Subwoofer near a piano - terrible idea?

[jhaider]

We recently bought an upright/console piano for our living room (replacing a digital keyboard) and as a result of room reconfiguration (the keyboard had an HVAC under it) one of the 5 subs had to go. The sub itself was modest (an older NHT model called Verve, a wide-but thin closed box with 2 10" woofers and I think 200W) I recalibrated with 4 subs (basically front right/left corners, front center integrated into the media cabinet, and left corner) and the main listening position sounds as great as before but there's one seat in the seating area with a bit of boom. So ideally I would like to add a sub on the right-back side back into the mix. It would fire at the wall, not directly into the piano.

However, the room has a small niche next to the piano, not too far away from the old sub's position, and I could fit a small sub in there. (roughly 11" x 14" footprint by whatever height I'm willing to stomach) Is putting a subwoofer so near a piano a recipe for disaster, either in terms of constant battling with rattles, or vibrations affecting the instrument itself? It doesn't rattle with the current subs.

 

[Waxx]

I would not do it, it will excite the strings of the piano. Even having subs in a room with a piano will do that, but very close to a piano is asking for big resonances. Also the piano body itself is made to resonate on a certain way (and make the piano sound) that also can be triggered by a speaker close, especially a subwoofer. I would not put a piano in a serious music listening room at all if i could (but yeah, reality...).

 

[AnalogSteph]

I would consider than an engineering challenge. I would try a wooden slat wrapped in kind of a velvety material to dampen the strings, and look at the options for temporary braces (bracing a piano should be fundamentally the same as for a loudspeaker cabinet). You'd want it all to be quickly removeable, of course.

 

[Curvature]

Put the sub right next to the piano and play music without mains engaged. If you hear stuff you don't like, move the sub further away bit by bit until you don't.

 

[jhaider]

Put the sub right next to the piano and play music without mains engaged. If you hear stuff you don't like, move the sub further away bit by bit until you don't.

Yeah, that's what I'm going to do, basically: take one of the subs from my desktop system (Sonance D8, a little aluminum child's shoebox with dual opposed 7" square woofers) and see if it makes the piano rattle. Was hoping someone had experience to share and save me the time, though!

 

[GD Fan]

Sounds "suboptimal"!

 

[fieldcar]

One moment, please...

One moment, please...

I usually use tone generators or sweeps to find out what resonates in my room. The piano's (hopefully) thick wood housing should do a pretty decent job of preventing resonance of the strings. You may also want to try holding down your sustain petal for the heck of it.

 

[Timcognito]

Our beautiful sounding 60s Wurlitzer spinet makes a reverb sound with a loud cough or sneeze. It has fenestrations on the front to release sound from the base and I would try covering those when not in use, in my case. You have your hands full with a sub close to an acoustic piano.

 

[jhaider]

Our beautiful sounding 60s Wurlitzer spinet makes a reverb sound with a loud cough or sneeze. It has fenestrations on the front to release sound from the base and I would try covering those when not in use, in my case. You have your hands full with a sub close to an acoustic piano.

Ours (different brand but also from the 1960s based on the serial number) doesn’t have fenestrations in front, but the whole front panel can be propped open at an angle, resting on the keyboard cover.

Maybe that’s a common thing but I’ve never seen it before.

I ended up picking up a somewhat weird subwoofer - Artison RCC300, with dual racetrack drivers slot loaded in a push-push arrangement - and while I haven’t had time to fold it into the system yet I have run sweeps and played “music” through it. With the slot blowing away from the piano it seems ok.

 

[quattro98]

I wouldn’t worry about it. We have an upright in our living room along with dual subwoofers. The piano strings are damped unless you press a key or use the sustain pedal.

Even in a concert hall, the piano is fine during a concerto with the rest of the orchestra (including the bass section).