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Dual vs single sub

Sorry Im sure this is all over the forums but I only found old articles. Situation. I have Two SVS 3000s that arent really doing it for me. Thinking of trading it in on the Big one and adding another in a year or so. Any thoughts on Big single vs 2 Medium?
128x128bryantdrew
noble100's avatar
noble100
2,419 posts
 
millercarbon,

     Yes, you'll be amazed just how well it works.  Have you given any thought about positioning your 4 subs in your room?  If not, I can detail the process I used that worked out very well. 

Let me know,
    Tim  
noble100's avatar
noble100
2,419 posts
 
gdnrbob,

     I have my 4 subs connected to a single amp just as Duke described.  It's all fairly basic but I would suggest having a plan for running the wiring.
     In my case, my living room is directly above a crawl space and I drilled 1/2" holes through my living room carpet and sub floor for access. I have a hole in back of my rack that holds the Dayton sub amp and a hole underneath each of the 4 subs.  Remember, the spkr terminals are on the bottom of each sub and there's the option of using spiked or flat footers.  I ran thickly coated 16 gauge wire suitable for outdoor use which wouldn't be needed indoors.
      There are a lot of methods you or a ht installer could use to run the 4 sets of wiring inconspicuously.  I'd definitely recommend hiding the wiring, however, since the finished look is so clean and even stylish.  All that's visible just looks like a wooden pedestal. 
      In my 23x16 ft room, each of the 2 subs positioned along my front 16 ft. wall are actually hidden from view by each of my 6x2 ft. panel speakers.  The 2 other subs, one along each of the 23 ft. side walls are visible but look good to my wife and I.   
     Oh yeah, and the whole system sounds awesome.

Tim
        
tweak1
3,525 posts
 
Positioning is one big key

See  yt videos by7 Acoustic Research
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,156 posts
 
Audiokinesis, If you create a linear array very little energy disperses off the top and bottom or in this case to the side walls minimizing that interaction. Because the woofers are up against the front wall there is only the primary wave and no separate primary reflection off the front wall. So, you have eliminated three primary reflections. The reflections from the floor and ceiling are scattered in time. The reflection that will cause the most trouble is the one from the rear wall. The only thing that really works here is just get rid of the back wall. I am fortunate in that I designed my media room without a back wall. It just opens up into the rest of the house scattering the rear primary reflection. The end result is that the bass intensity is even throughout the room and much less equalization is required. If you can't get rid of the back wall you will be stuck with a degree of "comb filtering." I am not sure if spreading other sub woofers around the room would minimize this or just create more complex patterns. In reality it only really matters at the listening position.
The best bass is bass you can feel.
audiokinesis
2,710 posts
 

"If you create a linear array very little energy disperses off the top and bottom or in this case to the side walls minimizing that interaction."

The array you described only tries to provide significant smoothing in one dimension, and it primarily does so at one end of the room (your four subs only approximate a line . The same number of subs arrayed differently can result in significant smoothing in two or even three dimensions (if you elevate one of the subs so that it’s closer to the ceiling than to the floor), and this smoothing will extend throughout the room.

"The only thing that really works here is just get rid of the back wall. I am fortunate in that I designed my media room without a back wall."

Relatively few people have that option. I have a hard enough time selling four subs without also requiring customers to remove their back wall! In other words, regardless of how well what you are doing works for you, it is not a generally-applicable solution.

"I am not sure if spreading other sub woofers around the room would minimize this or just create more complex patterns."

More complex patterns of modal behavior is how modal smoothing naturally occurs in a large room. The reason a large room has smoother (faster, better, more natural-sounding) bass than a small room is that the larger dimensions result in greater de-correlation of the in-room bass energy. Greater decorrelation = smaller and more numerous peaks and dips. A distributed multisub system mimics large-room modal behavior in a small room.

Duke

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