Jim Smith came over Saturday and we tried something entirely new which was raising the subwoofer up off the floor to align vertically (driver domes) with the lower woofer on my main system. The point is to get the woofers "working together."
Honestly, I was very skeptical and wasn't sure I wanted to lift the heavy subs. Fortunately I had two solid wood amp stands that lifted 4" exactly and worked sonically, if not quite aesthetically. I can eventually get one of the HRS platforms to work I believe and in black it would match the speaker hardware.
We also found that moving the subs (which are on the outside of the mains) closer to the mains paid dividends in sound quality.
The results are quite spectacular. Much more smoothness in the bass and the spatial cues are even better. I am super happy with the results.
Hi, Lee. Glad to hear you got to spend some time with Jim, that must have been fun. I am actually not surprised in the least with your observations. My subs haven't been on the ground in over 8 years.
We’re often told to keep speakers away from room boundaries, what is the floor if not a boundary. Elevating your subwoofer off the floor makes a lot of sense. In fact, placing it even higher than what most people currently place them; I think will yield even better results.
...I generally used the 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 seat and speaker placement for my room. When I had subs, I used the 1/3 guidance for subs from the ceiling (or floor). That was the best subs sounded in my room.
I actually built my sub-stand based on the info @audio.bill posted.
...BTW: I would imagine some of the benefit described by proponents of the six-pack, stacked sub set-up is that you have subs sub-stantially off the floor.
I used that one in the past, but unfortunately elevating the subs that high does not fit into my current configuration. If you can elevate the subs as much, product is recommended.
You reminded me. In my old house, I set my speakers on a 9" tall block of wood to see if I could clean up floor bounce from the lower woofer. I remember one of the biggest gains was the bass was far far better. I need to drag those blocks up to my listening room. They are stored in the RV garage at the new house.
Very interesting. Since 2011 or so, our sub has been roughly 6" off the ground on 2 sets of isolators. The main stand was designed to isolate, and then we placed the sub on top of footers as well since we happened to have them. (We also have nearly 300lbs of mass damping on top with an elastomer interface which really stills the unit even more.)
I went to my local Lowe’s and bought (8) 4” pvc couplers to hear for myself what raising my two 15” Rythmik subs might offer.
The couplers are 4 inches tall. I was able (time restraint) to get one of the subs on a set of four just to see how sturdy the setup would be, and without any regard to the location of where the couplers are seated the sub sits just fine without any issue.
Once I have the opportunity to get the other one raised up I can decide whether it will be necessary to add something to dampen potential vibration but I think with the hefty weight of the subs (~65lbs. ea.) I don’t anticipate the need.
If I want to add an additional 4 in height it will be easy enough to get a foot or so of 4 in pvc pipe to connect two couplers. Should be no issue with integrity once glued…
$3.49 per coupler, cheap way to experiment.
I went to my local Lowe’s and bought (8) 4” pvc couplers to hear for myself what raising my two 18” Rythmik subs might offer.
The couplers are 4 inches tall. I was able (time restraint) to get one of the subs on a set of four just to see how sturdy the setup would be, and without any regard to the location of where the couplers are seated the sub sits just fine without any issue.
Once I have the opportunity to get the other one raised up I can decide whether it will be necessary to add something to dampen potential vibration but I think with the hefty weight of the subs (~65lbs. ea.) I don’t anticipate the need.
If I want to add an additional 4 in height it will be easy enough to get a foot or so of 4 in pvc pipe to connect two couplers. Should be no issue with integrity once glued…
$3.49 per coupler, cheap way to experiment.
