The Acoustic Frontiers

Guide to Bass Optimization

 Contents
Introduction 03

Room 04
Dimensions: Length, Width and Height 04
Wall, Floor and Ceiling Construction 05
Light Fixtures and HVAC Vents 06

Equipment 07
Full Range Reproduction 07
Multiple Subwoofers 08
Signal Processing: Bass Management 13
Signal Processing: Level and Delay 15

Placement 16
Speakers 16
Subwoofers 16

Acoustic Treatment 18

Setup 19
Subwoofer Integration 19
Equalization 20

2
 Introduction

Bass is one of the hardest things to get right in any home

theater, listening room or home recording studio. It's pretty
typical for people to have huge peaks and dips in response, due
to the influence of room modes and phase cancellation.

Subjectively these room acoustic issues result in decreased articulation, dynamics and smoothness. In
the worst cases they can ruin your enjoyment of the room or make the space unsuitable for making
critical mixing decisions.

Whether you are building a new room, or looking to upgrade your existing space, you need to know
how to optimize your bass. This guide covers the room, equipment, placement, acoustic treatment and
set-up aspects of good bass. We could probably fill a whole book if all of the areas were explained from
first principles, so this guide is necessarily targeted at someone with a basic level of understanding of
room acoustics and topics like acoustic treatment, subwoofers, bass management and the like.

As you read this guide you'll undoubtedly have questions. Feel free to ask questions on this blog post.
and we'll do our best to point you in the right direction!

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 Chapter 1

Room
Dimensions: Length, Width and Height
For new build dedicated listening rooms, home theaters or studios the first step is to optimize the length,
width and height of the room. This ensures that room modes are well distributed and do not stack on top
of each other. There are a few different dimensional ratios that work including Bolt, EBU and IEC.

Trevor Cox‟s graphic summarizes these recommendations in an easy to use format. Darker areas in this
graph represent best room dimensions, and the ratios are normalized to the room height.

For example a room with an 8′ ceiling, a width of

12′ and a length of 16′ would have a ratio of
1:1.5:2. The best ratios cluster around 1:2.2:3
which for an 8′ ceiling would mean 17.6′ width
and 24′ length.

It‟s important to realize that a room with “perfect”

dimensions will still have room modes. Where
you put speakers, subs and listeners in the room
will change the frequency response. Adding
acoustic treatment will dampen the resonances
and using multiple subs will prevent standing
waves from even existing (room mode
Map of best room ratios. Light areas correspond to cancellation).
uneven frequency responses, dark areas correspond
to the best room sizes. (c) University of Salford.

At Acoustic Frontiers we recommend using dimensional optimization spreadsheets to assist in the

optimization of room length, width and height and to rank different room size alternatives according to
their behavior. A good free one that is available online is Chris Whealy's Control Room Calculator.

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 Wall, Floor and Ceiling Construction
The walls and ceiling of your room can and should be used as a component of the overall acoustic
design. Essentially if the walls and ceiling are properly designed they can provide "invisible" low
frequency absorption. A common figure for the absorption coefficient of a 5/8" gypsum board nailed to
16" on center 2x4 studs is 0.3 at 125Hz. This is low compared to say a dedicated bass trap that might
have an absorption coefficient of 1.0 but it adds up when you consider the total surface area!

The acoustical mechanism by which walls and ceilings absorb sound is quite simple. Sound pressure
excites the shell into diaphragmatic motion, like a hand hitting a drumhead. The mass of the shell and
the depth of the air cavity form a resonant system. The motion is damped by frictional losses in the air
and the material that the wall is constructed of.

Here at Acoustic Frontiers we use the term “floppy wall” to denote walls designed and constructed to
add low frequency absorption. The absorption characteristics can be tuned by changing the mass of the
wall (e.g. number of layers of gypsum board), the method of attachment to the structural framing
members (e.g. direct vs. isolated) and the depth of the air cavity. These variables can all be computer
simulated using software like AFMG SoundFlow to understand the absorption properties of the wall.

Floppy wall under construction. This one will have a single layer of pre-fabricated damped drywall. Note the wide
spacing of vertical studs

Even if you don‟t have the space or budget for a floppy wall then at least use damped drywall. Damped
drywall is useful because its resonances are subdued relative to those seen in normal drywall, which
tends to vibrate at around 60Hz and 120Hz. If you energize the room with a 120Hz note the drywall will
keep on ringing (making sound) after the note has stopped.

For sound absorption (not sound isolation, these are different things!) a 5/8″ layer of pre-fabricated
damped drywall works better than a double thickness of drywall with a constrained layer damping
compound as it is less stiff.

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 Light Fixtures and HVAC Vents
Sound can excite many objects in your room to buzz and rattle. Most of the time these buzzes and
rattles are masked by other, higher and louder, frequencies in the music or movie. Play a high SPL sine
wave sweep through your system and you'll hear various pieces of the room buzz and rattle at different
frequencies.

Here are some areas to look at:

 In ceiling can lights, held in place with springs and manufactured from riveted pieces of
sheet metal
 HVAC dampers
 Sheet metal ductwork inside the walls or ceiling
 Water and waste water pipes

A typical low-grade light rattle prone light fixture.

In new construction the optimal approach is to use fixtures and vents that are known to be solidly
manufactured and have a robust method of installation that does not result in any hard contact between
the fixture and the mounting surface. To do this you'll either have to get samples of the fixtures yourself,
inspect them in a showroom, or work with someone whose already evaluated these elements.

Hard, sheet metal ductwork as well as water and waste water pipes should not run in the walls of the
room or above and below it in the ceiling or floor. Follow these procedures and you should have a room
that is buzz and rattle free (though it is always worth checking by playing the aforementioned high SPL
sine sweep after the room is constructed).

In existing rooms the best you can do is take steps to dampen vibrating sheet metal through use of
specialist products such as those from Kinetics Noise Control. Decouple vents and light fixtures from
their mounting surface using thin, cut to size, foam or neoprene sheets.

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 Chapter 2

Equipment
Full Range Reproduction
Your system, whether it is a home theater, high-end audio system or monitoring system in a recording
studio, should be capable of "full range reproduction", with flat bass down to say 25Hz or even below.

The reason for this is simple. To properly experience the content - whether movie or music - you need
to hear all of it. Many "real" instruments, such as piano and harp have their lowest notes around 25-
30Hz. Introduce "artificial" sounds like explosions in movies and bass effects in electronic dance music
and the lowest frequency can dip even further. The recent movie Edge of Tomorrow had a 10Hz pulse
during the opening credits. If you don't have equipment capable of full range reproduction then you are
introducing your own form of timbral distortion to the content.

If you are monitoring content that you've

created then it's critical to be able to hear what
is on the recording. A good example is people
making electronic dance music on small
bookshelf monitors that roll off at 60Hz. Much
of the kick drum is at centered at frequencies
around 40Hz (put a spectrogram on your
recording). If you don't have a full range
monitoring system then you are making
decisions about kick level and equalization
based on what you are hearing. Go play that
recording in a car with extension down to 30Hz
Add a sub for full range sound
or in a nightclub and the kick will sound very
different.

The easiest way to get full range reproduction is to use subwoofers. Most speakers described as full
range in marketing literature often start to roll off at 35-40Hz. Using a good sub will give you full range
reproduction.

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 Multiple Subwoofers
Whilst adding a sub will give you sound down to 20Hz or so, it will not necessarily make the response
smoother. The best way to make the response smoother is to use subwoofers placed in particular
locations to actively cancel room mode resonances.

Room Modes
Room modes are caused by perfect constructive interference between a sound wave traveling between
two boundaries. In rectangular rooms the first axial mode of a room can be found through an
application of the wavelength formula as follows:

1st modal frequency = speed of sound / (2 * distance between boundaries)

The axial modes contain the most power and therefore typically cause the largest problems. These
modes are caused by the standing waves that develop between two parallel surfaces i.e. those related
to the length, width and height dimensions of the room.

Let‟s look at an example to help illustrate things: The 1st axial mode for a 20ft long room would be:
1140ft per second / (2 x 20ft) = 28.5Hz. If we examined this room using a high resolution acoustic
measurement we would expect to see a peak in the frequency response and ringing in the time domain
at the resonance frequency (i.e. 28.5Hz). From a sound quality perspective we would expect to hear
lack of smoothness, boomy bass and also an impact on clarity, as low level sounds are obscured by
the excessive length of time it takes for bass notes to decay.

The most problematic area in most rooms turns out to be the sub-100Hz region, where the room
modes are widely spaced in frequency and very powerful. We've measured many rooms through our
room acoustic consulting work, and peak-to-dip variances of 15dB+ are quite common in this "sparsely
populated room mode region".

Left, right and both

speaker measurements
from a typical room. We
see this type of response
a lot during our
consulting
engagements...lack of
full range extension,
major peaks due to room
modes, and a dip
between the 1st and 2nd
axial length modes.

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 Room Mode Cancellation
Multiple subwoofers can be used in mode cancelling arrangements, resulting in smoother bass. Let's
look at how mode cancellation works.

To simplify things we will just consider one example – using subwoofers reduce the impact of the 1st
axial length mode. The diagram below shows what we would expect to see if we were to measure how
the sound pressure level of a 28.5Hz sine wave varies by distance between the front and back walls of
our 20ft long room.

Change in strength of 1st axial mode over room length.

Looking at the diagram you can see that SPL is a maximum near the walls and at a minimum in the
center of the room. The minimum point is called a „null‟. You'll also see an area to the left of the null is
marked with a '+' sign and the area to the right of the null with a '-'. The pressure lobes on each side of
the null have opposing polarity - the pressure on one side is rising and decreasing on the other.

The effect of a subwoofer on the level of a room mode depends upon where you put the subwoofer. If
you put it in the center of the room at the null there would be minimal energy coupling between the
subwoofer and the standing wave. The standing wave would be minimally excited and there would be
no measureable peak in the frequency response or ringing in the time domain.

The room mode can theoretically be cancelled, or driven destructively, if two subs fed the same signal
are placed in different polarities of the standing wave. Room mode cancellation means that there will
again not be any measurable frequency response peak or time domain ringing at our example
frequency of 28.5Hz.

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 Many stereo systems placed in rectangular listening rooms already have some room mode cancellation
going on, because the left and right speakers are in different polarities for the first axial width mode.

The example we gave above was simplistic, but shows the benefits of multiple subs for room mode
cancellation. Researchers like Todd Welti and Allan Devantier at Harman International and Earl
Geddes of GedLee have done much research into how many subwoofers should be used and where
they should be placed for best room mode cancellation effects. The consensus from their research is
that the most benefits are achieved by adding three or four subs.

Welti and Devantier's work primarily investigated how to reduce seat-to-seat variability in home
theaters, whereas Geddes' work looked mainly at single seat situations. Welti/Devantier prescribe
specific sub locations for the mode cancelling effects to work, whereas Geddes favors subwoofer
placement based on in room optimization using acoustic measurements at the calibration phase.

Here are some of our recommendations on sub numbers:

 Single listening position - one or preferably two subs

 Single row of seats - minimum two subs, preferably three or four
 Multiple rows of seats - minimum four subs, potentially six or more

Tools like the room simulation tool built into Room EQ Wizard can help you predict response
smoothness for up to four subs and two speakers in a rectangular room. For non-rectangular rooms, or
rooms with large risers and soffits, or multiple rows of seats, we recommend Boundary Element
Modeling (BEM) software to predict SPL at each seat and model seat-to-seat variability.

Graph created by Room EQ Wizard room simulator. Compare with the BEM generated graph later

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 As a final note it is worth mentioning that some people think multi-sub approaches will fix all bass
issues. That is not true for a simple reason. The region where room modes dominate the frequency
response extends at least to the transition frequency, which is around 250Hz. And most of the time you
will be using subs with a crossover point of 80Hz or below, to prevent subwoofer localization.

Ported vs. Sealed Subwoofers

For two channel reproduction we recommend sealed box subwoofers. The main benefit of ported
subwoofers is the significantly increased output in the region below 40Hz. This output is always
beneficial for home theater reproduction, which requires 115dB peak SPL capability from the subwoofer
channel at the main listening position.

Properly designed ported subs should sound just as good as sealed subs, but have a lot more output in
the lowest octave. The disadvantage with ported subs is mainly that the cabinets are significantly
larger.

Difference in maximum continuous SPL, SVS SB13 vs PB13.

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 Subwoofer Manufacturers
There are many subwoofer manufacturers. The barriers to entry are low, as they are with speakers.
Buy a driver and plate amp, and put it into a cabinet. But just like speakers, it is not easy to create great
or exceptional subwoofers.

Many subs are poorly designed, and will audibly misbehave with cabinet rattles/buzzes, port or driver
noise at high SPLs. A frequent failing is not properly setting up the limiting scheme. Limiting manages
the output excursion to ensure good sound quality and subwoofer protection. A sub with a bad or non-
existent limiter can literally self destruct when asked to reproduce a high level signal!

Some of our preferred subs are from JL Audio and SVS, both of whom thoroughly understand
subwoofer design and have great limiting schemes.

Generally the sub will be fed a line level signal that is already bass managed. It should therefore be
possible to disable the sub's low pass filter as it is not required in this configuration. The sub controls
you'll find most useful are level and phase. The phase control should be continuously variable. If you
have no digital delay then phase adjustments will help you integrate the sub into the multi-sub array and
with the speakers. Simple polarity controls are not sufficient.

We do not recommend that you run the sub "in parallel" with the speakers without a crossover, as this
results in unpredictable room mode cancellation. Speaker level inputs are therefore generally not
required unless you are using functionality built into the sub enabling use for bass management.

Some subs have a useful onboard

crossover, which at a pinch could be used
for a two channel system in place of a bass
management crossover upstream. The best
of these will provide a configurable high/low
pass filter, with independent level and delay
adjustments for the speaker and sub.

Generally it is always better to have at least

two lower quality subs in a system rather
than a single higher quality sub. There are
always exceptions to this rule, and some
single listener location systems will work well
with a single sub and EQ. Much depends on
the room and its issues.
The flagship SVS subs have many useful integration features,
including a bass management crossover and digital delay
capability for the speakers. They also offer two bands of
parametric EQ.

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 Signal Processing: Bass Management
Bass management directs frequencies below the crossover point (typically 80Hz) to the subwoofer.
There are two types of bass management; stereo and mono:

 Stereo bass management directs the left channel information below the crossover point to
the left subwoofer, and the right channel information to the right subwoofer.

 Mono bass management sums the left / right (and center / surround in a home theater)
bass below the crossover point electronically and sends it to the subwoofer channel. In
home theaters the bass managed information from the speakers is normally combined with
the low frequency effects channel (the .1). There may be multiple subs but they are all fed
the same "mono" signal.

Bass management in a two channel system. (c) Sound on Sound.

For room mode cancellation to work predictably all of the subwoofers must be fed the same signal. That
means mono, not stereo, bass management, and it means that the speakers should not overlap
excessively with the subwoofers in terms of frequency response. The primary reason is that running
subwoofers and speakers in parallel results in unpredictable outcomes. The signal in each speaker will
be slightly different in the bass region, and therefore the effects of room mode cancellation will be
unpredictable.

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 All AVRs and pre-pros have bass management built in. To activate bass management you typically set
speakers to small and then choose a crossover point. In most cases the low pass filter is a 24dB per
octave and the high pass 12dB per octave, a standard defined by THX at the dawn of surround sound.

Two channel enthusiasts will need to add a crossover to their system. The best way to do it in our
opinion is to use a line level crossover to split the audio signal before power amplification into two parts,
one of which feeds the sub and the other the main amplifier. There are good, high quality, solutions out
there to introduce a line level crossover, some analog and some digital, and some integrated into an
amplifier:

 Analog: Bryston 10B-Sub, JL Audio CR1, Parasound Halo P5 & Halo Integrated

 Digital: DEQX HDP-Express II, HDP-4, HDP-5, PreMATE, PreMATE+, Trinnov ST2 Hi-Fi,
Trinnov Amethyst, NAD M12.

We particularly like the DEQX processors, since they function as digital pre-amps and provide
equalization.

The JL Audio CR1 is a very high quality two channel analog domain bass management processor.

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 Signal Processing: Level and Delay
To properly integrate each of your subs into a coherent array, and your array with your speakers, you'll
need some signal processing.

Ideally you'd have level and delay adjustments for each sub, though if you are using a multiple-sub
setup with symmetrical placement like a two front / two rear setup, you can normally put the front two
subs on one channel and the rear two on another. These days many AVRs and pre-pros have dual sub
outputs with independent level and delay adjustment.

If your room needs subs placed in odd locations or six or more subs then you might need a separate
digital signal processor (DSP). You'd feed the subwoofer out from your AVR to the DSP, and then
connect each sub to a channel of the DSP. Level and delay adjustments to integrate the multi-sub
array are made in the outboard DSP, and level / delay adjustments to integrate the array with your
speakers are done in the AVR.

Recording studio monitoring systems and high-end audio setups very rarely have the needed level and
delay adjustments. Many subs just have a simple polarity switch. This is not enough to guarantee good
array integration. The minimum would be a continuous variable phase control. Better still is digital
delay, which some subs have.

You'll then need some way of integrating the sub array with the speakers, which means you need bass
management as well as level / delay adjustment capabilities. Typically you have to delay the speakers
to get good integration with the sub array around the crossover point. That's because the sound from
the subs takes slightly longer to come out than the sound from the speakers (the technical term is
group delay).

There are not many two channel products that include ability to digitally delay the main speakers...to
our knowledge only the DEQX and Trinnov processors provide this functionality. You can also
implement the required delays in computer software and then feed the results to a multi-channel DAC
like the ExaSound E28 or Merging NADAC.

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 Chapter 3

Placement
Where you put speakers, subs and seats makes a huge difference in the smoothness of the frequency
response. This is because you are changing how the system interacts with room modes and where the
speaker boundary interference cancellation nulls are.

Speakers
In a rectangular room the best place for speakers and seats can theoretically be mathematically
calculated.

Typical rules you'll find online include the rule of thirds and the rule of fifths. In practice differences in
wall construction mean the best approach is to use acoustic measurements to assist in speaker /
listener placement...measure the room, identify the problem bass frequencies, understand which room
modes they relate to, and move the speaker and listener.

For example, if you measured a room with a 10dB peak at 65Hz, then analyzed it and determined this
was due to the 2nd length mode, you might move the speaker or listener into a null point for this mode
(the nulls for this mode are at 1/4 and 3/4 of room length).

For home theaters you'll generally want the speakers in very specific locations (as prescribed by THX,
Dolby and others). Typically this means the speakers go where they go, and you don't worry about
optimizing placement relative to room modes, because you don't have much if any placement flexibility!

Subwoofers
As we touched on earlier, multi-sub arrays
must generally be positioned in specific
We recommend using boundary element
locations for the mode cancellation effect to
modeling (BEM) or computational fluid
work.
dynamics techniques for non-rectangular
spaces. To our knowledge there are no easy
In new build square or rectangular rooms you
to use tools that enable modeling of non-
can generally follow some simple rules of
rectangular rooms, or even rooms with
thumb: wall mid points are best, 25/75% of
risers, soffits and false walls, all of which can
width are good, corners are ok. These
have substantial impacts on room mode
placement options are based on the Welti /
distribution.
Devantier work. If you want to deviate from
these basic placement strategies Room EQ
Wizard has a nice, if limited, room simulator in
as we touched on earlier.

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 (dB) Level, Sound pressure

Frequency (Hz)
Curve, Pressure, 101, x=1.68m, y=1.03m, z=1.02m, Normalization
Curve, Pressure, 102, x=2.44m, y=1.03m, z=1.02m, Normalization
Curve, Pressure, 103, x=3.21m, y=1.03m, z=1.02m, Normalization
Curve, Pressure, 109, x=1.68m, y=3.76m, z=1.02m, Normalization
Curve, Pressure, 110, x=2.44m, y=3.76m, z=1.02m, Normalization
Curve, Pressure, 111, x=3.21m, y=3.76m, z=1.02m, Normalization

Boundary Element Model study of frequency response across two rows in dedicated theater with six subwoofers. The
simulation accounts for level and delay adjustments, and in this model we found that the front two, rear two and each of two
side subs needed separate settings for flattest response. The response at each seat is normalized to the "money" seat. The
seat-to-seat variability becomes less important as we approach the 80Hz crossover point since the speakers start impacting
the response.

In existing rooms a trial and error approach to subwoofer placement is best employed after first
analyzing the room acoustics, determining the room mode frequencies and working out which room
modes can be cancelled through sub placement (the same approach as discussed for speaker
placement).

For example in an existing room if there is a 1st axial length mode at 34Hz then we know that if one
sub is placed in the front half of the room and one in the back half that the room mode will be driven
destructively. That's the kind of thing that can be done during system calibration, assuming you
have an acoustic measurement system and the knowledge to understand how placement will affect
how the subs couple to the room modes and therefore the frequency response.

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 Chapter 4

Acoustic Treatment
Most people think that if they have room acoustic issues in the bass then acoustic treatment - stuff they
add into the room after it is built - is the only option. Hopefully by now you understand that there are
many other tools to get amazing bass.

If the heavy lifting in the sparsely populated room mode region below 100Hz has been done through
proper room design and multi-sub arrays then acoustic treatment can be focused on the region above
80Hz. This makes life a lot easier because a lot of commercial bass traps are only really effective down
to about 70Hz.

Bass traps should be located where they are most effective. Presuming the use of pressure based
devices, the best locations are:

 Intersections of three boundaries (wall / wall / ceiling or wall / wall / floor)

 Intersection of two boundaries (wall / wall, or wall / ceiling, or wall / floor)
 Near to sound sources like speakers and subs, since sound pressures are highest here
which makes these locations a good place for acoustic treatment.

The best commercial bass traps we have found are the RPG Modex Plates. These incorporate a thin
steel plate and are available in three versions depending on the frequency ranges that need absorption.
At only 4″ thick there is nothing better out there.

If you have more space (8″+)

and are willing to build then
you can make some very
effective acoustic treatment
(we typically recommend
detuned Helmholtz resonators
or very thick pink fluffy traps)
from lumber, sheet goods and
building insulation.

How the Modex Plate works

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 Chapter 4

Setup
Subwoofer Integration
It's possible that you might be able to integrate a single sub into your system using music or test tones
and an SPL meter. It's highly unlikely that you would be able to integrate multiple subs into an array or
really nail the sub array integration without acoustical measurements.

Some people may claim that a sub can be calibrated by ear just by listening to music and twiddling the
controls back and forth. Well, if you can do that then you are one in a million! Even if your ear and brain
has the ability to analyze frequency and level of a musical note down to a couple of Hz and dB you are
still left with the problem that there is no piece of music on the planet that equally energizes the low
frequencies.

A properly integrated sub (green line) compared to a badly integrated sub (blue line).

We'd suggest aiming for the flattest frequency and phase response when integrating your multi-sub
array. You need to also keep your eye on any phase cancellation dips that might appear, and alter the
integration to prevent them. You can make adjustments to sub level, delay and placement to change
how each sub integrates with the array. Depending on how your array is designed you may want to
bring in each additional sub incrementally or calibrate parts of the array together.

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 The more subs you have the more complex the integration becomes. If you use different subs as parts
of the array (for example larger subs up front and smaller, "balancing" subs elsewhere) then you will
have the additional issue of dealing with differences in sub group delay, frequency response, low
frequency extension and output capabilities.

The output capability issue is especially relevant in high SPL home theater, as if you run all subs at the
same SPL level some will go into limiting before others. Limiting is where the output SPL does not
increase for an increase in the input signal. Once they go into limiting your the room mode cancellation
effect that worked at lower SPLs will start to disintegrate.

Equalization
There is a reason why we put room equalization last. It should be the icing on the cake, not the cake
itself! Don‟t start with EQ, add it once you have employed as many of the other tools that you can.

With that said, room EQ is exceptionally good at dealing with room mode resonances. You can easily
cut a problematic resonance at say 30Hz by 10dB or more. That kind of adjustment would be would be
extremely difficult to achieve using passive acoustic treatment.

ATC SCM40 with a JL Audio F112 in our demo room with and without a single band of parametric EQ at 36Hz.
Unsmoothed measurement (yes our room really is that flat!)

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 It‟s worth noting that room EQ has some drawbacks which you will see frequently mentioned (mostly by
people trying to sell lots of acoustic treatment…).

 "Room EQ cannot fix dips”. That statement has some truth in it. EQ cannot fix speaker
boundary interference dips because those are phase cancellation related – increase the
direct sound and the indirect, reflected sound increases by the same amount. However if
you have a dip due to a natural gap between room modes (which often occurs under
100Hz in the "sparsely populated" region) then you can boost that.

 “Room EQ makes the response better in some positions and worse in others”. Again there
is some truth in that, but only if you are not using multi-sub arrays and have little bass
trapping in your room. Properly placed subwoofer systems actually reduce spatial variance
in frequency response.

Basically if you have used the other techniques then you might only need one or two bands of EQ
below 100Hz to get the room really flat.

Many AVRs and pre-pros have automated room correction and speaker setup routines. These should
be used with extreme care. Many do a reasonable job of equalizing bass resonances but cause
unavoidable tonal shifts elsewhere (Audyssey). Most of the manufacturer specific EQ algorithms are
not great, and may make the sound worse. The worst are those that use a poorly performing automated
routine that produces filters that cannot be manually changed. The best in our opinion are Yamaha's
YPAO, Dirac Live and those with parametric EQ:

 Yamaha's YPAO because the end user is free to turn on and off filters after the automated
routine, modify existing filter characteristics (Q, frequency and gain) and add their own.

 Dirac Live, as found in processors like the Datasat RS20i, Emotiva XMC-1 (full version
only, not LE) and Theta Casablanca IV, because it allows the target curve to be freely
modified and the highest correction frequency to be changed.

 Parametric EQ, such as that found in the Classe pre-pros, because the end-user is free to
set their own filters. The downside is that one must know how to set-up the filters.

The Dirac Live room correction routine in action

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 For high end audio and recording studios there are multiple ways to include the equalization capability.
One approach is in DSP like Dirac Live running on a music server, or using the built-in EQ in JRiver
Media Center. The main downside is that the EQ only applies to your computer sources and can cause
significant latency, making tracking impossible. An alternate, and our favored, approach is to use
dedicated hardware, such as the DEQX or Trinnov processors. The dedicated hardware approach is
intrinsically more reliable as no computer is involved, and both the DEQX and Trinnov also provide
bass management and subwoofer integration capabilities.

A final approach would be to only include equalization capability in the subwoofer array. Some subs
have this capability built in, but note that we know of no automated equalization routines built into subs
that work properly with multi-sub arrays. The sub array must be EQ'd as a single entity, and none of the
automated algorithms work this way. The reason for this is that if you measure the response of any one
sub in the array it will be different to the response of the whole array.

For example a single sub may show a 10dB peak at a certain frequency whereas the overall sub array
response is flat due to mode cancellation effects. The automated in-built automation routine would EQ
the peak in the individual sub response, making the response of the sub array worse, not better.
Manual EQ is therefore the answer, whether built into the sub (higher end SVS subs, Triad RackAmp
driven subs, Revels) or in an outboard DSP (we like the Xilica XP series, other ones that we have
heard good things about are from Ashly. The miniDSPs are good, but some of their units have
limitations in terms of number of bands and delays available).

Whatever solution you choose to implement EQ, it needs to be set up. The solutions involving
parametric EQ require use of an acoustic measurement system such as XTZ Room Analyzer II Pro or
Room EQ Wizard, which handily give you the Q, frequency and gain values to use. Even the automated
systems like Dirac Live need target curve adjustments to match the speaker capabilities (low end
extension, high frequency rolloff) and desired sound (amount of bass boost, and where to apply it). For
best results there truly is no fully automated system that delivers the goods; all benefit from manual
intervention.

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 This guide to getting optimal bass has covered a huge number of areas including the room, equipment,
placement, acoustic treatment and set-up. We hope you've found the material educational and that you'll
use it to improve the bass quality in your home theater, listening room or home recording studio.

If you have any questions, feel free to post them on this blog post and
we'll do our best to answer them. If you feel like you might benefit from
professional consulting to analyze and optimize your bass, please get in
touch

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