Will an unused Sub in the room suck up bass?

sleepysurf said:
If you have acoustic measurement software (REW, XTZ, etc.) it should be fairly easy to test the hypothesis that extra unused speakers affect the sound.
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I would be VERY interested to see numbers on this, and the test preferably witnessed by myself in person. (I'm a master cynic, you know.)

I would expect tweeters and midranges to have no effect. Their sizes are just too small relative to the wall, floor and ceiling areas of the room. Large woofers and subs MIGHT affect the sound, but again, due to their relatively small surface area compared to the rest of the walls, floor and ceiling, I still think the effect would be very small.
 
Easiest thing to try is just bring in a small bookshelf speaker into your room, put it on the floor and see if you notice anything different.
 
I did have the one speaker sitting on top of the sub so more than likely being that close had more effect?
 
nCQ said:
The easiest way to mitigate the negative effects of non driven speakers in a room is to short the terminals; the back emf with literally put a brake on the cone's motion. FWIW
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How is it properly done and effective?

GaryProtein said:
I would be VERY interested to see numbers on this, and the test preferably witnessed by myself in person. (I'm a master cynic, you know.)

I would expect tweeters and midranges to have no effect. Their sizes are just too small relative to the wall, floor and ceiling areas of the room. Large woofers and subs MIGHT affect the sound, but again, due to their relatively small surface area compared to the rest of the walls, floor and ceiling, I still think the effect would be very small.
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Good data point Gary.

the professor said:
Easiest thing to try is just bring in a small bookshelf speaker into your room, put it on the floor and see if you notice anything different.
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Like Gary said, the larger the speaker (driver's size, like woofers) the bigger the difference. ...But measurements would be very interesting I must admit.
 
REW is free and a microphone can cost anywhere from $75 to a few thousand. Even a low cost microphone (75 to $200) will give eye opening information.
 
NorthStar said:
How is it properly done and effective?
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When I'd stored my unused Alon IVs on one side of the listening room, I found the bass to be subjectively changed, substantially. I simply made wire links that connected the woofer's + & - terminals. This minimized the bass anomalies. Soon I realized the soundstaging was hinkey. Shorting the midrange terminals fixed that issue. I assume the the midranges were resonating at certain frequencies, re-radiating sound and mucking up the soundstaging. I don't know if I detected any deleterious effects from the 'open'tweeters, but just to be safe, I shorted the Alon's tweeter terminals also.
The Alon's had 3 pairs of binding posts to allow tri-wiring. If I'd had the links that came with the speaker, connecting the bass, mid, and treble's + binding posts together as well as the same for the - terminals, I'd have only needed a single shorting link per speaker.

Regards,
Paul
Waveform Fidelity / Kaplan Cable
 
Shorting the terminals works as mentioned above......I have 5 pairs of speakers off to the side and its significant when there not shorted. I made a bunch from using electrical fork connectors and 16 gauge wire, they slip on and off easy.
 
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