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Recommendation for front firing subwoofer

sweetmusic

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I am considering putting a front firing subwoofer *inside* of a media cabinet, paired with bookshelf speakers.

I know... it would be better to place the sub in the room, in a corner or near a wall. But... the decision is not only mine. Esthetics are a consideration. (Even so, feel free to tell me how bad an idea this is :)

When listening to music or watching videos, my idea is to open the sliding doors of the media cabinet so that they don't block the driver of a front firing sub. It seems that might be better than getting a sub with a driver that points down into the cabinet floor, or opposing drivers that fire against the side walls. If I'm wrong and any orientation is fine, please let me know though. I'm not an expert.

Given that it's a media cabinet, around a 10" driver, or maybe 12", should fit. Bigger will definitely not.

My budget is up to $1,000 or maybe even a little higher.

I already have an integrated amplifier with room correction. My current speakers had a list price of ... kind of a lot. I bought them second hand for... still a lot. After spending time on this site, my plan is to sell them and buy (passive) speakers that measure and sound much better, and get a subwoofer too and still have a little extra to buy a bottle or a nice dinner.

I'm an #audioscienceconvert. Thanks in advance!
 

Chrispy

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Direction of driver means relatively little with a sub. Putting a sub in some sort of cabinet could well be an issue, tho.
 
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sweetmusic

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Looks like the Rhythmik L12 is a great sub... and it does (just barely) fit! I can manage a little over 15", maybe 16", in depth and height. I'll triple check the measurements before buying anything.

Any other recommendations?

I see that the SVS SB-1000 should also fit, and people in these forums have recommended other SVS models, usually the bigger ones.

And yes... vibration. It's a heavy cabinet of solid hardwood. Rubber feet will help a little. Even so, there will be some inevitable resonances. Will it be worse subjectively than having no subwoofer, and losing a lot of the sound below 60 Hz?
 

HooStat

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Since bass frequencies are omnidirectional, I would probably get a dual opposed driver and at least reduce the vibrations some. You can also look at thinner subs that might fit behind something or under something. I ended up getting an Arendal sub because it is side firing and the finished side faces the room.
 

Eetu

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SVS SB 1000 Pro, great value for money assuming you're in the US.

You could use a sub as a plant stand or drape a piece of cloth over it and place a statue on top etc. SVS 3000 Micro and KEF's KC62 are so tiny that they could be easier to camouflage/conceal. Might need two depending on the size of your room.

The slim profile KEF T2 sub is also easy on the eyes.

But if your media cabinet is sturdy and you use some decoupling I think you should be fine with your original plan.
 

YSC

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If the cabinet isn’t flush with the floor I can’t imagine how bad the resonance could go… another thing I might worry is heat dissipation. Yes class D isn’t very hot but for electronics, putting them in a tight space with poor ventilation isn’t a good idea
 

HarmonicTHD

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I agree with most of the posters here. Putting a sub in a piece of furniture is to say at least problematic. It might work but it also might sound horrible (which would be my guess). Only one way to find out … get a sub and test it. Impossible to say from a distance. IMHO.
 

Webninja

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I looked into placing a sub into a cabinet and also a closet with a cut out. My research concluded its not advisable, and I was unable to find any examples of success.

I’m lucky as my spouse doesn’t care about aesthetics and I currently have 3 subs all in the room.
 

digitalfrost

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Since this is dual opposed it should hopefully not cause the cabinet to rattle.
 

HarmonicTHD

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Since this is dual opposed it should hopefully not cause the cabinet to rattle.
Just because the housing of the sub exhibits little vibration doesn’t mean that the sound power emanating from the woofers won’t rattle the cabinet. Again it might or it might not work - impossible to predict remotely.
 
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voodooless

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I have a downturning 10” sub in a cabinet. It is visually a nice solution, and the sub performs well, but the cabinet resonates like crazy. So I’ll probably end up scrapping the cabinet corpse and buy a new one (luckily not that expensive). I guess if you have a cabinet specifically designed to act as a sub, it might work.
 
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sweetmusic

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Ok... tested with an old ACI Force sealed downward-firing 10" sub. It does not rattle the cabinet except at very high SPL, and i might be able to address that. It also doesn't go as low as a 12" driver might though, so I'd expect more risk of rattle with a sub that has more output at 20 Hz and below. For music, I'd say it's an improvement vs no sub!

Next questions:

With dual opposed drivers, should I face one forward and one at the back wall of the cabinet? That would leave about a 3" gap from the back wall. Or should I face the drivers toward the sides? I could keep about 12" clear on each side. The cabinet sides are solid flat hardwood. Or does it really make no difference?

Intuitively it just seems like having the driver face toward the listening position, like on full-range speakers, would make it easiest to integrate and time align and all of that, provided there's enough output. But intuition is mostly common sense, and that's often completely wrong. Does it really not matter which way a sub's drivers are facing?
 

Doctors11

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I am considering putting a front firing subwoofer *inside* of a media cabinet, paired with bookshelf speakers.

I know... it would be better to place the sub in the room, in a corner or near a wall. But... the decision is not only mine. Esthetics are a consideration. (Even so, feel free to tell me how bad an idea this is :)

When listening to music or watching videos, my idea is to open the sliding doors of the media cabinet so that they don't block the driver of a front firing sub. It seems that might be better than getting a sub with a driver that points down into the cabinet floor, or opposing drivers that fire against the side walls. If I'm wrong and any orientation is fine, please let me know though. I'm not an expert.

Given that it's a media cabinet, around a 10" driver, or maybe 12", should fit. Bigger will definitely not.

My budget is up to $1,000 or maybe even a little higher.

I already have an integrated amplifier with room correction. My current speakers had a list price of ... kind of a lot. I bought them second hand for... still a lot. After spending time on this site, my plan is to sell them and buy (passive) speakers that measure and sound much better, and get a subwoofer too and still have a little extra to buy a bottle or a nice dinner.

I'm an #audioscienceconvert. Thanks in advance!
Curious what integrated you have. Even though it has room correction maybe consider a sub that also has it built in. For example, the MartinLogan Dynamo 800x. The idea is you run the sub's correction first, then run the correction in the integrated. That combo should provide a pretty smooth in room response. And the ML incorporates Anthem Room Correction in theirs...pretty good stuff.

 

Chrispy

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Ok... tested with an old ACI Force sealed downward-firing 10" sub. It does not rattle the cabinet except at very high SPL, and i might be able to address that. It also doesn't go as low as a 12" driver might though, so I'd expect more risk of rattle with a sub that has more output at 20 Hz and below. For music, I'd say it's an improvement vs no sub!

Next questions:

With dual opposed drivers, should I face one forward and one at the back wall of the cabinet? That would leave about a 3" gap from the back wall. Or should I face the drivers toward the sides? I could keep about 12" clear on each side. The cabinet sides are solid flat hardwood. Or does it really make no difference?

Intuitively it just seems like having the driver face toward the listening position, like on full-range speakers, would make it easiest to integrate and time align and all of that, provided there's enough output. But intuition is mostly common sense, and that's often completely wrong. Does it really not matter which way a sub's drivers are facing?
Matters little which way the drivers face, particularly if it's installed in a cabinet....
 
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sweetmusic

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Matters little which way the drivers face, particularly if it's installed in a cabinet....
Just to clarify: is that true even if the cabinet door is opened immediately in front of the driver vs the driver facing an inside wall of the cabinet?
 
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sweetmusic

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Curious what integrated you have. Even though it has room correction maybe consider a sub that also has it built in. For example, the MartinLogan Dynamo 800x. The idea is you run the sub's correction first, then run the correction in the integrated. That combo should provide a pretty smooth in room response. And the ML incorporates Anthem Room Correction in theirs...pretty good stuff.

I'm using a Lyngdorf TDAi 1120.

Great tip about the Martin Logan! Now I want to run REWS on uncorrected signal in my room and see what frequencies the room modes are at... if they're below 100 Hz, I could get away with no correction on the bookshelf speakers, and use room correction only on the sub. That would be great for simplifying! Then I might choose active monitors and sell the integrated amp.
 

Chrispy

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Just to clarify: is that true even if the cabinet door is opened immediately in front of the driver vs the driver facing an inside wall of the cabinet?
It's largely true even if you have it out on its own.....never noticed any difference in orientation of my dual opposed sub in moving it around....ymmv

ps I have seen some slight measurement differences on orientation of a DO sub, but nothing particularly noticeable audibly.
 
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sweetmusic

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It's largely true even if you have it out on its own.....never noticed any difference in orientation of my dual opposed sub in moving it around....ymmv

ps I have seen some slight measurement differences on orientation of a DO sub, but nothing particularly noticeable audibly.
Thanks! Seems like I'm going to need to do some experimentation no matter what.
 
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