[svadas]

I've been looking at the pictures of Salk subs that have been made over the years and notice that some fire down and some fire forward.  Is there any advantage to either position?  If it matters I have hardwood floors over a basement.  If it just comes down to a preferred look, I'm not truly sure which I prefer.   

[JLM]

If you're not using it as a woofer (say crossed over above 80 Hz) it shouldn't matter, but some swear by front firing to be more 'time aligned' with the mains.  But keeping in mind the size of bass sound waves, that shouldn't be a practical matter. 

Note that if the sub is ported and powered (typical), there are only three good sides to mount woofer, port, and plate amp (front, bottom, back).  So obviously the best option is to put woofer on front, port on bottom, and plate amp on the back.

OTOH aiming a big bass maker at a flexible floor just 'seems' wrong, but some do it for the 'front loading' the floor would provide to help dampen the woofer from extreme movement at very low/loud signals.

[ricardojoa]

In my experience, the position where the sub faces can affect the sound, but i really think is has to do with how high your xover point is and its slope. For example a 80hz with 12 db slope will still produce the upper bass frequencies in comparison to a lower xover, like 50 hz. The higher of the frequecy, the wave length is also shorter so i would guess that the human hearing have better ability to ditinguish the wave length when the location is different. That also should affect the phase in relation to your front. But the difference is minimal, but at least thats what i have experienced with two of my subs.

[mcgsxr]

For both my HT subs, I have the port and the woofer on the front face.  I no longer have a pure music setup, but when I did, I usually went with sealed or open baffle subs, to better integrate with the main speakers.

As per the advice already given, I would say that it depends on the Xover frequency expected.

[JonnyFive]

I wonder too if it would be different in the near field vs far field?  I recently had to move my SB13 to near field, and there's really no orientation of it that gives me as good of a sound as it had in far field, firing forward like the mains.  I can point it firing forward, but the wall it is near gives some bad resonance.  So I have it pointed into the couch (and main LP), but you can definitely feel it on your legs as the bass moves left to right.

So I wonder...would my near field results be better if it were down firing?  I guess I'll never know.

Jon

[Saturn94]

I wonder too if it would be different in the near field vs far field?  I recently had to move my SB13 to near field, and there's really no orientation of it that gives me as good of a sound as it had in far field, firing forward like the mains.  I can point it firing forward, but the wall it is near gives some bad resonance.  So I have it pointed into the couch (and main LP), but you can definitely feel it on your legs as the bass moves left to right.

So I wonder...would my near field results be better if it were down firing?  I guess I'll never know.

Jon

Hi Jon.

If I end up trying a front firing design we can certainly compare it with my down firing sub to see if there's a difference.

Or just flip that SB13 onto some blocks and see how it sounds.  Of course it may take you, Jack, and me to flip that heavy beast...lol.

[Saturn94]

I've been looking at the pictures of Salk subs that have been made over the years and notice that some fire down and some fire forward.  Is there any advantage to either position?  If it matters I have hardwood floors over a basement.  If it just comes down to a preferred look, I'm not truly sure which I prefer.

I'm in the process of researching subs and also wonder if one design has an advantage over the other.  Those who expressed a preference to me have said down firing.  One of the reasons cited is that it helps filter out the higher harmonics making it more difficult to localize.  My sub Ive had for the past 10 years is a down firing design, so I really don't have any experience with front firing for comparison.

In terms of looks, I like down firing.