[Monkey123]

Hello everyone.  I finally pulled the trigger after watching many of Danny's excellent tech videos.  I bought a Rythmik F12 and upgraded to the GR driver!  I know many of you are far ahead of me on this journey but hopefully I will catch up and get to try open baffles some day too!

I haven't received the F12G yet and can't search the forum yet either, but I have a few questions.

1. What type of "burn in" is recommended on this driver?  Is it different for servo subs?

2. Is it ideal to have the subwoofer driver facing the same direction as the main speakers? I'm guessing this because of phase?  I will be using Dirac to handle phase correction, fyi but curious for when I try a 2.0 setup without Dirac.

3. In theory, will it help a bad waterfall graph (long decay times in a poorly treated room) and uneven room gain if I have the driver fire into the side of my couch?  What about putting it away from the wall, as a "coffee table" in front of the couch? 

My full range towers with built in amps/subs have far too much (and uneven) bass and room gain was +20 db @ 35 Hz.  I couldn't try different locations though so I just bought used KEF LS50s and the Rythmik F12G to try something dramatically different.  I'll use them with my Parasound A21 and an Emotiva XMC-1 Pre/Pro.  Hopefully it will give me better control of my bass region because I had to EQ my bass more db's than my last receiver was even capable of before.

Thanks and it's nice to feel like part of the club now!

Kevin

[mlundy57]

Kevin,

With a sealed sub that doesn't have to play up that high the best spot is where it sounds best in the room. As a general rule of thumb, the closer a sub is to a corner, the more the bass will be augmentd. One way of determining where to put the sub is by doing what is called a bass crawl. To do this, you put the sub in the listening position and play a track with a strong repeating bass line like "Balad of a Runaway Horse" by Jennifer Warrens. Then get a roll of painter's tape, get down on your hands and knees and start crawling around listening for places the bass sounds good. When you find one, mark the spot with a piece of tape. Once you've marked all the spots, remove the tape from any place you would not want the sub to be. Then crawl around again listening to the marked spots that are left and decide which one you like best. That's where the sub should go.

I have two sealed subs in two different systems. In my small room man cave, the sub is next to my recliner like an end table with the driver pointing forward. In the larger living room, the sub is centered behind the sofa with the driver facing the length of the sofa. In the living room system I originally had the sub on the front wall but found I liked the overall performance better behind the sofa.

Mike

[Monkey123]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the reply and info.  Also the song selection to try!  I'm familiar with the "sub crawl", however, I'm a quadriplegic and in a wheelchair so if I tried the sub crawl it wouldn't go well, haha.  Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to experiment with different placement until this virus thing is over.  When the sub is delivered I'm going to have a friend come over, unbox and plug it in via my instructions over skype from my bedroom and then leave, haha.  It will be stuck with that position until I can have someone over longer, and in the same room with me again to hang out, listen, and move things for me.  Should be interesting!  The sub crawl will happen, but not for a while :/

I guess I'm speaking more theoretically, for now.  For example, I've seen posts online saying that putting a sub in the middle of a room, away from walls, is a terrible idea.  It IS at odds with every setup I've ever seen, but in my mind, it would lead to less output but the most linear response when measured.  I very much look forward to trying it myself but was wondering if it was universally viewed as a bad idea and why since I can't try it, or other placements for quite some time.

Oh and in my #2 I meant "2.1" but can't edit, it seems

Thanks again!