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Distributed Bass done cheap...

Yes, quite good. I've heard them. They are tiny things, but have a lot of output, decent extension. I'd bet they are better than the Jamos.
 
tomlinmgt said:
And looking back over all my room measurements I see that, indeed, everything looked good below 40 Hz every time. Good to know, Dave. Thanks.
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It will depend on your room's longest dimension. Once the wavelength is longer than 2x that dimension you're pressurizing the room and you don't have longitudinally traveling wave anymore. When the frequency gets down there the whole room gets pressurized so you don't have pressure nodes anymore.
 
I have very specific space where I want a sub and I was planning on doing a build with a 10" sub so I could squeeze it in, but that Baby Boomer would fit, so I will think about it. Still intrigued about building something, as I have a full shop because I am general contractor and I like to build interesting things. But that finished speaker would be less than the parts I was about to purchase. Decisions.
 
89grand said:
There seems to be a common belief that a subwoofer should have very little to no overlap with the mains, but I get much better results doing just the opposite.

I run my mains wide open, and run my subs up to 100-150hz. The subs overlapping with the mains is more beneficial to the distributed bass smoothing effect than running the subs with a very low crossover point. Also, some think unless you run the sub with a really low crossover point, you'll be able to locate it more easily, but again, I disagree. Localization is generally due to the sub/subs being too loud in relation to the mains not the crossover point. I cannot hear mine or tell where they are, but if I turn them off, the rooms bass goes to crap.
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But what about speakers where the woofer/s is being run full-range (like mine and a lot of other vintage speakers from the tube era)? Or does that not matter? Just curious. I'll eventually have to try the sub thing, but I have a lot of things to consider before I do it (Basically, if I do it at all, I want to make sure I do it right... VERY-pleased with the way things are already sounding, plus I have close neighbors, so... Still trying to give the idea the proper consideration though).
 
Gang-Twanger said:
But what about speakers where the woofer/s is being run full-range (like mine and a lot of other vintage speakers from the tube era)? Or does that not matter? Just curious. I'll eventually have to try the sub thing, but I have a lot of things to consider before I do it (Basically, if I do it at all, I want to make sure I do it right... VERY-pleased with the way things are already sounding, plus I have close neighbors, so... Still trying to give the idea the proper consideration though).
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He was saying that he runs them wide open, with no highpass filter. My speakers get pretty low in room, but the augmentation by a subwoofer REALLY improves the way they sound.

I have an NHT sub sitting here waiting for me to get serious so I can run a pair, and a third isn't out of the realm of possibility at all.
 
GT, my mains go solidly into the 30s, I run with lots of overlap between subs and mains. More sources of low freq content is better than fewer.
 
240sx4u said:
He was saying that he runs them wide open, with no highpass filter. My speakers get pretty low in room, but the augmentation by a subwoofer REALLY improves the way they sound.

I have an NHT sub sitting here waiting for me to get serious so I can run a pair, and a third isn't out of the realm of possibility at all.
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Yes, exactly. I run the mains with no high pass so there is overlap from the lowest bass all the way up to 100-150hz. I've tried just about ever combination and this one sounds the best. I do wish my preamp allowed different crossover points for the subs and mains just to experiment, but it doesn't.

I think if you jump into 3 subs, you'll wonder why you waited so long. One sub can add some low bass, but it takes at least 2 if not 3 to get the room acoustic smoothing.:music:
 
Gang-Twanger said:
But what about speakers where the woofer/s is being run full-range (like mine and a lot of other vintage speakers from the tube era)? Or does that not matter? Just curious. I'll eventually have to try the sub thing, but I have a lot of things to consider before I do it (Basically, if I do it at all, I want to make sure I do it right... VERY-pleased with the way things are already sounding, plus I have close neighbors, so... Still trying to give the idea the proper consideration though).
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Just keep in mind the fundamental concept with distributed bass is to "flood" the room with LF content (from several sources deliberately located in different areas of the room) to overcome any acoustic anomalies (caused by the room's acoustics) that may be preventing a flat LF response at the listening position. Your Wharfedales would be contributing along with any additional subs you supplement them with (since those 90's can dig pretty deep on their own), so if you implemented DB your mains would become a component of the DB system. If you feel like you're already getting a nice, flat LF response with no nulls or peaks (where certain bass notes sound disproportionately weak or loud compared to others) you may not benefit from DB as much as someone who is suffering "one (or two, or three) note bass".
 
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RayW
It will depend on your room's longest dimension. Once the wavelength is longer than 2x that dimension you're pressurizing the room and you don't have longitudinally traveling wave anymore. When the frequency gets down there the whole room gets pressurized so you don't have pressure nodes anymore.
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RayW
So with a rooms longest dimension say 25ft the frequency when
nodes would appear should be approximately 90hz and the magnitude
mitigated by room absorption or in the context of this discussion DB.

Here is a frequencies wavelength visual.

http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~suits/notefreqs.html

Conversion cm to feet

http://www.metric-conversions.org/length/centimeters-to-feet.htm
 
tomlinmgt said:
Just keep in mind the fundamental concept with distributed bass is to "flood" the room with LF content (from several sources deliberately located in different areas of the room) to overcome any acoustic anomalies (caused by the room's acoustics) that may be preventing a flat LF response at the listening position. Your Wharfedales would be contributing along with any additional subs you supplement them with (since those 90's can dig pretty deep on their own), so if you implemented DB your mains would become a component of the DB system. If you feel like you're already getting a nice, flat LF response with no nulls or peaks (where certain bass notes sound disproportionately weak or loud compared to others) you may not benefit from DB as much as someone who is suffering "one (or two, or three) note bass".
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This sounds right to me too. I would be concerned with the harmonic distortion from a non-sub-woofer, particularly when run at high volumes. One would hope that sub-woofers, And especially when in a DB configuration would produce quite low distortion. I have two places I run sound but neither has the floor space needed for DB, but I would really like to experiment with it.
 
The subwoofers arrived yesterday. Working out some level issues with my new measurement mic. When I get them resolved, I'll start playing around with placement, levels, etc and post some results.
 
totem said:
What mic,s are you guys using, or best bang for the buck with some calibration.
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I have a little DIY capsule mic, a behringer ECM8000 and now the dayton USB mic. Still working out some issues with setup with the USB mic with REW but it seems nice so far.
 
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