Dual mono with REL Subwoofer

[David A]

@David A@audio_engr. As for what I am looking for - I was happy with my system till I started reading this thread!

I just listen to music - no need / desire for thumping. My speakers are rated low but I have heard that in the real world they never go as low as the manufacturers say. Interestingly, Devialet say they only go to 35 - but with SAM they go to 11...I have been using SAM often around 35%.

I borrowed a couple of inexpensive subs and hooked them up to each speaker and I do like the sound. As I said I have a limited area (maybe 3 feet x 3 feet behind each speaker) to move them - at the moment I have them stacked on one side. Curiously, measuring with REW in the different locations/orientations I tried, they don’t eliminate the nulls that my room has. Since I can’t place them all around the room that may just be the reality.

Based on my experimenting with these inexpensive sub I am thinking maybe just get one better sub. I am intrigued by the REL G1 mkll , but, my goodness it is big for my room (and the weight...). I think the REL Carbon Limited might be the ticket, but you can’t buy them anywhere. 

So, I need to decide - G1, S5, or S3. I have eliminated the T9i .The system sounds good as is -why can’t we leave things alone!! Interestingly I find the sound best with the subs and SAM on(at 35%) -which I know makes no sense.

Dan,

If you just listen to music and were happy with your system until you started reading this thread, then forget about a sub, forget about this thread, and go back to just listening to music and being happy.

Facts:

1- If you have one or more problem nulls in your room it's going to take multiple subs in different locations to smooth the response. You won't reduce nulls with a single sub and the multiple subs will need to be placed in the appropriate places in the room. There's a lot of stuff on the Harmon site about placement of multiple subs for smoothing room response and it's worth reading if this is what you want to achieve but if I remember correctly they recommend 3 or 4 subs, 2 doesn't achieve that sort of result and they had to be placed in specific ways, just putting them anywhere around the room didn't work. Check their recommendations and if you can't place subs in the locations they recommend then you're unlikely to be able to get the kind of result you want.

2- A null is a low pressure area in the room. They occur in specific locations in the room. You can influence the severity of the null with speaker placement, which determines how much the speaker is going to load the room modes (standing waves) and also with the location of your listening position by placing it outside of an area where a null occurs. I once was listening to a demo of a speaker in a dealer showroom and playing one of my own discs with a prominent low bass note. I was sitting in the chair the dealer had set up for the speakers and I couldn't hear that bass note. I stood up and started walking to the CD player to swap discs and 1 to 2 steps in front of the chair the bass note hit me. A change of 2 feet or so in listening position was all it took to make the difference between being able to hear that note strongly and not hear it at all.  Try moving your listening position backwards and/or forwards a couple of feet, a small step at a time, and see if you can reduce or eliminate the null just with a change of listening position.

3- If you're going to do something, it's worth doing well. If you want to add subs, then make sure you can get really good results from those subs before you add them. That means not only considering the quality of the sub but whether or not you're going to be able to set them up so that they can deliver what they're capable of. There's little sense in adding subs if you're going to then set them up in a way that means they can't deliver what you're buying them for. There's no point to buying a sub which can do what you want it to do if you're going to set it up in your room in a way which guarantees that it won't deliver what it's capable of.