Placement of Dual Powered Subs with Tower Speakers

My suggestion would be deliberately placing both subs with asymmetry in mind. For instance, one might be on the front wall near the left corner, and the other might be on the right wall near back corner, but a different distance from that corner than the first sub is from its corner. (You want to avoid running that second sub - the one furthest from the mains - up very high in frequency, because you don’t want it passing upper bass energy loud enough to betray its location when the music is playing.)

The general idea is that each sub interacts with the room differently and produces a significantly different in-room peak-and-dip pattern, and it is the SUM of the two dissimilar peak-and-dip patterns that matters. Nothing against the strategy Erik recommends, his may work better; either one will result in a worthwhile improvement.

If both subs have phase controls, there may be yet another strategy you might try.

Whatever placement strategy you use, imo the exact position of each sub is less critical than when you only have one sub.

Duke

thanks, I currently have one in between the speakers, though closer to one side, the second hasn't arrived yet.  The one is crossed over at about 40hz...looking forward to this, thanks again

I just went through what you are going through and if you check out my post you will read a lot of different things. As you, I received the first the day before the 2nd and got it integrated pretty easily. Adding the second proved challenging for me. I was able to talk to customer service with REL and he assured me that when it comes to phase once you have one set correctly the other sub will be set the same. Get one tuned in, unhook the Speakon and hook up the other and get it dialed in. Don't try to limit yourself then it comes to setting crossover and gains and they may not necessarily be the same; one subs placement may require a little more gain. I have one side of the front wall that opens into another room so it's not ideal. My subs are placed asymmetrically as one is placed in a corner angled as REL suggest and the other is placed inside my right channel bookshelf over a foot from the wall facing straight out. It's very listenable now and I know with some minor adjustments I'll get there. I'll help any way I can if you want to PM me.

The general idea is that each sub interacts with the room differently and produces a significantly different in-room peak-and-dip pattern, and it is the SUM of the two dissimilar peak-and-dip patterns that matters.

Riiiiight..... so...

Nothing against the strategy Erik recommends, his may work better; either one will result in a worthwhile improvement.

What exactly do you, @audiokinesis  ,think the difference is, in setting up 2 speakers between what we are recommending?? , because I can't see it. :)

@erik_squires asks a really good question:

"What exactly do you think the difference is, in setting up 2 speakers between what we are recommending?? , because I can’t see it. :)"

The difference is admittedly subtle. Just to recap, your suggestion:

"You want to place the first sub as ideal as you can, then place the second so it fills in the nodes left behind."

And mine:

"deliberately placing both subs with asymmetry in mind."

Both suggestions end up with asymmetry; but there is a minor difference in the starting points: Yours starts with optimizing for one sub and then adding the second, and mine starts with planning where they BOTH will start (which is far apart, and asymmetrical).

My partner Jim Romeyn (who manufactures the DEBRA system and is probably better at set-up than I am) recommends your approach, complete with ye olde "subwoofer crawl".

Duke