Subwoofer Question
Quickie for everyone, which way do you face a sub with a passive radiator?
I have a Earthquake Supernova which has an active 12in driver and a passive 12 and I always thought the active driver should be facing towards the listener. I've been looking to upgrade to the new 15in and every ad I see the person takes a shot of the passive radiator and says it is the front. Which way should a sub with a passive radiator face, radiator towards the listener, or away?
Thanks.
Jared
I have a Earthquake Supernova which has an active 12in driver and a passive 12 and I always thought the active driver should be facing towards the listener. I've been looking to upgrade to the new 15in and every ad I see the person takes a shot of the passive radiator and says it is the front. Which way should a sub with a passive radiator face, radiator towards the listener, or away?
Thanks.
Jared
Post edited by Gaara on
Comments
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Depends on the room.
Wow, you know you can answer almost ANY audio question with that
Anyhow, just think of the radiator as a bigass port. It'll be out of phase with the active, but tuned lower. With some rooms you'll want the active hitting the wall/ corner and some rooms will be better with the radiator facing that way.Gallo Ref 3.1 : Bryston 4b SST : Musical fidelity CD Pre : VPI HW-19
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Experiment! Do you have an SPL meter? See where it 1. Sounds best to you, and 2. puts out the highest SPL numbers. If those 2 are the same spot, awesome. If not, choose 1 or find a happy medium.
No hard and fast rule, but generally the ports seem to be set up facing the wall/corner.HT/music rig
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Unc2701 and Schwingding thanks for the responses. I have been meaning to do it but never have had the time to try my sub in different positions. I used my trusty Radio Shack SPL meter and my Rives Audio test disc to try different positions. My sub is crossed over at 40hz. I originally had my sub about 2 feet out from the wall, active driver facing into the room. I did some tests from 20hz to 80 hz. The top is what I had, bottom is the new positioning.
Hz 20 25 32 40 50 63 80
Db 62 72 75 76 66 70 70
Db 63 72 74 74 69 70 70
Honestly moving it around didn't have any affect on the sound. I tried aiming the passive radiator at the back wall, at the corner, in between, moved it forward 12 in, back 12in, nothing really changed. Reversing it did the trick though, it brought down the peaks at 31.5 and 40 and brought up 50hz significantly. I strongly recommend anyone who wants to get the most out of their system to play around with the sub positioning. It does make a difference!
Jared
