KRK 10S manual Subwoofer Placement and Set Up, Proper Physical Placement of Subwoofer

Subwoofer Placement and Set Up

A properly set up subwoofer system extends the bass response of the main monitors (either stereo or 5.1 surround) without exaggerating bass response in the room. Improper set up may cause an exaggeration of bass response in the room, which in turn may cause the engineer to mix in less bass energy than desired.

There are some basic steps necessary to ensure you have a subwoofer operating in top form: 1) a room correction system such as KRK’s ERGO and/or room treatment; 2) proper placement of the sub within the room; and 3) proper electrical settings.

Proper Physical Placement of Subwoofer

Just because bass frequencies are largely non-directional does not mean that you can ignore the subwoofer's placement in the room. If fact, a sub's physical position in the room in relation to the floor, walls and other surfaces radically influences its bass response. In a monitoring situation, it is desirable to place the subwoofer so that it produces the smoothest frequency response at the listening position. In addition, since the subwoofer's output will interact with the other monitor speakers in the room, it is important to consider the subwoofer and near-field speakers as a total system.

At this stage, you have only the subwoofer operating. Once you find its optimum position and settings, you can turn on the complete monitoring system to verify that all components interact properly. What you are attempting to do is find a place in the room where the subwoofer interacts smoothly with the acoustics to even out the bass response at the listening position.

Once you find the optimal spot, place the subwoofer there and listen to it from the mix position. Move the subwoofer around a foot at a time until the bass response is as even as possible at the listening position. Remember that you do not want any single frequency to be exaggerated during monitoring, as that will result in the final music mix having too little bass. One caveat: if your subwoofer's optimum position is under your console, make sure to leave the removable grill on the subwoofer to protect the speaker from your feet. You do not want to kick a hole in the subwoofer speaker.

Continue to the next section (Setting Subwoofer Levels) in order to determine the proper position of the phase switch on the subwoofer.

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