Why Do Subwoofers Like Rectangular Rooms?
There are a lot of suggestions and recommendations out there for how to set up subwoofers in a rectangular room. Heck, all of the scientifically based subwoofer setup articles (including ours) only work in rectangular (and enclosed) rooms. Why do subwoofers work best in rectangular rooms? Let’s discuss!
Why A Rectangle?
Before we begin, we have to answer the question about the shape. Why do all guides on placing subwoofers insist that your room be a rectangle? The simple fact is that most rooms ARE rectangles. Or at least are a number of overlapping rectangles. If you look at the blueprint of a house, most of the rooms would either be described as rectangular or square. Walls that are straight are easier and cheaper to build. So most rooms are rectangles.
If most rooms have a rectangular shape, it makes sense that most research into placing subwoofers would focus on rooms that are that shape. It will give guidance to the highest number of rooms. In addition, research has found that the dimensions of the rectangle (from square to highly narrow) won’t substantively change the recommendations. This means that the guidance for one rectangle will work for all rectangles. The best “bang-for-your-buck” research results if you will.
Non-Rectangular Rooms Require Math
The problem with non-rectangular rooms is that they can be literally any shape. When we researched sound in rooms (specifically the very low bass that comes from subwoofers), we didn’t do much calculating. We aren’t plugging the dimensions into a computer and it spits out how the sound will bounce around the room. Instead, we’ve built a room, put a number of subwoofers in it, and taken a ton of measurements. Yes, there were some theories about how the sound waves would interact, but we didn’t know if we were correct until we did the test.
Non-rectangular rooms would require us to not only be able to accurately predict how the soundwaves would bounce off of all the walls but also how they’ll interact with each other. We can’t even do that with two parallel surfaces! All the research we’ve done would have to be redone with every other room shape. Clearly, that’s not feasible or cost-effective.
Subwoofers Don’t Technically Like Rectangular Rooms
It isn’t that bass somehow likes being in a rectangular room. It is simply that we have the most information on how to predict how bass will act in that shape versus the others. Chances are, we’ll never be able to accurately predict where the best place to put your subwoofers will be in your non-rectangular room. There are too many variables. Not only will we need an accurate description of your room but also a ton of other data. The makeup of your walls, the placement of furniture, the absorption coefficients of all the surfaces in your room, and lots of other things.
Instead, we will continue to use in-room measurements for room correction. Currently, this will attempt to adjust the output and EQ of your subwoofers to give you the best bass performance. In the future, it may be able to help you move your subwoofers around the room to optimize performance. To get the best performance out of your room correction, check out our handy guide.
