Please critique my speaker setup...

As you can see, I have the Bose Companion 3 sound system with the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS notebook sound card. My question is where should I put the subwoofer? I don't feel like I'm getting very good performance out of it. Should the speaker face the wall?

Any suggestions are appreciated. Thank you.

Ben

 

If the room is upstairs and people are often downstaits, I doubt they'd be too pleased with that subwoofer on the floor. I've not had much experience with Bose speakers, and to be honest they look a little overpriced, but if possible, I'd move them more to the sides and have the subwoofer behind you. If not possible to have the subwoofer behind you, make sure that the frequencies it plays at are lower - having it to the sides with it playing at the highest frequencies possible and at a moderately loud volume will not sound good.

By the way, could you take some more photos of that Dell laptop (what is it, a 630m, 6000, 6400 (these are the UK names) or something else?)

I'm very interested in buying an aesthetically similar Inspiron notebook and have yet to encounter any really good pictures.

 

How do I make sure the frequencies it plays are lower? And yes, it does sound horrible when played loudly but AMAZING when played at a lower to moderate volume.

Here are some pictures of my Inspiron 6000. Amazing computer, I'm incredibly happy with it, but I don't think they are making it anymore as it is off of their website.

 

Well, with my HT system I have the subwoofer between the wall and entertainment center, this creates a "box" around the woofer, which makes the bass have more rumble. If the wall is solid I would place it near the wall and block from another side by the desk or something like that.

Just my $.02

 

I agree with USAFdude02 on surrounding the sub with some objects, but as I have read (I forget) somewhere before, subwoofer positioning doesn't really matter much because you feel the bass more so than hearing it.

I would put it somewhere out of the way so it doesn't get damaged or mess with any other electronic devices. Keep it away from the computer tower or laptop as heavy bass wouldn't be welcomed by your moving parts.

My friend has had his home audio system's cd player skip from heavy bass, LOL. After this and possibly damaging his cd player he moved the sub away from his theatre system.

This shouldn't be a problem if you have it near audio systems, but my friend, being the idiot he is, had his cdplayer ontop of the subwoofer, as his subwoofer is kinda long, so he placed it sideways so he could place his audio system on top. DUH

 

There will either be a control panel on the back with sockets, volume, equaliser and frequency response (or something similarly-named) or a piece of software on your PC. It's possible that it may be one of those auto-adjust things, but I've never seen those apart from on the extremely cheap ones.

Thanks very much for the Inspiron 6000 pictures .

 

try to fit under the desk drawers it might fit...I dont know if it would sound better but it would give more space
but with your audigy 2 zs you prob already can bring the bass up really high with equalizer and other things

......I never knew the bose speakers are THAT small

 

Depends on the box. Many Bose units are ported. In that case, you want the port facing the wall...preferably a corner to maximize bass output. If it's a direct firing woofer, you definitely want it firing towards you, otherwise the bass will be "out of phase" from the regular speakers and be significantly diminished.

Read the documentation. Bose usually includes something that suggests how to orient the speakers.

 

You just can expect great sound quality at high volumes from such tiny speakers. The speakeks just cant move enough air.

As for the sub, try and set a crossover frequency, possibly on the soundcard at software, for when the left and right speakers cut off and the subwoofer does the work. This should be set around the bottom of the left and right speakers range.

 

tullnd great info, you must be an audiophile.