Who uses two nSUBs?

Posted by: Consciousmess on 21 August 2016

May I ask the benefit of doing this as tempting as it is?

I am soon to move into a house with a much bigger living room, perfectly shaped in an ideal rectangle, where an nSUB either side of my sofa would go well.  I will get a 4k TV but I am not rushing into that until contracts are exchanged.

The nSUB sound is very good and with it being low, generally difficult to discern position. So what does two nSUBs do aside from making the base louder?

Posted on: 21 August 2016 by ChrisSU

One at each end of the sofa sounds like a great idea!

Posted on: 21 August 2016 by Adam Zielinski

I have a better one - try another great British manufacturer: REL. They only make subwoofers. 

The benefit of two is that in some surround mixes, there is a .2 extension, denoting a presence of two sub channels. You could also use two RELs in a stereo pair, each one working in tandem with L and R speakers.

Posted on: 21 August 2016 by Mr Underhill

Hi CM,

There are a number of good sites that go into the positioning of multiple subs in order to even out the bass response, and avoid cancellation & enforcement; or you can use electronics to provide a technical solution.

I use two (not n-subs) in diametric corners.

M

Posted on: 21 August 2016 by Innocent Bystander

Any use of subs instead of full range main speakers reequires very careful setup, including positioning to avoid phase issues unless aligned with the main speakers. Two subs can indeed help with evening out room response, but the care needed in setup is no less, possibly more.

Most subs of which I am aware are generally better not in the corners, but that will depend very much on the room as well as the subs.

If I ever were to consider subs for music I would be interested to hear the Wilson Benesch Torus - and preferably as a pair.

 

 

Posted on: 23 August 2016 by Super

As i was told and understand that if you are going to use two subs they should be of the same make and model. I have two MK MX350's and one sits on top of the other one and it's absoulute power with grace. They are more efficient together as you don't have turn the volume up high at all, so there is no stress.

Posted on: 23 August 2016 by Innocent Bystander

placing the two subs together seems a little pointless, unless it is simply that each on its own is insufficiently powerful to complementbthe rest of the system?

Posted on: 23 August 2016 by Innocent Bystander
ChrisSU posted:

One at each end of the sofa sounds like a great idea!

An unusual malt there - I never knew there was such a thing as an English one. How donyou rate it?

Posted on: 24 August 2016 by Ardbeg10y

Just checked your profile. I see you have an nVi. Still using for this HT purpose? Doesn't it get outdated?

Posted on: 24 August 2016 by tonym

I used two nSubs for a while when I ran SL2s. I've a large room & I needed the bass to give me the sort of scale I was after. It's best to seperate them, and position them away from corners, that way you get the most neutral response. It does take a while to get the subs to play nice together, and integrated with the stereo speakers, but the nSats are wonderful subwoofers and the remotely-selectable presets are a great feature if you're also using them for surround sound duties.

Posted on: 24 August 2016 by tonym

Correction! I meant nSubs, not nSats. Although the latter are pretty fine too!

Posted on: 24 August 2016 by Mark R

Use of two subs is dependent on application. There are several examples (as noted here) on use for stereo, with appropriate importance on placement. There are several proponents of multi-subs for home theatre use as well. For example: one for LFE, and then one, potentially, per speaker. A frequent recommendation is a sub on the centre, which can give very good results. 

I have recently switched my sub to the centre speaker, to great effect for my situation. An additional sub on the stereo pair could be useful, but I'm currently "making do" with full range speakers. 

-Mark

Posted on: 26 August 2016 by Consciousmess

How do you set the sub for the centre speaker, Mark?

Posted on: 27 August 2016 by Mark R

Hi Consciousmess,

Do you mean the connection or setting on the sub for centre? I take a high-level connection from the centre speaker terminals to a sub input. I adjusted the input gain as required using familiar material for reference. 

-Mark

Posted on: 27 August 2016 by Consciousmess

Ah I see!  That is a good idea - I forgot the sub can be connected this way.

So by logic, in theory, one could connect 5 subs in a 5.5 system?

I am not sure I'd make a great impression of myself on my new neighbours!!

Posted on: 28 August 2016 by Mark R

Yes, you could add a sub per speaker. But don't forget LFE in a theatre setting. If so inclined you could optimize on one nSub per speaker and daisy chain LFE to multiple nSubs. Start with six (to support five speakers and independent LFE) and go from there

I wonder how many Naim tested, back when assessing full n-System optimization ...

-Mark