More Power or use subwoofer to boost bass for music

I would disagree with the suggestion to moving the speakers closer to the wall.

If you run subs moving them closer to the wall is very practical!

Have you actually tried sufficiently large traps in sufficient quantity to make an audible difference? I see guys using hopelessly small bits of foam or similar that at beat could only trap dust.

@lemonhaze  Certainly! Bass traps saved the day in our room at one of the last T.H.E. Shows in Las Vegas.

But a DBA simply does it better, that's all. You do the DBA first, **then** the bass traps (if needed), since the DBA is far more effective at sorting out bass problems.

Or, as my experience and measurements have shown, you treat the room with some decent bass traps and wall coverings to ensure the treble/bass balance is correct but no.... that's too much ....???

@erik_squires I used to think that way too. Then I encountered the Swarm, and in looking into the theory behind it, realized that its the elegant approach to a vexing problem- reliably getting the bass right in nearly any room.


Duke didn't invent the idea- and he would be the first to tell you usually, but in this case I beat him to the punch. It comes from a guy pretty well known in audio engineering circles; Dr. Floyd Toole.


So this isn't a cult thing- its just that its an idea whose time has come, and all that's happening here is you've not read up on it. So I suggest you read or look at some of Dr. Toole's talks on YouTube. Here's a good place to start:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrpUDuUtxPM
Now this link doesn't say anything about a DBA, but it does very successfully show how the bass is so important in the way a speaker presents itself. Take the time to play the whole thing (the intro is done at about 4 minutes).


In a nutshell, you put Dr. Toole down at your own peril. He's one of the top engineers in his field. So- when someone is complaining about bass, no, you don't treat a room with traps because it literally doesn't work- although prior to running a DBA you might think it does. Its not a cult, its science. Don't be that guy who contributes to the death of science- look at how Dr. Toole developed this.

Are any of you listening to yourselves?? Really??

Yes, we non-cult-DBA-knowers are- however you might want to take a dive into the research. Put another way, you know how you are sounding right now??

But since statistics is science, let’s consider the “odds “ of getting 4  or as some would say 5 objects placed in a convenient location vs. one....

:)  


Of course, the science shows that multiple subs don't have to be placed perfectly for them to do the job much better...

The idea of a “swarm” of subs is based on evening out the nodes. It’s an admirable goal but rarely practical.

This statement is false. A distributed bass array such as the Swarm is far more effective at getting the bass right in a room than room correction or bass traps; its a more elegant approach.


This isn't to say that using bass traps and room correction won't help, but if you have a standing wave in the room (which can be a reason why a single sub or pair of subs don't seem to make much bass despite having plenty of power and the bandwidth needed) all the room correction will do is make the amps make more power at the frequency of the standing wave cancellation. No amount of power will solve a standing wave, since the energy is being cancelled.


Bass traps don't intelligently work at the frequency needed to prevent the standing wave (which is the result of the bass waveform bouncing off of the wall behind the listener and cancelling itself at the listening position)- they work at all bass frequencies.


Now if you combine all three then you can get spectacular results.

Jesus, the 4 sub cult is strong here.

Just physics. Cults, to my knowledge aren't bassed (see what I did there?) on physics.


IMO its fairly easy to set up a set of Swarms in a smaller room and keep it neat, since the Swarms are designed to work placed against the walls and also work best if the placement is asymmetrical.


Of course you can get good bass with only one sub, but it has to be placed in exactly the right location, which (more often than not) may not be the most convenient.