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Subjective Evaluation Of Auditory Spatial Imagery (Subwoofers)

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thetubeguy1954

From what I've seen and heard it appears many people believe/state that because lower frequencies are less directional ---{it's more difficult for your ears to determine where low frequencies come from than highs}--- bass can be and is often is, reproduced in mono via a single subwoofer. In doing a little online research into this subject I found a reference to a paper by William L. Martens of Multimedia Systems Lab of the University of Aizu in Japan. In a nutshell Mr Martens is setting out to discover how many subwoofers are really required to provide good reproduction of a single low-frequency signal.

As Mr. Marten says; "Before beginning to address the question of whether two subwoofer signals should be used, there is an interesting related question about how many subwoofers are needed to provide good reproduction of a single low-frequency signal (i.e., when subwoofers are coherently driven), especially when considering coverage for a listening area that might be intended for more than one simultaneous listener."

Mr. Marten also states; "A recent study by Welti [7] investigated this question for a grid of possible listening positions, both through simulation and actual measurements of the response for one, two, or more coherent subwoofers. It was concluded that four subwoofers are enough to get the best results, but that two subwoofers located at wall midpoints are nearly as good as four, and also provide very good low frequency support."

I suggest you read Mr Martens' paper for yourself and see what you decide about how many subwoofers are really needed to provide good reproduction of a single low-frequency signal!

Thetubeguy1954

A Rational Subjectivist

SUBJECTIVE EVALUATION OF AUDITORY SPATIAL IMAGERY (Open in New Window)

Follow Ups:

Is it close to these results? - QuadTodd 21:07:37 05/16/08 (0)
Tubular, anyone who can get through that tedious paper should get some kind of reward - Richard BassNut Greene 09:46:46 05/16/08 (15)
- Isn't This EXACTLY The Type Of Research/Testing/Study LFO's Are Always Demanding? - thetubeguy1954 14:16:25 05/16/08 (14)
  - Ha Ha ...... You're wrong again - Richard BassNut Greene 10:39:55 05/18/08 (13)
    - Back to School... - Tony Lauck 11:30:13 05/18/08 (12)
      - Well Tony, those were a lot of words to explain that you didn't understand the paper either! - Richard BassNut Greene 07:06:56 05/19/08 (9)
        
        RE: Well Tony, those were a lot of words to explain that you didn't understand the paper either! - Tony Lauck 08:44:16 05/19/08 (8)
        
        In other words, you can hear more recorded spatial information if your system has two subwoofers rather than 1 - Richard BassNut Greene 09:48:47 05/19/08 (7)
        
        RE: In other words, you can hear more recorded spatial information if your system has two subwoofers rather than 1 - Dawnrazor 21:22:06 05/19/08 (2)
        
        I guess you could do that if you liked it -- might be an interesting experiment - Richard BassNut Greene 07:08:31 05/20/08 (1)
        
        It sounds better that way - Dawnrazor 07:33:29 05/20/08 (0)
        
        No Disagreement Here - Tony Lauck 10:31:51 05/19/08 (3)
        
        Does "hall ambience" include the harmonics of bass notes - tomsyl1 16:36:46 05/21/08 (1)
        
        RE: Does "hall ambience" include the harmonics of bass notes - Tony Lauck 17:05:15 05/21/08 (0)
        
        What, we have nothing to argue about? - Richard BassNut Greene 10:40:29 05/19/08 (0)
      - Thanks Tony! - thetubeguy1954 07:02:18 05/19/08 (1)
        
        If I had to read through such poorly written scientific studies like that one to be an objective audiophile - Richard BassNut Greene 10:44:08 05/19/08 (0)

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