Where Should I Put My Subwoofer?

The Science of Subwoofer Placement

Bass frequencies behave very differently from mids and highs. While a tweeter beams sound in a focused direction, a subwoofer radiates omnidirectionally — bass goes everywhere. That sounds like it should make placement easy, but the opposite is true. Because bass wavelengths are so long (a 40 Hz wave is about 28 feet long), they interact heavily with your room's walls, floor, and ceiling, creating "standing waves" — areas where bass is dramatically louder or quieter depending on where you sit.

When a subwoofer is placed in a corner, three room boundaries reinforce its output, giving you up to 9 dB of extra bass. That's a massive boost — roughly equivalent to doubling the sub's amplifier power three times over. But that boost isn't even across all frequencies, which is why corner placement often sounds "boomy" or "one-note." Moving the sub away from the corner trades some raw output for smoother, more even frequency response.

The ideal placement balances three factors: enough output to pressurize the room, smooth frequency response without big peaks or dips, and good integration with your main speakers so the bass doesn't sound disconnected from the rest of the music or soundtrack. For most people in a typical rectangular living room, that sweet spot is along the front wall, offset from the corner by about a quarter of the wall's length.

If you want to get precise, the "subwoofer crawl" technique is the gold standard. Place the sub at your listening position, play bass-heavy material, and literally crawl around the room at floor level. Where the bass sounds best is where the sub should live. It's free, it works, and it accounts for all the unique acoustic quirks of your specific room.

Once your sub is placed, check our Speaker Setup Guide to make sure the rest of your system is dialed in, and use the Receiver Power Guide to confirm your amp has enough headroom to drive everything cleanly.