it sound louder, because it has a direct shot to your ear. Could this be the reason that calibration tones are measured at ear height from the seated position?


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## Ares

1hagop said:


> So... I just looked at ASC's pdf here: http://www.asc-home-theater.com/subtrap-flyer.pdf
> 
> So at 90hz it corrects a 9db drop and at 80hz and 75hz it corrects a 2 db drop. I do not know about you all, but my subs are all crossed at 80hz and to be completely honest if you can hear that 2dbs of difference I think you may be lying.
> 
> Now, I have no problem with me getting bored one day I am off work and building a sub decoupler and trying it, but I am no way going to pay anyone any amount of money for 2db's. Matter of fact raising my 4' sonotubes a little higher sounds cool. Maybe more people coming over will ask "What are those?"
> 
> I would also have to say that moving a speaker closer to ear level may (MAY) just make it sound louder, because it has a direct shot to your ear. Could this be the reason that calibration tones are measured at ear height from the seated position?


I think you might be right on that, before raising my sub I had the dial set one notch below half and Audyssey had the sub at -3dB, now that it's off the floor by 15" I had to set the dial to one notch below a quarter and Audyssey has set the sub at -6dB.


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## JerryLove

The floor is just an overbuilt wall with odd decorations on it. The sub will treat it as such.


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## Kal Rubinson

JerryLove said:


> The floor is just an overbuilt wall with odd decorations on it. The sub will treat it as such.


Yup. And, as with any other boundary, it is a high-pressure zone for the relevant modes, so placing a driver there will excite those modes maximally.

Kal


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## JerryLove

1hagop said:


> I would also have to say that moving a speaker closer to ear level may (MAY) just make it sound louder, because it has a direct shot to your ear.


 There's two ways I could interprete this.

One instance assumes that there is no obstruction between a sub at ear-height and an obstruction to a sub on the floor. In this case, the real issue is not height, but line-of-site.

The other instance considers the difference between on-axis (sub driver pointed at you) and off axis (sub driver pointed elsewhere) sound. This is important in directional drivers: but relatively unimportant in subs.


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## 1hagop

JerryLove said:


> One instance assumes that there is no obstruction between a sub at ear-height and an obstruction to a sub on the floor. In this case, the real issue is not height, but line-of-site.


This is what I meant. Straight out of the woofer to your ear no furniture, lamps, carpet, wife, kids in the way for the sound waves to hit.

Your other point is well taken which is why I (and I think most of us) cross our subs at 80hz which is where the human ear can no longer localize the sound.


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## PoTee

You might try building a riser and trying it out. you can build one for $15.00 or less including the carpet in the color of your choice to cover it. I built one and am very happy with the results.

PoTee


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