Well you'll probably get as many suggstions as you get responses, if not more. For instance, I'm offering not one but two suggestions.
If you want to maximize the sense of spaciousness that subwoofers can give you, and if you're running them in stereo instead of dual mono mode, place one to the extreme right of the listening position and the other to the extreme left. This will maximize the interaural time delay between their two arrivals, and is the technique developed by David Griesinger of Lexicon. You can read his paper entitled "Loudspeaker and listener positions for optimal low-frequency spatial reproduction in listening rooms" here:
http://world.std.com/~griesngr/asa05.pdf
The second technique I recommend hasn't been formally written up to the best of my knowledge, but it's developer is physicist Earl Geddes. This technique aims to give the smoothest bass over the largest possible listening area. Basically, the idea is to maximally randomize the distances between each subwoofer and the room boundaries. For example, you might place one near the right corner but several feet up off the ground, and the other about 2/3 of the way back along the left wall at ground level. This spreads out the room interaction peaks and dips.
The second technique is the one I prefer, and it's what I use in my rooms. Very very few recordings have stereo content below 100 Hz or so, limiting the applicability of the Griesinger technique. I have also set up a subwoofer system using the Geddes technique in a modest private recording studio, and the artist is very pleased with the bass definition he can now hear.
Just to be fair, let me say that I did read a paper by someone at Harmon International that if I recall correctly advocated placing dual subwoofers symmetrically in the general vicinity of the main speakers.
The good news is, experimenting with these different placement techniques is inexpensive. You might want to purchase a dolly to save your back if you haven't already, but of course that's optional.
Duke
If you want to maximize the sense of spaciousness that subwoofers can give you, and if you're running them in stereo instead of dual mono mode, place one to the extreme right of the listening position and the other to the extreme left. This will maximize the interaural time delay between their two arrivals, and is the technique developed by David Griesinger of Lexicon. You can read his paper entitled "Loudspeaker and listener positions for optimal low-frequency spatial reproduction in listening rooms" here:
http://world.std.com/~griesngr/asa05.pdf
The second technique I recommend hasn't been formally written up to the best of my knowledge, but it's developer is physicist Earl Geddes. This technique aims to give the smoothest bass over the largest possible listening area. Basically, the idea is to maximally randomize the distances between each subwoofer and the room boundaries. For example, you might place one near the right corner but several feet up off the ground, and the other about 2/3 of the way back along the left wall at ground level. This spreads out the room interaction peaks and dips.
The second technique is the one I prefer, and it's what I use in my rooms. Very very few recordings have stereo content below 100 Hz or so, limiting the applicability of the Griesinger technique. I have also set up a subwoofer system using the Geddes technique in a modest private recording studio, and the artist is very pleased with the bass definition he can now hear.
Just to be fair, let me say that I did read a paper by someone at Harmon International that if I recall correctly advocated placing dual subwoofers symmetrically in the general vicinity of the main speakers.
The good news is, experimenting with these different placement techniques is inexpensive. You might want to purchase a dolly to save your back if you haven't already, but of course that's optional.
Duke