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Stereo Subwoofers - Couple together or Decouple?

Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 4:07 am
by richroyc
I have a pair of TAD TD-1801 loudspeakers mounted in boxes (see attached photo)
IMG_6140-2.JPG
I intend to use these in a home recoding studio situation as subwoofers, crossing over no more than 120Hz, (probably much less actually around 80 or even lower) - Ill determine this later once the studio is actually built.

My question is - when installing them - should I couple the 2 speaker boxes together?
in other words make some sort of way to rigidly tighten the boxes together

Or should they be decoupled from each other?
using either sorbothane pads or just building them with airspace in between?

I hope this is posted in the right forum - I have a studio build post going on as well. I figured this was a basic speaker question. Whatever info I get from here I'll make use to incorporate to my studio build post.

Thanks

- Mike

Re: Stereo Subwoofers - Couple together or Decouple?

Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 8:17 am
by Soundman2020
I would keep those boxes apart, not right next to each other, and hook them up as mono, not stereo.

It would be good if you could post a diagram of your studio, with dimensions and the locations of key items, to help figure out where to put them.

- Stuart -

Re: Stereo Subwoofers - Couple together or Decouple?

Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 9:01 am
by richroyc
Hey Stuart,

Thanks for the fast reply. Ok, apart it is then for the subwoofers - not together. Any recommendation on the space between?

I believe the power amp I plan on using for these I can do a mono bridge so hopefully that will achieve running them in mono, while the mains above the crossover are stereo.

I have the placement of these shown in my sketch up file in my studio build thread,

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... =1&t=19981


but I didn't want to confuse things by asking a speaker question over there. I guess it all related to the room anyway so maybe I should have kept it together.
:?:

Here is a pic of the latest sketch up design - Subwoofer boxes shown in red.

Room is 18'-2" Long (front of speaker soffits) x 15'-0" Wide (on average the width varies) x 6'-10" Tall

Re: Stereo Subwoofers - Couple together or Decouple?

Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2015 8:53 am
by Soundman2020
I guess it all related to the room anyway so maybe I should have kept it together.
Yup! :)
if you have several threads relating to your build in different places on the forum, then people trying to follow what you are doing what be able to. And likely you'll confuse yourself a bit down the line, when you want to go back and check something, but don't remember which thread it was in . . .

For the actual spacing, I'd leave that decision until the room is pretty much complete, then do a bit of trial-and-error "nudging"t to find the best locations. Yes, in theory you can predict where to put them, but in practice that doesn't always work so well. It's actually pretty eye-opening when you get to that stage, to see just how much effect you can get by moving your subs around, a few inches here or there.

- Stuart -

Re: Stereo Subwoofers - Couple together or Decouple?

Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2015 11:46 am
by richroyc
Thanks for the reply Stuart!

I've been posting like crazy on my original post, plenty of views but no replies…

I have tons of questions over there maybe that why people aren't answering its a little overwhelming, I'm kind of all over the place.

I do have one question I just posted on my orig thread regarding the ceiling beef up - I just removed the existing sheetrock and exposed the underside of the subfloor - there are some problems I ran into.
I posted photos.
If you get a chance to look at it I'd really appreciate any acoustical jedi master advice you can give :wink:

That's sort of my most pressing matter (not like a rush or anything) but the "beef up" is my first order of business.