Final Sound S110 Design Safety, Loudspeaker & Subwoofer positioning, Loudspeakers, Subwoofers

2. Design Safety

This subwoofer is supplied with a removable IEC power cord. Use only IEC power cords designed for the power receptacle of your country, and with a minimum current rating of 2.5A.

For 220V operation, a 1A fuse is required. For 110V operation, a 2A fuse is required. In both cases the fuse must be rated for 250V operation. Use only the rated sized fuses. Do not use without the fuse cover in place. If the fuse holder is damaged or worn, see your dealer for replacement.

3. Loudspeaker & Subwoofer positioning

Loudspeakers

For acoustical reasons it’s not recommendable to locate your loudspeakers following a strict symmetrical placement. Try to keep the distance from the left loudspeakers (front and rear) to the wall a little different from the distance the right loudspeakers measures from the wall. The secret behind a good sounding room is not to get rid of resonances, but to spread them as evenly as possible across the frequency spectrum. Asymmetrical placement of loudspeakers will be a little bit helpful to accomplish that situation.

Subwoofers

Coloration, due to resonance, is strongest at bass frequencies between 20 and 200 Hertz. It’s much easier to obtain high absorption at higher frequencies. So, the placement of a subwoofer is critical. Theoretically, the smoothest low-frequency response is obtained when the subwoofer is as close as possible to the listener’s ears. The received sound from the subwoofer is then dominated by the direct radiation rather than by room resonances. Practically the subwoofer should be placed on the base line between the front panels. That’s also advisable from a phase perspective and if the subwoofer outputs frequencies higher than 100Hz. You cannot locate frequencies below 100Hertz. If the output is above 100Hz, it’s easy to locate the sound coming from the subwoofer. Then, it’s common wisdom to keep the sub near the front panels and not along the wall or in the corner.

If you don’t want to put the sub between the front panels and if the output is below 100Hz, the second best location is nearby the corner of the room, consistent with the acoustic theory that all the room modes will be excited evenly from this location. But, useful lessons learned from the real world tells us that the best approach in coping with subwoofers is to use your ears and play around a little bit.

Because the S110 subwoofer is intended to form a combination with our 90i, 150i and 300i panels, it will usually output frequencies higher than 100Hz. For these applications we recommend a subwoofer position on the base line between the loudspeaker panels. For the 400i (and perhaps the 300i, depending on the room conditions), other positions for the subwoofer might be possible.

FINAL SOUND SOLUTIONS S110 SUBWOOFER MANUAL vs. 1.6 -US- c FSS 2006R 6