Subwoofer and room size

[a_mattison]

I am guessing there is an obvious answer to this question, but I have found out that some of my other HT assumptions havent been right.......

Right now I have a Velodyne CHT-120 for my home theater which currenty is in my living room. I have an open floor plan with about a 700 square feet footprint and 8 foot ceilings. Toward the side of the room opposite to the living room, the foyer opens up into the second floor loft that is another 300 sq feet or so, plus all of the open space in the foyer.

I am going to move the HT to my basement (when I finally get the drywall hung), which will be roughly 400 sq feet finished with 7 1/2' ceiling.

This is probably too general a question, but based on cubic feet of the upstairs vs. the basement, should I see much of a change in subwoofer performance?

OH...and...one more day until I get my new receiver! still can't wait......

[michael_w]

It will probably change quite a bit. You'll might notice it's easier to fill the room and you don't have to make the sub work as hard. It's really difficult to predict how it will sound from one room to the next without actually seeing it or knowing where it's going.

I noticed a huge improvement moving my sub from downstairs into my room. I went from an open living room with open spaces to the whole downstairs to a 100 square foot sealed room ;) It could have been because there isn't anywhere to put the sub in a good spot downstairs, but I'm asuming the smaller room helped a lot.

[Zen Dragon]

It is likely your bass will be more present in the new space. With it being a smaller space without adjacent openings to other spaces.
Also basements also frequently have a concrete floor which provide a somewhat harder reflective surface than a wooden floor.

[Early B.]

Doesn't matter. You'll still need lots more sub to fill a 400 s.f. basement adequately.

[a_mattison]

Doesn't matter. You'll still need lots more sub to fill a 400 s.f. basement adequately.

Really?...Crap. I was looking forward to some kick ass bass. I haven't had any other sub in my system so don't know any different. Right now bass response in movies is pretty good (room shaking, even) in the listening positions although I have the sub output on the receiver turned up to +7 and the sub gain around 60%. Away from the couch and chairs toward the kitchen and foyer, though, bass drops off a bit.

[michael_w]

You have a large room but the cht-12 is a pretty decent sub. I'd give it a shot before coming to any conclusions. If you're happy with it now I'm sure it'll do just fine in a much smaller room.