Room Acoustics
Room acoustics can wreak havoc on your system’s bass performance. To help reduce performance-robbing issues like standing waves and nulls, proper subwoofer placement and tuning are critical.
When it comes to placement, the reality is that most customers are limited as to where they can physically place a subwoofer. Things like access to power, available floor space, and of course connecting the sub cable reduces the available placement options. While our Dynamo “X” models have an available zero compression, wireless connection kit that can solve the latter, the other 2 are real-world restrictions that must be contended with.
Microphone Positions for ARC Genesis Shown AboveYears ago we put together this video showing how to perform the “bass crawl”
in order to help locate the best place to put your subwoofer:
With the advancements made in our latest subwoofers, you now have other options to perform this test. With the Award-Winning ARC Genesis system, you utilize its “Quick Measure” feature to see in real-time how your subwoofer is performing in your room. Using this readout you can then experiment with your available placement options to see which position measures the smoothest, with the least amount of peaks or valleys. Once the optimal starting point has been found, ARC Genesis can then take multiple in-room measurements to help further tune the subwoofer's response to achieve the most realistic bass possible in that specific configuration.
Dynamo 1100X:
Once proper positioning has been achieved, it's now time to tune the other settings on your subwoofer(s) like phase and the crossover settings. We have a detailed write-up on how to properly set the phase of your subwoofer to align with your main speakers. This makes an enormous difference in the quality of your bass and many times when customers refer to bass as “boomy” or “muddy” instead of “fast” or “tight” it's really the phase of the subwoofer that isn't set correctly. This process can transform your system dramatically and we highly recommend taking the time to dial this in. Our app-controlled Dynamo “X” models make this process infinitely easier by allowing you to make these adjustments from your listening position without having to get up and walk over to the sub every time you want to make a tweak. In addition to this, you get full control over the phase adjustment down to 1° increments giving you a full 360° of adjustment to dial in your sub more accurately than with traditional knobs or switches.
After completing this process your main speakers and sub(s) will now be in phase at your listening position with no cancellation providing the fullest, smoothest, and most articulate bass response.