04-Aug-2020, 05:23
The part that is incorrect is the bit about 99.9% of the subwoofer range being in mono. That's probably the case if you limit the upper frequency of the subwoofer range to around 80 Hz but many people run their subs to higher frequencies than that because they're using speakers which start rolling off at frequencies of 80 Hz or higher. In practice it's the user who limits the subwoofer range when they set the crossover frequency so it's the user who determines the subwoofer range, not the subwoofer manufacturer or the recording engineer who mixes the recording.
In your response you said "As I've already said, 99.9% of recordings has mono bass usually up to ~150 Hz" but that is not what you originally said. What you originally said was "Subwoofer frequency range is on 99.9% of recordings mono (the exception are some rare recordings of classical music)" and you did not specify an upper frequency for subwoofer range. I'm not certain that recording engineers do mix to mono up to around 150 Hz. What they seem to do on a lot of the music I listen to is to mix instruments like electric or double bass and the bass drum into the centre of the sound stage so that all frequencies from them are in mono but with some other instruments like the piano which goes about half an octave lower than the bass the instrument including the bass notes seem to be mixed to an off centre location so their bass isn't present in mono. That's another reason I'm not certain that 99.9% of low bass is mixed to mono, a lot certainly is but definitely not all of it in my experience.
As I said, it is occasionally possible to determine the location of a sub because it is loading a room mode strongly, something corner placement does though other locations can also strongly load a room mode. If a mode is strongly loaded at a particular frequency then the sub can reveal itself as a separate sound source and you can locate it even though the mode being loaded occurs below 80 Hz. Also as I said, in my experience of a few occasions on which this has occurred, it has happened with loud low frequency sound effects in a soundtrack rather than with music so it may not be relevant in the OP's case but under the right combination of frequency content in the recording and a strong activation of a modal frequency by the sub, the sub location can be identified. This has not been common in my experience but it has definitely occurred on a small number of occasions and it isn't related to the directionality of low frequency sound, it's simply because some low frequency sound effects in movies are essentially the bulk of the sound when they occur so the sub or subs are the only speakers really working when some sounds occur and that can make it easier to locate the sub just from the volume level of the sound since there are no frequencies in the sound being reproduced by other speakers which are high enough in frequency to provide the normal directional cues. This is probably not a problem if you're only using your system for playing music but if it's also doing double duty for HT work the sub may occasionally identify itself as a source of the sound.
In your response you said "As I've already said, 99.9% of recordings has mono bass usually up to ~150 Hz" but that is not what you originally said. What you originally said was "Subwoofer frequency range is on 99.9% of recordings mono (the exception are some rare recordings of classical music)" and you did not specify an upper frequency for subwoofer range. I'm not certain that recording engineers do mix to mono up to around 150 Hz. What they seem to do on a lot of the music I listen to is to mix instruments like electric or double bass and the bass drum into the centre of the sound stage so that all frequencies from them are in mono but with some other instruments like the piano which goes about half an octave lower than the bass the instrument including the bass notes seem to be mixed to an off centre location so their bass isn't present in mono. That's another reason I'm not certain that 99.9% of low bass is mixed to mono, a lot certainly is but definitely not all of it in my experience.
As I said, it is occasionally possible to determine the location of a sub because it is loading a room mode strongly, something corner placement does though other locations can also strongly load a room mode. If a mode is strongly loaded at a particular frequency then the sub can reveal itself as a separate sound source and you can locate it even though the mode being loaded occurs below 80 Hz. Also as I said, in my experience of a few occasions on which this has occurred, it has happened with loud low frequency sound effects in a soundtrack rather than with music so it may not be relevant in the OP's case but under the right combination of frequency content in the recording and a strong activation of a modal frequency by the sub, the sub location can be identified. This has not been common in my experience but it has definitely occurred on a small number of occasions and it isn't related to the directionality of low frequency sound, it's simply because some low frequency sound effects in movies are essentially the bulk of the sound when they occur so the sub or subs are the only speakers really working when some sounds occur and that can make it easier to locate the sub just from the volume level of the sound since there are no frequencies in the sound being reproduced by other speakers which are high enough in frequency to provide the normal directional cues. This is probably not a problem if you're only using your system for playing music but if it's also doing double duty for HT work the sub may occasionally identify itself as a source of the sound.
Roon Nucleus+, Devilalet Expert 140 Pro CI, Focal Sopra 2, PS Audio P12, Keces P8 LPS, Uptone Audio EtherREGEN with optical fibre link to my router, Shunyata Alpha NR and Sigma NR power cables, Shunyata Sigma ethernet cables, Shunyata Alpha V2 speaker cables, Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack, RealTRAPS acoustic treatment.
Brisbane, Qld, Australia
