Positioning of Subwoofer
I’m currently re-decorating the living room, and as chances are that one day or another I’ll have one of these movie-theatre things with a big subwoofer, I’d like to plan ahaid ! (woosh, first time ever !)
Would it be OK to place the subwoofer just below the ceiling rather than sitting on the floor somewhere ? Approx 20cm from the wall and 20cm below the ceiling. Would I locate it there, waves would be slightly directed to a wall covered with curtains.
I never tried placing subs other than the floor but maybe worth trying. but may I sugest that subs should be placed lower from the mid, high frequencies & surround speakers. for sub is where the beef comes from so should be placed under these speakers. But hey…! follow your ears.
Peace…
Er, bass frequencies are not perceived as being directional by the human ear, so you can put a sub woofer just about any where you want. As far as on or near the ceiling, there are rules as to how a low frequencies react in relation to the surfaces around it. Read this article for a good description as to how to avoid boundary cancellation and properly place a sub woofer. It has nothing to do with being below a mid or tweeter as Dean suggested. The reason you always see the woofer in the bottom of a speaker is because it is the heaveiest part of the speaker and if it were on the top, speakers would be top heavy and potentially fall over.
Once I ran across a set of directions for placing a subwoofer I found simple and reasonable. So, from my memory:
1. All of the speakers - including the subwoofer - should be at equal distance from the listening point.
2. With this in mind, place the subwoofer to your listening point and play some music (preferably with as much different bass notes as possible). Move around the room, listening. The place from where the low notes sound most balanced, is the best place to place the subwoofer.
- Mwah
Depending on the living room and furniture layout remember placing a speaker (the sub in this case) in a corner will give a ~6db increase in perceived output.
Obviously the speaker is placed facing out. 
Curt
read the article bubba, a very nice one! you really learn something new everyday…
Yeps - thanks a lot.
I’ll take the risk ! Maybe it’s time the will the lotery !
Ludo