Does Closing the Doors to Your Theater Room Matter?

[ed3120]

My room has a few doors that lead to the bathroom, laundry room, and upstairs to the rest of the house. Does closing them or opening them affect bass response? Does leaving them open break the ability for the sub to pressurize the room?

[Ryan_Hsu]

Opening or closing doors in a smaller room can help with your deep bass response.

If possible, please respond back with a sketch of your room, openings, dimensions, and which sub you have/are looking at so that we may have a better idea how your room will be affected.

[ed3120]

Here is my room. You'll see in my other post that I'm trying to get more oomph out of my VTF-3. I've tried the sub in Sub Option A and Sub Option B positions and I haven't been happy with the results. Due to the room layout and WAF, I'm limited in my choices. I was thinking about moving the drums (bottom left corner) out a little bit and trying it in the corner (Sub Option C). I don't know if that will improve any room mode issues that I may be experiencing because it seems that my couch may be close to a null. It will be a bit of a pain to rearrange everything and run Audyssey again (tough to find time with a toddler and a newborn), so I only want to do it if there is a good chance that it will improve my situation.

Based on the fact that other people run this sub with the gain at 9:00 and are perfectly happy, I think I've just got some sort of configuration problem.

Here is my other post, which has some detail about the room:
http://forum.hsuresearch.com/showthr...939#post134939

The green double doors lead to the upstairs of my house. The bathroom door is solid, but the doors to the laundry room are louvered for ventilation purposes.

Thanks for any help that you can give me!

[Dr_Hsu]

Any chance of moving the computer to the 8 ft section and move your sofa back to where your computer table is currently? Sitting close to the middle of the room is not good for the bass.

I would keep the door to the bathroom open for better deep bass.

Are you looking for more mid bass or more deep bass?

If you can move the sofa back, Position A or C will be great.

If you cannot move the sofa (WAF), I would swap the positions of the chair and drum set and sit in that chair. Place the sub sideways behind that chair so the woofer fires into the back of the chair.

[ed3120]

Originally Posted by Dr_Hsu

Any chance of moving the computer to the 8 ft section and move your sofa back to where your computer table is currently? Sitting close to the middle of the room is not good for the bass.

I know that sitting in the middle isn't ideal (I sit more with 2/3 in front of me and 1/3 behind me), but any further back and the TV becomes too small.

Originally Posted by Dr_Hsu

I would keep the door to the bathroom open for better deep bass.

OK, that I can definitely do. I was thinking that leaving it open means that there is more air that the bass has to fill. I guess I'm looking at it wrong. Should I also keep the double doors to the rest of my house (top right of diagram) open or shut?

Originally Posted by Dr_Hsu

Are you looking for more mid bass or more deep bass?

Which one do you feel more of? I'd like to feel more.

Originally Posted by Dr_Hsu

If you can move the sofa back, Position A or C will be great.

If you cannot move the sofa (WAF), I would swap the positions of the chair and drum set and sit in that chair. Place the sub sideways behind that chair so the woofer fires into the back of the chair.

I really appreciate the help, I'm definitely considering you opinions and not trying to argue, but moving the couch back or sitting in the corner breaks the big screen experience that I'm going for. So if it comes to it, I would forgo some bass in order to sit where I currently sit, which is the middle seat of the 3 person couch.

Based on that seat, do you see the sub working best from position A, B, or C?

Also, should I go with EQ1, Q7, one port open, or EQ2, Q3, and two ports open in this situation?

I also have the sub on top of a GRAMMA. Would that be improving or hurting my situation (or not doing much at all)?

[Dr_Hsu]

Not possible to use the sub as an end table? I was thinking of it as an end table to the left of the couch.

If you can, do the subwoofer crawl. Place the sub in your listening position, woofer at ear level. Place the SPL meter at the locations where you can place the subwoofer. Measure the response at each position for each combination of door opening - double door closed, bathroom door closed; double door closed, bathroom door open; double door open, bathroom door closed; and double door open, bathroom door open. Do all these measurement without changing the test signal level.

I would say you should run the sub in two ports open, EQ2, Q=0.3 for the highest headroom. Can you give examples of particular scenes from movies where you hope to get more feel? BTW. try the opening scene (waterfall, alien spaceship).

[ed3120]

Originally Posted by Dr_Hsu

Not possible to use the sub as an end table? I was thinking of it as an end table to the left of the couch.

Unfortunately, my 3 year old son rules out the possible of making it an end table. I can place the speaker against the couch for protection, but that leaves the back of the sub opening for tampering. If my son see knobs, he will turn them. (He's messes with my guitar pedal constantly.) I'm afraid he'll crank the gain knob all the way to the right, and I won't know until I turn my TV on (boom). I'm also afraid he'll stick small objects into the port holes.

Originally Posted by Dr_Hsu

If you can, do the subwoofer crawl. Place the sub in your listening position, woofer at ear level. Place the SPL meter at the locations where you can place the subwoofer. Measure the response at each position for each combination of door opening - double door closed, bathroom door closed; double door closed, bathroom door open; double door open, bathroom door closed; and double door open, bathroom door open. Do all these measurement without changing the test signal level.

I did the subwoofer crawl by ear once between sub position A and B. B definitely sounded louder to me, but since moving it from A to B, I haven't noticed any difference while watching content. I don't own an SPL meter, but I was considering picking one up for this purpose. Does it make a big deal which one I buy? I was thinking about just getting one of the $30 SPL meters on Amazon.

Originally Posted by Dr_Hsu

I would say you should run the sub in two ports open, EQ2, Q=0.3 for the highest headroom.

So going for more output would give me more "feel" to the bass than just going lower, right? I did the pipe organ track on the Hsu CD with one port open, EQ1, and Q=0.7 and it made all of my doors shake and I could feel the pressure. That was pretty cool. That's why I had left it with those settings for a while.

Originally Posted by Dr_Hsu

Can you give examples of particular scenes from movies where you hope to get more feel? BTW. try the opening scene (waterfall, alien spaceship).

Unfortunately, Super 8 was a rental, so I can't go back and listen again. One movie that I own is the second Matrix. I've watched the fight scene (with Neo and all of the Smiths) a few times and the motorcycle chase scene. I expected more shaking and feeling of the bass during the big hits. Maybe I should pair up a bass shaker (one of those buttkickers) or something in the situation that I'm in.

[SME]

Hey ed3120,

In my opinion, The Matrix doesn't really have that much bass!

I used to believe otherwise, before I used Audyssey calibration and got a Hsu sub. I had Bose bookshelves (that were surprisingly decent for Bose actually) that had strong mid bass output but also played mid bass too loud. The Matrix sounded quite cool with mid bass playing at 10 dB (or more) too high. In contrast, I couldn't play the movie "9" loud enough to hear the dialog without having nasty crackling throughout. This is because "9" is filled with intense deep bass that my Bose speakers couldn't produce at all. With my Hsu subs, the movie "9" is a real treat to listen to.

Other movies I recommend: "How to Train Your Dragon" (and other recent Dreamworks animated), Star Trek (the new one), Titan A.E., Lord of the Rings, etc. The Pixar films tend to rely on subtlety more, but many of them still have excellent bass. The flying scenes in the Iron Man movies are pretty impressive too. :-D Note that if the bass level is turned up too high, the bass will sound less impressive because you will have lost dynamics. Loudness isn't everything.

One more thing, does your receiver have Audyssey Dynamic EQ? If so, is it turned on?

[ed3120]

Originally Posted by SME

In my opinion, The Matrix doesn't really have that much bass!

Hmmm...That makes some sense then. I don't own too many movies. (I'm a rent a blu-ray, watch it once kind of guy.) I own the Matrix Trilogy on DVD, so I thought it would be a good reference disc. (I know a blu-ray would be better, but I figured the DVD would still have the same bass freqs). I've been getting to know those two scenes that I jump between and I've been using that as my reference point for tweaking things.

I think you are right...I need to get some better reference material. I think I can get my hands on an Ironman bluray to do some more testing.

Yes, I have Dynamic EQ enabled with the default settings.

[SME]

The DVD version of a movie should offer the same bass as the blu-ray version unless the sound track is remixed between releases or the DVD encoding is done very badly. My opinion of "The Matrix" is based on hearing the DVD version of the original film. I can't speak for the others in the trilogy which may have more to offer.