Bass Management

[tayeke]

My bass out of my subwoofer is loud enough and i make it louder sometimes, but it doesn't give me any more than I had. Can someone tell me how I can get more bass rather than just louder sounds. How can I change the frequencies it uses beyond just bass management.

Any help appreciated...

[juneau]

Some frequency adjustments can be made by positioning. Placing it in a corner will make it sound boomy, while moving it away from a corner and having at least 2 ft away from a backing wall will give you less bass, but it'll be crisper.

Start byt just moving it around to all the places in the room you wouldn't mind moving it too and then see how it handles.

[tayeke]

Interesting, I've never heard of that. Sounds like I got the crisper one.

[juneau]

Interesting, I've never heard of that. Sounds like I got the crisper one.

Home Cinema Setup 101.

[-IRC-MIKE]

Setting it on a concrete floor or a floor with tile, wood on concrete, or anything that is HARD besides carpet will do this. Positioning like juneau said will help. Try setting it on something hollow. A wood box turned open-side down, if wide enough, will enhance the bace a bit. Putting it INSIDE something sealed with a porthole will also do the same (woofer box inside a sealed box. A friend of mine has one of those Fish Aquarium coffee tables that he modified to seal it up and put a subwoofer in it sounds really nice but not as nice as some I've seen.

[drunken_chef]

Setting it on a concrete floor or a floor with tile, wood on concrete, or anything that is HARD besides carpet will do this. Positioning like juneau said will help. Try setting it on something hollow. A wood box turned open-side down, if wide enough, will enhance the bace a bit. Putting it INSIDE something sealed with a porthole will also do the same (woofer box inside a sealed box. A friend of mine has one of those Fish Aquarium coffee tables that he modified to seal it up and put a subwoofer in it sounds really nice but not as nice as some I've seen.

there is something call thiele small parameters and equations that are used for designing speaker enclosers. doing random things like you're advising will give you random results. you also seem to miss the point that frequencies below 100Hz have VERY long wave lengths. any barrier that is a small fraction of that distance WILL NOT SUPRESS THE WAVE.

Most elephant rumbles consist of a fundamental frequency between 5-30Hz . that is why elephants can hear each other for miles. things like trees etc do nothing to supress the sound.

look, maybe I come off as some kind of dolt. but, I have a degree in physics and when I was much younger(your age) I made a living doing acoustic design. IMO you're talking voodoo not science.

[tayeke]

Setting it on a concrete floor or a floor with tile, wood on concrete, or anything that is HARD besides carpet will do this.

Yep mine's on carpet. That makes a lot of sense. Thnx! I'm gonna try and put it on a box.

[-IRC-MIKE]

Well carpet helps. The direction the port holes are aimed and the material the sub is sitting on makes another. The makings of the wall is another thing. A subwoofer sounds like crap sitting in the center of the room, whereas the port hole aiming at a wall produces a reflection of the sound waves. Sitting it in a corner makes a big difference, however aiming the port hole directly into the corner may decrease the intensity. If your desk is in a corner and you sit the speaker about 8-12 inches from the corner facing directly at the wall will also enhance the base.

Try this, for a kick. Turn the bass way up and walk around the room. You may get different bass levels in certain places of the room, or maybe just outside the room standing right at the doorway. Basically your room becomes the outside box (a box within a box whereas your sub is actually the inside box). I have done many experiments with these. If you have ever actually studied the inner acoustics of a really good speaker enclosure you'd understand a bit more. Those bass tubes (bazookas) are genius the way they are designed, but improper placement or "aiming" will produce less effect. Take the subwoofer and move it around.. walk around the room... walk around the house.... keep in mind the entertainment you have in mind for it..i.e. If you like to play music while you are walking around working... the base may not necessarily sound incredibly good right at the PC, but walking around the house/room will prove your placement. If you are aiming to get your desired sounds from sitting in your computer chair, then you are going to have to work to make sure that the sound reverberates off the walls so that they meet at or around head-level where you sit, much like surround sound. If you point the speakers this way and that, your surround sound is going to sound like a jet flew by next door, instead of right infront of you and passed directly over your head. Bass and Subs work the same way.

Also, even though your mids and highs or smaller speakers may not sound like they produce a tremendous amount of bass, they play a key role in what you hear, at what level, and where you sit.

Subwoofers and Bass rely on vibration and reverberation. If you are in a room with concrete block walls and flooring, it will not appeal to your liking. I can take my PC Sub and take it upstairs in my house and it sounds like one of those big speakers you see at a concert. In my shop I have concrete block walls and floor and it does not produce NEAR the bass that I would like. I can sit the sub on a 3x4 foot x 12 inches high BOX and get SEVERELY different results. I can take a piece of wood or sheet metal and lean against the wall, place the bottom of the plywood sheet at the rear base of the sub, and the sound exits the porthole, hits the plywood and goes straight up to the wood ceiling, gaining momentum from the wood ceiling due to the ceiling being "flexible" because it vibrates (not making noice but it flexes due to the sound waves) then it carries better.

Bass waves are lower frequency and travel slower over distance compared to mids and highs.. higher frequency.

Hope that helps out a bit.

[tayeke]

You are right about that. I annoy the whole household because the bass is insane outside my room. Seems like everything is way way louder sounding outside my room. BTW if I didn't mention I have 5.1 all around my room.

[-IRC-MIKE]

The reason it sounds like a concert in the REST of the house is because the WALLS are somewhat sealed. Those walls are basically boxes that are absorbing the sound waves on the INSIDE of your room and the other side of that wall is vibrating, producing a much more intense sound on the other side.... think about it. If you foamed the inside of that wall, it would reduce the vibrations on the other side of the wall... making it less noisy on the other side of the wall. Soundwaves hit the wall like so:

))))| <Inside of the wall ))((soundwave inside wall))(()) wall in other room>| ))))))))))

The sound is captured inside the wall and causes the outside of that wall, depending on the airspace in the wall, to multiply due to airspace.

I'm sure you've heard of "Free Air" speakers. That is a speaker that needs little or no enclosure to produce these sound waves, and rely on surrounding vibrations to travel. In a box, Free Air speakers don't necessarily require a port hole to vent the air, either. Try poking a sock in the port hole of your speaker and see what results you get there. Try poking the sock in again NOT to eliminate the airflow, but to decrease it slightly, leaving a bit of room for air to escape. You are likely to get the vibrations closer to you.. producing a better sound. Have you ever seen a DRUMMER throw a shirt or a jacket in the bass drum to decrease the travel of the base? This is one reason why.. so it doesn't wake the neighbors, but maintains the intensity at a closer distance.... Some do it to produce a different sound. My uncle plays the drums ina band and he can produce different sounds with the same drum by modifying the output.

[tayeke]

Yeah soundwaves move better in solids I know. Poor neighbors...:-/

[-IRC-MIKE]

Sorry for being so LOOOONG-Winded, but I am trying to quit smoking, using "The Patch" and a few other things, and I have sleep-loss and fidgety as a mofo, and I lose control of what I'm trying to say or do at times. I get tunnel vision, restlessness, among other things. I'll try to keep it shorter next time, but I'lll be in frequently because I"m always hunting something to do.

Thanks for understanding,

~~mike~~