How many subwoofers are you using in your main system or home theater?

[sorzy]

Hi all! I am not a frequent visitor to this forum nor much of a contributor, but I received an e-mail asking how many subs you have in your system and could not resist replying ;-)

I have a combined music and home theater dedicated room with a total of 51 15" drivers. 24 of them in a front wall single-bass-array (SBA) from Acoustic Elegance and 24 of them in a floor-to-roof slot loaded baffel from GPA. The last 3 are also from GPA in a mid-bass configration as part of the LCR 4-way main speakers.

Here is a picture of the SBA front wall, and my dog ;-)

 

[Audio_Guy_UofW]

I'm using 4 12" DIY sealed subs in my HT setup. They are located in the corners of my 15x19' room, and driven by 2 stereo B&O IcePower 500 modules. Alignment and tuning via MiniDSP 2x4 balanced, with parameters derived using REW and MSO. I use a house curve flat to about 100 Hz then rising to +6 dB at 40 Hz, then flat from 40 to 20Hz. Sounds great to my ears, and the 2nd listening position is nearly as good in response due to multiple subs.

 

[AustinJerry]

I have four HSU ULS-15s in a 24x15x8.5 room, controlled by a Trinnov Altitude 32. They're in 1/4 and 3/4 positions on the front and back walls, making them a bit of a work in progress using Trinnov's recent WaveForming algorithm. The "work in progress" part is trying to get both the time-related bass decay consistently under control from 20 to 120 Hz and the RT60 at the same time, which is the ultimate payoff from their technology.

Copy cat! I also have four Hsu ULS-15’s, two in front and two in the rear. Equalization is Dirac Live with DLBC on a Monolith HTP-1.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

wow, that's a lot of large woofers, are they trying to make up for something? , I'm just jealous really

lol... well... six of them are support subs used in the DLART processing, although I see them move more than my main subs at times. That's probably because the main subs have two 18s each.

It really makes the sub-bass effortless in my room.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I have 4 x 18" FiCar in an Infinite Baffle manifold driven by a Crown XLS 2502 2400w amp.

I built it about 18 months ago after wanting an IB for the past 15 years. It's EQd by CamillaDSP running on a Raspberry Pi 3. Before the IB, I had a single boxed 12" which punched, but didn't do anything more than act like a big subwoofer. The IB makes the room move; it makes the glass windows flex and the room rattle with ease.

It's not in what most would consider an ideal setup; running some small Monitor Audio wall mounted speakers that roll off around 100Hz. However the way the IB integrates with speakers in general means they work way better than you would think. Their limitation is the SPL.

I do intend this year to try and 3D print some new speakers. I had my eye on some Arendal 1961 before they discontinued them, and of course the classic M&K MP950, but I fancy something DIY given the ease to DIY them these days.

I had 4x FiCar 18s in my room at one time... when I first built it. They were in an LLT enclosure, with the riser being part of the enclosure and housing the ports.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Hi all! I am not a frequent visitor to this forum nor much of a contributor, but I received an e-mail asking how many subs you have in your system and could not resist replying ;-)

I have a combined music and home theater dedicated room with a total of 51 15" drivers. 24 of them in a front wall single-bass-array (SBA) from Acoustic Elegance and 24 of them in a floor-to-roof slot loaded baffel from GPA. The last 3 are also from GPA in a mid-bass configration as part of the LCR 4-way main speakers.

Here is a picture of the SBA front wall, and my dog ;-)

Now that is incredible. Would you mind sharing your build project information and all the pics in our DIY Subwoofer forum? I would love to see it all and have it all here for others to see here.

 

[Maxx134a]

I see many impressive setups here, with a mix of attributes of quality, power, & sizes.
From my experience in many car installations many years ago, I will comment that in my opinion, you will all get good bass.
Yet there is another attribute of woofers that cannot be disregarded, and that deals with the impact and force. There is a difference which can make glass flex with frequency.
So bottom line, IMO, you can have as many 12 inch woofers as you want, which can impact and hit hard, BUT will not move you like 15 inch and up. There is something to be said of bass that can truly shake you.
So my preference would be minimum 15 inches, more the better. We not talking loud or audible bass but moving bass.

 

[Dave MacKay]

I have two THTLP subwoofers supporting my Klipsch La Scalas. The subs are horn-loaded and were designed by Bill Fitzmaurice. Even though they're the smallest size of THTLP (they have 12" woofers, not 15") they're still quite large: 72" x 18" x 15". Their performance is (IMHO) astounding.

The two subs are connected to the MiniDSP Flex Eight DL active crossover/DSP that drives the speakers and subs. I tuned and integrated them using REW and MSO.

 

[sonerin]

I am using dual JL audio subs. The F212 and E110 for the home theater. The overall setup is 7.1.4. The subs are connected to minidsp 2x4HD for bass management. To integrate both subs, I have use REW and umik-1 to take measurements than utilising the alignment tool to get both subs align. After the alignment , using the REW auto EQ for further refinement. Finally, to smooth things out further with PEQ setting done on the minidsp. I have no plan to add more subs as the room is too crowded.

 

[Mikejl]

I have twin PSA TV1812DF Subwoofers. Both connected to miniDSP 2X4HD and time aligned with REW. Dirac EQ'd and integrated with an Onkyo TX-NR7100. Additional TR provided with 8 Crowson Motion Actuators.

 

[Spidacat]

Two PSA TV2112's as subs and a pair of JBL 12" in a HeZe platform for tactical response. Subs are aligned via REW using a miniDSP 2x4 HD to get a pretty decent response pre equalization. The run Audyssey Mult-X and make small corrections for subwoofer "distance" to get a much better transition between the subs and mains, then some minor tweaking to lock in the impulse response. Everything in my 13x17x8 living room.

 

[bvocal]

My setup is a bit unique. The room is 12'x17' and as a naked room it sounds horrible and has giant room modes. It has a simple 5.1 setup, with a single basic 10" subwoofer, all of the speakers are B&W. What makes the room into a pretty epic and great sounding space is the acoustics work I've done and my secret weapon is an active system that for the most part stops the primary room mode from forming. The actual 5.1 speakers setup has -zero- EQ in the signal path. All the sound shaping is done via the acoustic treatment, yes, I can tune the sound like an equalizer, but via the acoustics. What I do to kill the room mode is I take a stereo RCA out from the preamps and that goes into a MiniDspHD and out to 2 sealed subs with 15" drivers that are in the back of the room facing the back wall and 1.5" from the back wall. The miniDSP delays the signal and inverts it and has a few small frequency tweaks because the woofers are not flat and perfect, so some accommodations for that. The delay is timed to fire the back wall subs at the moment the signal from the speakers reaches the plane the back woofers are on, so that cancels the base and thus the bass under 80hz or so goes away, it does not reflect back into the room and cause room modes. I can remove as much or as little of the room mode as I want.

 

[JimNoyd]

Tell as much or as little as you'd like.

How many subs do you use in your main listening room or home theater?
What are the brands?
How are you equalizing your subs?
Do you have plans to add more?

I'm currently satisfied with my setup of two JTR 4000ULF-TL Captivators + six 2400 Captivators. I'm using the two 4000 units with dual 18s as my main subwoofers, and the other six are support subs using Dirac Live ART.

22,400 watts powering ten 18-inch subs in a 19.5ft x 23.5ft x 8.5ft fully sealed room.

How many subs do you use in your main listening room or home theater? 2
What are the brands? Wisdom Audio SCS Subs
How are you equalizing your subs? Yes with Trinnov Altitude16
Do you have plans to add more? No

 

[sorzy]

Now that is incredible. Would you mind sharing your build project information and all the pics in our DIY Subwoofer forum? I would love to see it all and have it all here for others to see here.

Well, this room is so much more than just a subwoofer craziness ;-) It's not about playing as loud as possible but having the capacity to reproduce the dynamics and transients in music and movies. Total system consists of 48 amplifier channels :-o I'll consider making a build thread...

 

[k4lk]

I have a Marantz SR-8012 AV Receiver driving 11 B&W speakers and an SVS SB16-Ultra subwoofer in a 7.4.1 configuration. My living room is 4400 square feet. Display is a Sony XBR 75". Disc playback is a Pioneer universal 4k UHD, Pioneer LaserDisc and a Philips all-region DVD player.

 

[elootos]

Hi all! I am not a frequent visitor to this forum nor much of a contributor, but I received an e-mail asking how many subs you have in your system and could not resist replying ;-)

I have a combined music and home theater dedicated room with a total of 51 15" drivers. 24 of them in a front wall single-bass-array (SBA) from Acoustic Elegance and 24 of them in a floor-to-roof slot loaded baffel from GPA. The last 3 are also from GPA in a mid-bass configration as part of the LCR 4-way main speakers.

Here is a picture of the SBA front wall, and my dog ;-)

Just when you think you've seen it all, someone comes along with something a level above!

I had a failed centre cap on one of my 4 drivers (it had become unglued, so was a simple fix), but it took me ages to locate due to the nature of it being such a hard thing to pinpoint - it had become unglued in a section only 20mm in size. Heaven knows what it would be like in a setup with 51 drivers if one goes wrong!!

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Then you have a Storm Audio processor? Or are there others that have implemented DL-ART by now? Or are you doing this on a PC of some kind?

Beta version on PC.

 

[CAAudiophile]

I replaced my 4 x Infinity subs with SVS x4 subs, since SVS has the DSP in almost all of there product. In which I believe is a must for dialing in the right bass.
My listening room is small but with the DSP I was able to correct the amount of low frequency in it. the sound is great. One thing I would like to mention is on how to calibrate the sub if you have more than one sub is . You must find a common frequency between the main speakers and the sub say 70HZ.
Find the phase angle of that frequency from the main speakers then calibrate each sub to that phase angle.

 

[schmidtwi]

Tell as much or as little as you'd like.

How many subs do you use in your main listening room or home theater?
What are the brands?
How are you equalizing your subs?
Do you have plans to add more?

I'm currently satisfied with my setup of two JTR 4000ULF-TL Captivators + six 2400 Captivators. I'm using the two 4000 units with dual 18s as my main subwoofers, and the other six are support subs using Dirac Live ART.

22,400 watts powering ten 18-inch subs in a 19.5ft x 23.5ft x 8.5ft fully sealed room.

I have 6 subs in my dedicated HT. 4 sealed Ultimax 15” in each corner and 2 sealed 18” Ultimax in front at 1/4 & 3/4. I use a miniDSP HD and 3 iNukes to drive them with 12,000 Watts. Awesome bass.!!!

 

[StanJ]

Tell as much or as little as you'd like.

How many subs do you use in your main listening room or home theater?
What are the brands?
How are you equalizing your subs?
Do you have plans to add more?

I'm currently satisfied with my setup of two JTR 4000ULF-TL Captivators + six 2400 Captivators. I'm using the two 4000 units with dual 18s as my main subwoofers, and the other six are support subs using Dirac Live ART.

22,400 watts powering ten 18-inch subs in a 19.5ft x 23.5ft x 8.5ft fully sealed room.

I have three different theater systems; a 7.1.2 (uses KEF 300B sub), 5.2.4 (uses KEF PSW-2150 & Klipsch R110SW) and a 5.2 system (use 2x KEF Kube-1). I calibrate all three systems and do equalize them. I have no plans to add more, but may replace/upgrade the ones in my 5.2.4 system at a later date as they seems a little underwhelming.

 

[pitchcut29]

I am currently using 3x JTR 4000ULF (two in the front and one in the rear of theater).

 

[normie100]

I think I have a relatively sane system. The home theater is 19x28x12'--one of the perfect (or preferred) ratios. I have two SVS PB16Ultras that are not tuned because (a) it is hard to run my UMIK-1 from a seating position into my office behind the theater to my Mac Studio and (b) was totally overwhelmed by REW. I also have a MiniDSP I'm not using. BUT the 7.2.6 system is calibrated with the Audessy in my Marantz AV8805 (with the HDMI fix because, you know, Xbox at 4K120). I custom built two 18" subs that are about 46x24x30" but since the theater installers used 'the wrong type of wire' from the rack location in my office to the front wall, my power amps can't drive the subs properly. (Just something to work on in my retirement.)

The great room upstairs with the 81" 8K TV has the last remnant of my MartinLogan 5.1 system: a Descent sub, which is still awesome. It's paired with a pair of BRXs, a SuperSub, and a pair of SuperSat3s. And I can do 4K120 and VRR here, too.

BTW, the SVS16s were especially awesome at two points in "The Harder They Fall".

-normie-

 

[Audiophilus51]

I have 4 system, 3 of which have 1 sub each. The 5.1 system has a Pinnacle Rhino Jr. with Paradigm SE-1 and SE-Center, and Polk surrounds; the 2-Channel setup in the same room has an REL Classic 98 with my own DIY 3-ways, and my workshop has a Velodyne SPL-8 with IMF Super Compacts. I do Sony STRAZ3000 auto setup on the Pinnacle, and use a Schiit Lokius to dial in the REL...by ear, and the Velo is tuned by ear.

 

[ManCaveAudio]

Tell as much or as little as you'd like.

How many subs do you use in your main listening room or home theater?
What are the brands?
How are you equalizing your subs?
Do you have plans to add more?

I'm currently satisfied with my setup of two JTR 4000ULF-TL Captivators + six 2400 Captivators. I'm using the two 4000 units with dual 18s as my main subwoofers, and the other six are support subs using Dirac Live ART.

22,400 watts powering ten 18-inch subs in a 19.5ft x 23.5ft x 8.5ft fully sealed room.

I have very simple badroom setup 5.1.4 with Onkyo RZ50, Calibrated with Dirac Live where I use SVS SB 3000 and planning to add one more same subwoofer. My room size is 14ft L, 12ft W and 9ft H.

 

[dlasater]

Great response to this thread! I have 6 subwoofers - 4 in-wall RBH SI-1212/R9 (dual 12") and 2 REL HT1510 (15"), all sealed. I have used SVS, PSA, MSO, miniDSP, REW, etc., in the past, but currently using Trinnov's WaveForming with 3 subs at front wall (2 inwalls and REL on floor below the screen) and matching sub configuration at the rear wall, calibrated with my Perlisten speakers by Adam Pelz. Although frowned upon by Adam, I also have implemented Crowson transducers beneath the seats to add tactile sensation in lieu of infrasonic subs for movie (LFE) only. Lovin' it! ....until I get the itch again.