[Housteau]

I was thinking about this the other day that in my experience not everyone does this in the same way.  I don't mean the difference in the physical positioning of the low bass drivers within the room, but rather in what is considered the actual end goal of this optimization.  I have experienced several systems where the owners have worked hard to 'couple' those drivers to their respective rooms.  Indeed the results seem impressive, at least at first.  The bass is tight and powerful, but upon testing what is usually found is that their achievement is actually to fully activate a particular dimensional room boundary mode.  So, what is experienced are several strong bumps in the lower frequency response.  I suppose this is a way to naturally create a warmth and thud without the use of equalization, and a lot of folks do like tilting away from the flatter responses.

My idea of optimum bass coupling is trying to find the best location within the room that instead minimizes those humps and dips and provides the smoothest response curve.  I find that a more even response, while it may not appear to hit as hard in certain areas compared to one tilted that way, does seem the most natural and realistic across the whole bass spectrum. 

What are your thoughts on this? 

[doug s.]

i have always set my subs up to be adjacent to the mains - i am more interested in soundstaging, and a smooth frequency response, than trying to get the subs "coupled" to the room for max bass boost.  i now use a deqx to get this; before the deqx, i used an active x-over to cross the subs to the mains, & dialed it all in w/a pink noise generator & equalizer to measure for the flattest response...  you can then always tweak the output of the amps driving the subs a little, if you want more low end on some music, or for general listening.  at least this way, the basic smoothness & soundstaging will remain...

ymmv,

doug s.

[Housteau]

i have always set my subs up to be adjacent to the mains - i am more interested in soundstaging, and a smooth frequency response, than trying to get the subs "coupled" to the room for max bass

I am the same way.  I was surprised at how much the width of my soundstage improved by having the VLAs flanking the V60s in a modified Infinity style.  It surprised me because the crossover to them is below 60Hz where you cannot localize them at all, yet the breadth of the music expands with them there.  I was able to notice the difference because before the VLAs came in I was using a single modified Larger Sub to VSS specs. 

Brian had wrote in a post that placing the bass towers to the sides and behind speakers mostly came from the older Infinity Reference series speakers and the Genesis models mentality.  He felt that in reality bass towers would best couple to the system and room by having them more forward into the room, but hardly anyone did such a thing.  I did find that the smoothest response and best overall system presentation was with those towers being even to just slightly forward of my mains.

Line arrays of bass drivers seem to naturally couple and excite rooms smoother due to the multiple distances of each driver to both the listener and room boundaries involved.

you can then always tweak the output of the amps driving the subs a little, if you want more low end on some music, or for general listening.  at least this way, the basic smoothness & soundstaging will remain...

Exactly.  That supplied Dayton subwoofer amp that comes with the VLAs and other subs can dial things in very nicely and can be easily rebalanced to the system to suit special recordings, if need be.