Subwoofer sound differently after changing place

[StormRider]

Hi guys, initialy my setup is place at living hall, but now i have shifted my setup into a 5mx 3m room. the room has carpet on floor and curtains on each side of the wall. but somehow the sound quality of my subwoofer become worse, before is quite soft and smooth, but now become harsh and hard? can anyone help? what went wrong? the room?

 

[Nimby]

I think what we have here is a simple case of small room gain (the halls) compared with a more normal-sized room.

Smaller rooms lift the bass quite dramatically comped with larger spaces.

This heavier bass lift in the small room might well sound deep, soft and powerful compared with a more normal response from a sub in a normal room.

Try parking your sub in a corner near the speakers until you get used to the sound of your new room.

 

[HiFiRuss71]

Hi guys, initialy my setup is place at living hall, but now i have shifted my setup into a 5mx 3m room. the room has carpet on floor and curtains on each side of the wall. but somehow the sound quality of my subwoofer become worse, before is quite soft and smooth, but now become harsh and hard? can anyone help? what went wrong? the room?

I f I'm right, it sounds like you moved from a halls of residence, which aren't normally the largest rooms.

It could be it's having to work a lot harder to fill the larger room and you've now found it's limits. Due to the decreased room gain and higher volumes required, it could now be distorting like hell to reproduce the same perceived volume.

All supposition, of course. What sub is it?

Russell

 

[StormRider]

initialy my living hall is around 8m x 5m which is bigger size then my current room which only 5m x 3m. by right the sound should be improve when i shift to smaller room???

in the living hall i only have a smaller size carpet by now in the room the floor is fully carpet, how come the bass get worse??

 

[HiFiRuss71]

Well that idea turned out to be arse about face.

There are other factors that can affect bass quantity/quality, however the carpet isn't one of them. Your new room may be smaller, but does it have stud partion walls and/or a suspended floor? Does it have an open door/opening into another room?

Stud walls in particular can suck bass out a bit as, unlike a brick wall, they bend under pressure from the bass. This takes some of the energy out of the sound wave that would normally just be reflected by a brick wall.

Equally, an opening into another room can suck bass out at the frequencies specific to that rooms size, due to cancellations between it's modes and the listening rooms modes.

I still suspect the 'hardening of the sound is due to turning the sub up to compensate for some loss caused by the room(s). One idea might be to site the sub closer to your listening position. Simply, the closer it is, the louder it gets, the more you can turn it down.

Of course this might be just the excuse you need to uprgade your sub.

Russell

 

[StormRider]

i had place my sub against the back wall just behind my sofa , which is the best place with best performance i can get, but now the problem is the cable. because i had shift my amp to the center of the room so that the cable is just long enough for my main speaker and subwoofer. so now i am still thinking of whether to buy a longer main speaker cable (upgrade?) or longer subwoofer cable? which is a better choice?

 

[StormRider]

hi russ.will,

currently i am using mordaunt short 309, and don't thinking upgrading the sub is my option because due to budget constrain

 

[HiFiRuss71]

The 309 seems well regarded round here, so lets ignore that for the moment.

Have you made any attempts, with an SPL meter and test tones, to profile your subs in room response?

Russell

 

[StormRider]

currently the speakers placement as attached file, i dont know why by facing the frount firing sub towards the back wall, the bass will be softer, if the sub face towards listening area, the bass is gone???

 

[Nimby]

Whether you like it or not position A or B will be better.