Subwoofer recommendations

[Tmort]

I’ve a small room, a bedroom specifically with classic 9’s. Currently running a relatively inexpensive but pretty tight Klipsch powered subwoofer. In the big picture though this is probably the weakest link in my chain. No urgency to change but I’m sure a step up on the bottom end would yield nice results.
What are others running with similar speakers in a SMALL room?

 

[ttocs]

Wow, that's kinda tight. That looks like a perfect room for multiple subs. You don't need big, just more of them. Use the middle of each wall configuration.

If it were me, I'd get four 8" subs. In a room that size, the volume of each sub in a group is going to be low so power isn't a major concern, but need enough to get the instantaneous reaction for good, quick dynamics.

What model sub is the Klipsch? Maybe get more of those and put one in the middle of each wall, if possible to place them there.

 

[JETHRO]

I’ve a small room, a bedroom specifically with classic 9’s. Currently running a relatively inexpensive but pretty tight Klipsch powered subwoofer. In the big picture though this is probably the weakest link in my chain. No urgency to change but I’m sure a step up on the bottom end would yield nice results.
What are others running with similar speakers in a SMALL room?

I moved the same speakers in a 14x22 room with a dynamo 700. I upgraded to two 800x’s and was very happy. Maybe consider adding a second Klipsch?

 

[Tmort]

Wow, that's kinda tight. That looks like a perfect room for multiple subs. You don't need big, just more of them. Use the middle of each wall configuration.

If it were me, I'd get four 8" subs. In a room that size, the volume of each sub in a group is going to be low so power isn't a major concern, but need enough to get the instantaneous reaction for good, quick dynamics.

What model sub is the Klipsch? Maybe get more of those and put one in the middle of each wall, if possible to place them there.

It’s the R-12SW, so it’s a 12” unit…
The room is basically square, just a bit over 11’ x 11’ plus the ceiling slopes front (8’) to rear (11.5’), which is nice.
It looks smaller in the pic as a Murphy bed on the side there projects 20” into the space. I think two subwoofers would be overkill really. But as noted below you aren’t the only one suggesting that!

 

[Robert D]

Im using this sub, https://www.definitivetechnology.com/en-us/product/subwoofers/dn10, in a room thats about the same size as your's. It my study where I do my PC gaming. The single sub sounds great. If your sub is similar to this then I doubt you really need more. Im just using some small bookshelf Definitive speakers with it too and you have the big ML 9's.

 

[DanR]

I agree with ttocs completely. I’ve been using multiple subs for years and it WORKS. And he’s right on the size too, consider SVS 12” sealed sub I’ve been using one for two years now and for the price I can’t find anything that will beat it. If you have the budget for two, go for it. As you can see the 12” isn’t real big sitting next to an Odyssey

 

[ttocs]

It’s the R-12SW, so it’s a 12” unit…
The room is basically square, just a bit over 11’ x 11’ plus the ceiling slopes front (8’) to rear (11.5’), which is nice.
It looks smaller in the pic as a Murphy bed on the side there projects 20” into the space. I think two subwoofers would be overkill really. But as noted below you aren’t the only one suggesting that!

The multiple subs idea isn't for more bass, it's for tuning. Lookup Floyd Toole with Harman to see his extensive testing on the subject of subwoofers and how many are good/bad. After cramming up to 50 subs in a room, he determined that 4 subwoofer locations is the maximum to deliver benefits for smoothing the peaks/nulls, one on each of the four walls in a room, preferably in the middle of the wall.

In my room, one subwoofer location doesn't work well at all. Two locations is much better, and three is fantastic! I don't have any good fourth locations in my multipurpose Living/Dining/Kitchen great room so I'm glad I'm able to work with just the three spots.

 

[DanR]

Three works great in my system as well, I follow Dr Earl Geddes multiple subs work, Duke LeJeune uses his work as well in his swarm multiple sub set ups

 

[ttocs]

I've been testing various subwoofer setups recently looking at alternatives to what I had been using, just to see what's possible. I keep coming back to a "tripod" setup, with two subwoofer locations in front, and one in back. I've been using two stacks of 2-subs each for the last couple years now, but this is the first attempt with using two stacks of 3-subs each in front. Each stack is two Dynamo 1100X and one 800X subs. The seventh sub is a 11 or 12 year old Rel 10" sub in "back". The sole purpose of the sub in back is to smooth the response, because without it the response is pretty bad.

I put the work "back" in quotes above, because this is also the first time I've successfully been able to place a sub directly behind my sofa. When the small Rel was in the back of the room I just wasn't able to get it to work in the frequency range needed to help the fronts as well as it does behind the sofa.

Just to be clear, for this example it doesn't matter that I'm stacking multiple subs in front, just consider them to be one sub each because it makes the conversation easier to just say I'm using 3 subwoofers.

So here is a plot showing what the front two sub locations look like, and then what the third location does to fill-in and make the response look so much better. And the Rel doesn't even "seem" like it's doing much, but it does!

 

[roberto]

Hola...how difficult is to plot three curves. One at -5dB of your average SPL (+75dB), and another +5dB. In other words, one at +70dB SPL and the other at +80dB SPL. Do not touch anything, do not correct any phase or crossover cut point. Just the level.

I am curious about how the SPL will affect the frequency response at low frequencies. I really appreciate very much your help!

 

[ttocs]

Hola...how difficult is to plot three curves. One at -5dB of your average SPL (+75dB), and another +5dB. In other words, one at +70dB SPL and the other at +80dB SPL. Do not touch anything, do not correct any phase or crossover cut point. Just the level.

I am curious about how the SPL will affect the frequency response at low frequencies. I really appreciate very much your help!

Do you mean like this?

This is with no smoothing to retain the most amount of detail. There is some amount of sag, like if you look at about 26Hz for example which loses some output at higher SPL, so instead of 96dB it's 94dB. Some of the loss is due to room interaction and not so much due to subwoofer output, but both are evident.

 

[JonFo]

What are others running with similar speakers in a SMALL room?

I documented what I did with a similar-sized room in this thread: Media room – quad ML sub setup

This other thread covered similar territory regarding subs:
https://www.martinloganowners.com/threads/square-room-with-electrostatics.19366/

 

[lowheat]

I’ve a small room, a bedroom specifically with classic 9’s. Currently running a relatively inexpensive but pretty tight Klipsch powered subwoofer. In the big picture though this is probably the weakest link in my chain. No urgency to change but I’m sure a step up on the bottom end would yield nice results.
What are others running with similar speakers in a SMALL room?

Find your way to the Floyd Toole research at the Harmon/Revel/JBL, etc. website. You might have to poke around a bit, but it's still there, I hope. Seminal research and tells you more than you ever wanted to know about woofers and room acoustics. Good luck!

 

[JonFo]

Here is a very digestible version of the Harman research on multiple subs: https://www.harman.com/documents/multsubs_0.pdf

Spoiler:

My HT uses the first config, front-center and rear-center. My media room uses the thrid with four in the corners.
I have extensively measured both and they really are quite smooth.

 

[Tmort]

I have acquired a B&W DB4S added to my Klipsch and holy cow what a musical add it is! Crazy how much depth this sub provides, I’m working on locations but so far it’s impressive!

 

[Robert D]

Here is a very digestible version of the Harman research on multiple subs: https://www.harman.com/documents/multsubs_0.pdf

Spoiler:

View attachment 23753

My HT uses the first config, front-center and rear-center. My media room uses the thrid with four in the corners.
I have extensively measured both and they really are quite smooth.

Which of the 3 do you think is best, if all subs are identical? I'm going to guess that the middle probably sounds the best? Isn't it usually recommended to try and not put subwoofers in the corner, as that's supposed to make them more "boomy"? I have just one BF 210 and it's near the front right corner. It seems to sound great though.

 

[JonFo]

Which of the 3 do you think is best, if all subs are identical?

Best: depends a bit on the room, but in general, the one with four at wall mid-points (the middle image).

The majority of the time, center-front + center-back are enough for most rooms.

The four in the corners work if very well-tuned using MSO (MultiSub Optimizer) or one of the proprietary multiSub room EQ setups.

If you have a cube of a room, the the four in the corners is actually the best.

 

[Robert D]

Best: depends a bit on the room, but in general, the one with four at wall mid-points (the middle image).

The majority of the time, center-front + center-back are enough for most rooms.

The four in the corners work if very well-tuned using MSO (MultiSub Optimizer) or one of the proprietary multiSub room EQ setups.

If you have a cube of a room, the the four in the corners is actually the best.

Ok. I wouldn't have guessed that having a sub in the 4 corners could ever be best. So having 4 walls all with the same length really introduces some unique conditions.

 

[codesx100]

I’ve a small room, a bedroom specifically with classic 9’s. Currently running a relatively inexpensive but pretty tight Klipsch powered subwoofer. In the big picture though this is probably the weakest link in my chain. No urgency to change but I’m sure a step up on the bottom end would yield nice results.
What are others running with similar speakers in a SMALL room?

2x HSU ULS-15 mk2

Think you may lose a window or wall if you go with, dual HSU VTF-15H mk2s, SVS-sb16s or Balanceforce 212s LOL!

 

[PVMIKE]

I'm a REL fan and have been looking into subs a lot. I have to agree with John Hunter that if you are referencing that the sub sound great, you have already missed the point of having a sub in a 2 channel system