Just wanted to share some of my findings with my sub over the last couple of weeks (since setting up in a new room) for discussion and in case they help others improve their subwoofer performance.
The sub in question is a Mordaunt Short Avant MS309i. Generally considered a pretty capable sub but nothing to write home about, and so I thought until recently! The rest of the system is a pair of Yamaha HS80M powered monitors and a very high end DIY DAC (AMB gamma2). The sub gets a stereo line level out from the DAC. I use this system for exclusively music (and gaming), not cinema.
I've had the sub for maybe 6 years (always placed in corners in front of the listening position) and only recently discovered two easy tweaks that have turned it from "fine" to sounding like a controlled earthquake
The first was getting some carpet spikes for it. I bought a pack of 8 Atacama Audio M6 spikes (£8.99, ebay) thinking they would fit the holes in the base of the sub. They didn't, so I enlarged and tapped them for M6 and screwed 4 of the spikes in. I was quite shocked at how much less muddy the sub got after this, suddenly it had new speed and precision. It makes sense though, since it's now on a very stable footing (the spikes make a quite scary "pop" as they push through the carpet!) and is putting more energy into the air and less through the floor.
The second was absent-mindedly flipping the polarity switch (phase) on the back this morning.. it made my jaw drop. Again I'm well aware of the acoustic reasons for have a switch on there, but since I've never heard a very big difference in any previous listening rooms I didn't experiment with it in this new one. I don't know how much is due to (presumably) matching the phase the monitors are putting out, and how much to the geometry and standing waves of the room, but with the switch flicked to 180 degrees it's like a different sub. I'm going to have to get the parametric EQ back out to lower some of the resonances it's such a huge sound!!!
Anyway hope this helps, clearly they're two fundamentals of sub placement for a reason
The sub in question is a Mordaunt Short Avant MS309i. Generally considered a pretty capable sub but nothing to write home about, and so I thought until recently! The rest of the system is a pair of Yamaha HS80M powered monitors and a very high end DIY DAC (AMB gamma2). The sub gets a stereo line level out from the DAC. I use this system for exclusively music (and gaming), not cinema.
I've had the sub for maybe 6 years (always placed in corners in front of the listening position) and only recently discovered two easy tweaks that have turned it from "fine" to sounding like a controlled earthquake
The first was getting some carpet spikes for it. I bought a pack of 8 Atacama Audio M6 spikes (£8.99, ebay) thinking they would fit the holes in the base of the sub. They didn't, so I enlarged and tapped them for M6 and screwed 4 of the spikes in. I was quite shocked at how much less muddy the sub got after this, suddenly it had new speed and precision. It makes sense though, since it's now on a very stable footing (the spikes make a quite scary "pop" as they push through the carpet!) and is putting more energy into the air and less through the floor.
The second was absent-mindedly flipping the polarity switch (phase) on the back this morning.. it made my jaw drop. Again I'm well aware of the acoustic reasons for have a switch on there, but since I've never heard a very big difference in any previous listening rooms I didn't experiment with it in this new one. I don't know how much is due to (presumably) matching the phase the monitors are putting out, and how much to the geometry and standing waves of the room, but with the switch flicked to 180 degrees it's like a different sub. I'm going to have to get the parametric EQ back out to lower some of the resonances it's such a huge sound!!!
Anyway hope this helps, clearly they're two fundamentals of sub placement for a reason
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