To truly get the most out of your sound system, you need a subwoofer. This is actually one of the most important speakers in the room, as they work to give you the lower frequencies such as bass that you need for a fuller sound.
Just as important as choosing the right subwoofer is answering the question: where do you place a subwoofer for greatest effect?
Subwoofer speakers placed in the wrong position will inevitably affect the sound quality they produce.
You want to place your subwoofer in the place where it will be able to best make use of the acoustics of your room. So where should you place your subwoofer to get the best sound possible?
Where do you place a subwoofer?
To find the best place for your subwoofer, you will need to determine which position allows you to make the most of the added bass.
Unfortunately, this isn’t as simple as plonking the subwoofer wherever you have space.
You will need to place the subwoofer in the space your head normally occupies when you watch movies or listen to music. This will mean having to move your furniture temporarily or getting creative with boxes so that you can get the best results.
Now that your subwoofer is ready in place, you should plug it in using a long RCA-RCA lead.
Put on a song that has lots of low bass, then turn up the volume a little higher than you would normally have it to ensure that you’re able to hear it.
Now you’ll want to get down on the floor, and crawl around to find the places in your room where you get the best results. You might feel slightly silly, but it will be worth it in the end when you can get the best results from your subwoofer.
As you move around on the floor, you will notice that the bass gets stronger and weaker at certain points.
When you get to a point where the bass is strong, you should mark the area with some white tape. These markers will all become potential positions for your new subwoofer.
When you’ve covered the whole of your floor, the area should be covered in bits of white tape to help you decide where best to place your subwoofer.
If you like to watch or listen to music with someone else, you will need to place the subwoofer in the space where their head would normally be to ensure that they will also be able to make the most of your subwoofer.
Now you’ll want to get back to crawling around on the floor and double check the areas where you’ve placed the white tape. If the bass is weaker, you can remove these bits of tape.
Once that’s done, you should be left with a fair few bits of tape where you can place your subwoofer.
When you’ve reset your room back to its original position, you can now decide where to place your subwoofer.
Remember to bear in mind that you will need to have a power supply for it.
Choosing the right position for your subwoofer will be crucial, as otherwise there’s no point in adding it to your audio system.
Make sure that you place it in one of the spots marked by your white tape.
Can I put my subwoofer behind my TV?
Placing your subwoofer behind your TV is a tempting thought, as it will be virtually invisible when you’re sitting watching TV or listening to music. The good news is that it shouldn’t affect the overall sound quality of your subwoofer too much, either.
As long as you’ve followed the above process of placing white tape along your floor where the bass was strongest, then you should be safe to place it behind your TV.
If this was an area where the bass was weakest when you tried the subwoofer placement test, then we’d suggest avoiding placing it directly behind your TV, and instead choose for somewhere surrounding it where the bass was stronger.
In most cases, you get better sound quality from not hiding your subwoofer.
Should a subwoofer be on the floor?
You should generally avoid placing your subwoofer directly on the floor.
This is because it affects the overall sound quality. To get the best results out of your subwoofer, you should elevate it.
An elevated subwoofer will give you much better sound quality than one that is placed on the floor.
This is mostly because when a subwoofer is placed on the floor, it can cause vibrations. Subwoofers create more vibrations because of the low frequencies they handle. This will cause the floor to vibrate more, which can cause issues with acoustic properties.
However, it’s not always possible to mount your subwoofer.
You can try placing it on a table, shelf, or cabinet. This can help to elevate your subwoofer, but you should also ensure that they are heavy enough to not rattle and worsen the vibration problem. You should also make sure that the subwoofer won’t be able to fall off easily.
Should a subwoofer face the wall?
No, it’s not recommended to place your subwoofer so that it faces the wall.
While bass waves are able to travel in all directions, you will want your subwoofer placed to face the majority of your listening area.
Placing your subwoofer so that it faces the wall may affect its overall sound quality. This causes the bass waves to reflect, which can lead to muddier bass tones overall.
Ultimately the best way to find the right position for your subwoofer will be to play a music track with lots of bass, then move around the room to find the best placement for it.
You’re likely to be limited by where you can place your subwoofer because of wires, but you should generally place it facing the majority of your listening space.
You should pull your subwoofer slightly away from the wall so that it can allow for the optimal acoustic setup.
Should a subwoofer be in front or back?
Your subwoofer should be placed in the front of the room for the best sound quality instead of at the back of the room.
When you place your subwoofer nearer to your other speakers, it will allow you to find the best sound quality for your room.
You will want the sound from your subwoofer to blend in seamlessly with the sound of your other speakers.
If you place the subwoofer at a different point in the room to your other speakers, this could become more of a distraction.
Again, as long as you’ve followed the subwoofer placement test above with the white tape, you can place your subwoofer anywhere along the front of your room that has a spot of white tape on the floor.
In Summary: Where do you place a subwoofer?
And there you have it! You now know how to find the best place for your subwoofer to make the most out of your sound system.
Ideally your subwoofers should be elevated to not affect the sound quality with vibrations, and they should be placed in the front of your room to blend in seamlessly with your other speakers.
