Bass Reproduction in a small room

[parodielin]

I am reading Floyd's Sound Reproduction - a bit challenging for a first timer but a good read. Based on the book, he suggested that it's best to use a system of subwoofers in a "small" room rather than having 5 or more full range speakers b/c of the room modes and standing waves. Without a system of subwoofers, the bass will vary among locations and it's a hit or miss.

Well, that suggests that I need to have a receiver that can do bass management and I should use subwoofers to match speakers. Full range speakers are probably not needed. But many two-channel amplifiers do not have bass mgmt function and we're still building full-range speakers.

What did I miss?

[JonMarsh]

Well, a few definitions are in order- what is a small room, in your situation?

And then why would the effects of 5 or more full range speakers be of concern if you're using a two channel amplifier/preamplifier without bass management functions? (i.e., you're using a two channel system for music reproduction, not an HT setup). There's a difference between 2.0 and 5.1 or 7.1. In any room big enough to consider putting in 5.1 or 7.1, there's probably enough room to setup two channel and get the positioning of the speakers and the listener OK for clean bass reproduction.

Which is your situation? Fish or fowl? 2 channel or Surround?

[---k---]

Yes and no.

FWIW, the Outlaw RR2150 2-channel receiver has base management. I have one. Nice unit, but I've had issues with mine.

[parodielin]

I do not have a specific room in this context. I am trying to understand what Floyd is discussing. His "small room" definition is like average family room or home theater room (Carnegie Hall is a big room and car cabinet would be a "smaller" room). His argument is that to reproduce frequencies under the room's transition frequency (e.g., 300 hz) will be governed by room modes.

He also said 2-channel is "antisocial" b/c only one spot (or very few) can have the correct bass reproduction. Different position will have different bass responses unless room modes are considered and a system of subwoofers are positioned accordingly.

If I follow Floyd's suggestions, I should build sealed speakers tuning to like 50Hz, add one or two subwoofers, and let the receiver do the bass mgmt. When I read the Amazon review, Linkwitz said Floyd's book did not fully explore the potential of 2 channel. Linkwitz's Comment But I am not sure if I understand fully.

That said, I do not have 100% level understanding of most Floyd's materials. ops:

Well, a few definitions are in order- what is a small room, in your situation?

And then why would the effects of 5 or more full range speakers be of concern if you're using a two channel amplifier/preamplifier without bass management functions? (i.e., you're using a two channel system for music reproduction, not an HT setup). There's a difference between 2.0 and 5.1 or 7.1. In any room big enough to consider putting in 5.1 or 7.1, there's probably enough room to setup two channel and get the positioning of the speakers and the listener OK for clean bass reproduction.

Which is your situation? Fish or fowl? 2 channel or Surround?

[eb15]

There are many issues that conflict with each other for optimal room placement of loudspeakers, because audio wavelengths vary so much from extremely long on the sub-woofer end low frequencies to very small in the tweeter end high frequencies.

Floyd is likely saying its theoretically easier to place a singular sub-woofer unit given its small frequency range (crossed over lower than 100Hz) and calculate its room mode effects than to optimally place multiple speakers around the room and dealing with the constructive and destructive interference patterns that result.