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Pay attention padawans in search of high-quality bass. Gather yourself some milk crates, a roll of white gaffer tape, and some knee pads. And, of course, a subwoofer. Because we’re going to tell you where to stick it.

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Asubwoofer is a very important weapon in an audiophile’s armoury in the pursuit of perfect sound. And yes — note we said ‘audiophile’ there, not home cinema fan. Subwoofers are, of course, an essential in a movie context — that ‘.1’ bass channel in a 5.1 or 7.1 or 9.1.4-channel home cinema isn’t going to reproduce itself. But subwoofers should not be discounted for use with stereo hi-fi loudspeakers either —in fact there are a great many hi-fi lovers who wouldn’t dream of listening without one. Nor are they just for filling in below the performance of small bookshelf speakers, though that’s probably their most common two-channel use. Because despite what their specifications might say, and their manufacturers might claim, very few hi-fi loudspeakers — even the largest floorstanding models — can reproduce the deepest musical frequencies at appropriate volume levels.

To do this requires a properly-tuned subwoofer: one where the volume, crossover frequency and phase controls have been set in such a way that the subwoofer’s output integrates perfectly with that of the main stereo or front/main loudspeakers. And aye, there’s the rub. Integration is the hard part.

So are we going to talk about all the controls on the back? No we’re not. Not this time, anyway. Partly because many of the best-selling subwoofers these days don’t have any — they’re wireless subs that go with soundbars or multiroom systems and at best you might get a few sliders somewhere in a control app, at worst no way to calibrate them at all. But mainly because there’s one thing which applies to every subwoofer — whether controls be absent or fiendishly complex. And that thing, the first step to solid bass, is where you stick it. So we’re going to tell you where to stick it.

Positioning

There is much nonsense published about positioning a subwoofer, the most egregious of which is the advice that you should not place one in a corner. This advice is wrong… very wrong, because sometimes a corner is one of the very best places you can put a subwoofer! However, you most definitely should not place full-range loudspeakers in corners (either the left or right channel speakers in a hi-fi system, or the front-left and front-right speakers if it’s a multi-channel speaker system) unless that speaker has been specifically designed for corner-mounting (and there have been some full-range loudspeakers made by Klipsch and Allison that were specifically designed for corner-mounting).

The best way to work out the ideal position for your subwoofer is to place the subwoofer where your head would normally be when you’re listening to music (and/or watching the screen). This may mean some creative use of stacked milk crates and/or furniture items, and the temporary moving-aside of the seat or couch you would normally be sitting on. Ensure things are stable — even chunky items like a subwoofer don’t take kindly to a two-metre fall. It sounds a fair bit of trouble, and it may be so. But it’s worth it.

Once the subwoofer is in place in this exact position, connect it to your system (you may need a long RCA phono-to-phono lead, which you can either buy or borrow from your friendly local audio store), after which you should start playing a music track with plenty of low bass. Turn up the volume of the subwoofer a little higher than normal, so you’ll be ready for the next step.

And the next step is to start crawling around the floor (and no, we’re not joking) with some white electrical tape in your hand. As you crawl around, you’ll hear the bass alternately get stronger and weaker… in fact at some points in the room the bass might be so weak that you will barely be able to hear it at all. Mark all the spots

where the sound is strong by sticking some white tape to the carpet. Once you have covered the entire floor area, your carpet should be littered with bits of white tape.

If you only ever listen to your system yourself, you can now move the subwoofer anywhere there’s a bit of tape, and this will be an ideal position for the room and your listening position. Since you’ll usually have a number of spots to choose from, choose the most convenient location, where the subwoofer will be the least conspicuous and the most out-of-the-way. Proximity to a power point would be another consideration. So long as the subwoofer is positioned over a bit of white tape, it will work well.

However, if you regularly listen or watch movies with another person, there is yet more work to be done. First physically move the subwoofer to where their head would usually be, shuffling your milk crates into position, and then repeat the entire ‘crawling around the floor’ process. But this time it will be faster, because you will only need to listen at the spots you have already taped. If the bass is still strong at one of these points, leave the tape on the floor. If the bass is now weak at this point, remove the tape.

When you’ve finished this second ‘crawl’ process, this time you will find that you can put the subwoofer anywhere there’s tape and be assured of getting ideal bass at your listening position, and pretty good bass at the secondary position. You’ll note this method slightly favours you, the experimenter with the milk crates doing the hard work. Don’t mention this to the other person, or they’ll moan forever, or try to steal your seat. And do not try to ‘compromise’ by putting the subwoofer anywhere there is not a piece of white tape!

In theory, you could continue this process for each person who could potentially be listening. But the availability of ‘good’ places will narrow once you’re past three people.

Calibration

Calibration, or tuning, is the art of getting your subwoofer to meld seamlessly with the response of your main speakers. You can try this by ear, with an eye also to the specifications and advice in your speaker and sub manuals, plus the advice (and perhaps help) of your friendly hi-fi dealer. And certainly having placed your subwoofer in the right position gives you a huge head start. But for the best possible accuracy, measuring equipment is required to correctly tune a subwoofer. Until recently this was prohibitively expensive. Now, thanks to the processing power inside any smartphone, it is possible to accurately calibrate a subwoofer with a smartphone running an A$10 app and a low-cost CD with appropriate test tones.

But that’s a story for another day — though if you simply can’t wait, head to our pages at whathifi.com/au and search for How to set up your subwoofer: our expert guide to room placement and controls; the second half details how to set the controls on the back using that $10 app. But if yours is a simple wireless sub, it’s the positioning that will deliver the best for you, along with simple level control. And the rule for that is to turn up the subwoofer until you can hear it and even identify where the bass is coming from. That means it’s too loud! Now turn it down again until it’s not obvious at all. You may now think it’s too quiet; you can’t hear it. But it will support your main speakers and allow them to do their job better. Enjoy the greater scale of sound with a subwoofer that’s correctly positioned, and correctly adjusted. As for subwoofer recommendations, just turn the page to see our subwoofer award-winners!

“You’ll note this method slightly favours you, the experimenter with the milk crates doing the hard work. Don’t mention this to the other person, or they’ll moan forever, or try to steal your seat.”