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Author Topic: Spaced out subwoofers  (Read 2902 times)

Josh Billings

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Spaced out subwoofers
« on: February 19, 2018, 11:31:55 PM »

So, I'm trying to get more sound across the dance floor without blasting the front of the venue like nuts so I ran some simulations in MAPP and surprisingly this looks really good.

Can somebody tell me WHY this might be terrible? I've always thought you should keep all subs in a stack if possible.

FYI - Top of the picture is the stage and to the right of the subwoofers is a small elevated area (about 3 feet high). The bottom of the image is the entrance.

Josh Billings
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Mac Kerr

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Re: Spaced out subwoofers
« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2018, 11:43:17 PM »

So, I'm trying to get more sound across the dance floor without blasting the front of the venue like nuts so I ran some simulations in MAPP and surprisingly this looks really good.

Can somebody tell me WHY this might be terrible? I've always thought you should keep all subs in a stack if possible.

FYI - Top of the picture is the stage and to the right of the subwoofers is a small elevated area (about 3 feet high). The bottom of the image is the entrance.

Josh Billings

Where is the dance floor? Try a single speaker in each of those locations and evaluate that vs the multiple locations. In a 2D plot a single speaker looks and plots like a stack.

Mac
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Josh Billings

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Re: Spaced out subwoofers
« Reply #2 on: February 19, 2018, 11:50:32 PM »

Where is the dance floor? Try a single speaker in each of those locations and evaluate that vs the multiple locations. In a 2D plot a single speaker looks and plots like a stack.

Mac

Here you go. This probably shows a bit better. The mains are hung from each side of the stage basically with delays about 2/3 down the dance floor.
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Mac Kerr

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Re: Spaced out subwoofers
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2018, 12:09:19 AM »

Here you go. This probably shows a bit better. The mains are hung from each side of the stage basically with delays about 2/3 down the dance floor.

Not really any clearer. You call something the "stage" and something else the "dancefloor", and there is no indications of where the "mains" and "delays" are.

Again, look at the coverage with 1 speaker to see the difference between a vertical stack of subs and the arrayed subs. Also, do you have the room boundary turned on, or is this coverage not including any reflections. It looks like no reflections.
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Chris Grimshaw

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Re: Spaced out subwoofers
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2018, 03:36:38 AM »

Distributing subs will help with reflections by staggering the distances. Means you've got no hard nulls because another cabinet will fill it in.

Anyway, try setting the frequency for 100Hz and see how it looks. My bet is it looks pretty bad, since your inter-cabinet distance will be approaching the wavelength. It'd be fine at 40Hz, though.

Chris
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Josh Billings

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Re: Spaced out subwoofers
« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2018, 04:59:15 AM »

Distributing subs will help with reflections by staggering the distances. Means you've got no hard nulls because another cabinet will fill it in.

Anyway, try setting the frequency for 100Hz and see how it looks. My bet is it looks pretty bad, since your inter-cabinet distance will be approaching the wavelength. It'd be fine at 40Hz, though.

Chris

This is 100hz...and surprisingly, the spaced out version has way better coverage.
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Mac Kerr

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Re: Spaced out subwoofers
« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2018, 07:55:29 AM »

This is 100hz...and surprisingly, the spaced out version has way better coverage.

Actually, not really. The coverage isn't illustrated by how much of the plot is red, it's about how much variation there is between deepest red and the lightest blue. The separated array has more deep red, but more variation in level over the floor. It still looks like boundaries are not turned on. Adding the walls into the calculation should fill the room with nulls in both directions.

Mac
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Brian Bolly

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Re: Spaced out subwoofers
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2018, 08:45:17 AM »

It still looks like boundaries are not turned on. Adding the walls into the calculation should fill the room with nulls in both directions.

Boundaries are definitely turned on. The quick visual check is a dashed line around the perimeter of the plot (boundaries off) vs solid line (boundaries on).  Also, you can see the ripples/cancellations in the plot - that indicates boundaries in use.  If they were off, it would look a lot smoother.
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Tim McCulloch

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Re: Spaced out subwoofers
« Reply #8 on: February 20, 2018, 02:47:03 PM »

So, I'm trying to get more sound across the dance floor without blasting the front of the venue like nuts so I ran some simulations in MAPP and surprisingly this looks really good.

Can somebody tell me WHY this might be terrible? I've always thought you should keep all subs in a stack if possible.

FYI - Top of the picture is the stage and to the right of the subwoofers is a small elevated area (about 3 feet high). The bottom of the image is the entrance.

Josh Billings

Why? Because look at what it's putting back on the stage/DJ booth/whatever.

If that's acceptable or desired, give it a try and see what the consensus is.  Moving speakers already on the ground shouldn't be a big deal.

As Mac said, one sub on the floor models the same as a vertical stack of subs.
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Re: Spaced out subwoofers
« Reply #8 on: February 20, 2018, 02:47:03 PM »


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