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Richard,

If I understand you correctly, you are saying that standing waves are the dominant problem in the deep bass region, and that subwoofers need to be located near the main speakers to integrate properly.

If standing waves are the dominant problem, then changing the subwoofer's location shouldn't make such big difference because the standing wave patterns are a fxed function of room dimensions. But as we all know, changing the location of a subwoofer has clearly audible and even dramatic effect. The reason it does is the path-length-induced peak and dip pattern that I've described (and which Roy Allison described long before me, but he focused on the reflections off the wall closest to the speaker whereas I'm assuming the subwoofer starts out up against that wall).

I believe one key to good subwoofer integration with the main speakers is generating a low frequency sound field that is similar to that generated by the main speakers at higher frequencies. Scattered multiple subs addresses this. Given that the ear is very poor at judging the direction of a low frequency sound source without upper freqency cues (hence the steep crossover), and that the ear is obviously pretty good at hearing large peaks and dips in bass energy, I place the higher priority on getting the soundfield right.

Duke

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