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Mutter, mutter, mutter! 
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By week end you'll have a red forehead and a big headache?
I got both just from today! 
Bad wire on protoboard, was working then changed platforms and stopped working, and then when I replaced it the circuit started working but ohmed out the cable and it tested good??? I hate it when that happens!
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It often helps to ask the duck[^].
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Mmm...heard a similar story involving a Teddy Bear Often you know the answer or a way to work it out it just helps to say it a different way!
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I've a question about the subwoofer that came with my home theater system (Samsung HT-F5500W). Based on where the feet on it are, it is designed to be laid such that the speaker faces to the side. I know I can physically do it, but what would be the drawbacks on laying it such that the speaker faces up? Damage the electronics? Not hear the thump, thump, thumps as well?
Thank you.
- DC
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles
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Does the subwoofer has feet (rubber or other types) ? if so, placing it in a different position might cause additional vibrations since it will not be cushioned.
I'd buy some sticky rubber feet and stick them on the side that will be on the floor.
As for the sound, it will be less loud and less clearer.
I'd rather be phishing!
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Grasping at straws, but the cone/coils will be pushing against gravity. In theory this'll change the waveform generated? Don't know if the difference will be perceptible.
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Speakers are constructed in a manner such that they don't care which direction the cone points. Most people really don't "hear" a subwoofer anyway, but rather feel the vast (as compared to mid-range & tweeter speakers) amount of air that the sub woofer moves.
Speakers respond to their enclosures, vents etc. according to something called the Thiele/Small equations. See Wikipedia under Thiele/Small.
When I built my stereo system years ago, I had access to the engineers at Electro Voice. I got a 18" subwoofer and built a stand-alone cabinet according to the equations. It wound up at approximately 2' x 2' x 4'. It has its own dedicated 500 watt amplifier and if I play Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean" and stand next to the speaker, my pants legs move on the downbeat.
Bottom line is that you aren't going to hear or feel the difference. If the base seems a little lacking, turn it up until it sounds like you want it to sound.
Barry
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BarryPearlman wrote: Speakers are constructed in a manner such that they don't care which direction the cone points
Correct, in the older cars the speakers were in the back ?shelf? (forgot what it's called) and pointing up.
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I seem to recall it was a parcel shelf, though anyone daft enough to put parcels on it was asking for trouble. This was a time when seat backs stopped at shoulder level (and no seat belts in the back (UK)). The number of injuries from rear seat passengers and parcels striking the driver was quite high as I remember.
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I guess largely correct. The sound of sub-woofers designed to have the cone pointed downwards towards the floor can be affected as the space between the floor and cone acts like a short transmission line or have some other kind of acoustic effect.
Please correct if I am totally wrong in my assumption.
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BarryPearlman wrote: if I play Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean" and stand next to the speaker, my pants legs move on the downbeat.
That is a mental picture I really didn't need. 
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You aren't grasping straws[^].
A "up" mounted subwoofer will not only have the rest position moved downward, also, the suspension - basically rubber and resined paper - will "learn" the new position, so that bringing it into "front" position will take while to forget this.
In principle, this shift can be a major source of additional distortion.
Wether this matters dependes on the particular sub woofer. Car aftermarked subwoofers are often built with a long "overhang coil" (the coil is longer than the magnetic gap), which means rest psoition doesn't matter much - but it takes more power and onset of distortion is more abrupt.
In a short coil configuration, a change in rest position is indeed a major thing (and it's indeed a major thing for us to be able to detect such a shift in a 200ms end of line test).
Even then, many "home entertainment" subwoofers are built to basically repoduce a single frequency to get good "whoomp". If you have a "whoomp" woofer with a decent crossover - i.e. the woofer doesn't "see" the higher frequencies - there's little that could be noticed. Good enough for hip hop, sucks for Bach.
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Ah peterchen. At last someone who agrees that sub woofers are dreadful for decent music. Whatever happened to the obsession for flat frequenct responses?
I may not last forever but the mess I leave behind certainly will.
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I may not last forever but the mess I leave behind certainly will.
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The position you suggest woould probably result in a weaker or thinner bass signal. The other issue with facing open faced speaker upward is that it will collect dust, that too will color the sound.
Everything you wanted to know (and more) about subwoofer placement by people who know what they're doing. Polk Audio[^]
It was broke, so I fixed it.
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Holy cow! That's a very "deep" article. I definitely fall into the "stick your sub in the corner, turn up all the knobs and have fun...If you have low tolerance for moving speakers and twiddling with your audio gear, quit reading now." category.
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles
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Subwoofers often have their speaker(s) on the side because that way they use the percieved least space.
They normally don't point upward because if you get dirt on the cones it will rattle in a very disturbing way.
Exceptions exist of course. Usually for design reasons, Scandyna BassStation[^] (the bongo drum) comes to mind.
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With everybody majoring on the speaker cone, can I ask about the electronics
I have seen subs with the amp in the back and if this is one of those then the heatsink will be on the floor and receive less cooling potentially leading to failure
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Does your woofer take in power? If Yes - You will inadvertently hurt the cooling of the Amps inside by altering the orientation. There may not be any problem in the short term but it will surely reduce the life of the electronics inside.
From an electronics engineer 
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I've read somewhere that human ears can pinpoint direction of sounds only above certain frequency, so just considering the sound it shouldn't matter.
However this is the first time I have seen Samsung and audiophile in the same paragraph.
modified 20-Oct-19 21:02pm.
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I thought that I read somewhere that you need a mix of frequencies to determine direction.
It's the reason that emergency vehicles started mixing white noise into their sirens.
Single frequencies are hard to position because the the ear uses some kind of frequency attenuation profile to determine direction. I seem to remember that it also has something to do with our ear lobes and these effect that they have on frequency response so you can tell if something is in front or behind.
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I came to the conclusion a good while ago that advice from audiophiles or home theater enthusiasts (I count myself among these, even chased the THX dragon for a while) is largely religious in nature. After many years and much discovery I have come up with a solution that absolutely works for everyone. Throw away the science. A true audiophile will balk at this because no one wants to admit their time might have been wasted. We all have basically the same auditory senses in various states of disrepair. That's why this works for everyone and there is absolutely no argument against it: 1) position your speaker one way. 2) Listen. 3) Position it another way. 4) Listen. 5) Place the speaker in the position that sounded better. Repeat as necessary.
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Subwoofers, especially larger ones like 10", 12" or 15" produce waveforms that are long and not very directional. They also work better when they push "against" something that can transfer some of that kenetic energy.
In most home theater setups, if the sub-box is setup with a side firing cone, the best placement would be to position the sub so that the cone faces a wall in the room. There are some high end subs that have 2 side firing cones, and in those cases, they are positioned at a 90deg angle to each other and meant to be positioned in the corer of a room, with the cones facing the 2 adjoining walls. However Most subs that I've used/seen have down firing cones, which point toward the floor to help transfer and enhance the low frequencies they emit.
The reason this is the case, is that some of the lower freq. that subs give off (ie: <30Hz) are nearing sub-audible to the human ear, and are more transmissive frequencies, and having them transmit those lower freq. to the structure of the house helps you "feel" the bass, that your ear may not hear as well. Our brains are used to feeling lower freqs. as much as or more than hearing them.
I wouldn't point it up, you won't harm anything, but I think you will get less bass response from it in that orientation, as you would be minimizing the transmissive properties of the low freqs. Instead, rotate it to point down. You would probably have to put small feet on it, as you have to keep in mind that the cone can move as much as 2" of travel depending on the freq. and volume and cone design, so you don't want the speaker cone to be bottoming out hitting the floor. You need a gap to prevent this, which is why down firing subs have 1" or so high feet on them so they don't rest directly on the floor.
If it's a smaller sub, like a 6" or 8" cone, the frequencies produced are not as low, and these effects are lower.
-jason
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