New Focal XS 2.1 for 100$ is It worth it ?

[Phonautograph]

3 hours ago, bgentry said:

There are several good reasons for subs to go on the floor.  Rattling/vibration/etc/ have been discussed.

 And what are the benefits of putting it on ear level ?

[rando]

On 8/25/2019 at 7:42 AM, bgentry said:

1.  Placing a sub up high induces a floor bounce reflection.

 

Near field, as in 3' from your nose, which these speakers are makes this concern invalid.  Placing the sub under a desk pointed at your feet induces a lot worse than floor reflection.  Which in this use case was still better than on top of a less than ideally suited desk.  On something solid and properly isolated all three speakers at ear level does sound better... usually. 

 

On 8/25/2019 at 7:42 AM, bgentry said:

2.  Many subwoofers have response that goes much higher than you would expect.  This is why you can hear the lower part of voices and things when you play a subwoofer all by itself.  If the sub is at (or near) ear level, you tend to hear these higher frequencies.

 

Which is why a decent powered 2.1 nearfield system properly crossed over minimizes unwanted "effects."  For approximately $100 on final sale he probably did fairly well as far as these types of speakers go in that regard.  A lot is being asked of speakers so small and nothing at this level comes close to what is possible in say a $2K passive system with standmounts.

 

He seems happy with them and that was all that mattered.  

[bgentry]

5 hours ago, rando said:

 

Near field, as in 3' from your nose, which these speakers are makes this concern invalid. 

 

Your listening distance will necessarily change the full path length of reflections.  Nearfield is tough for subs because you can end up with the sub closer to the center of the room than the boundaries.  Which means that you necessarily will experience destructive interference from reflections off of the boundary walls.  I guess if you want to do this, putting your desk against a wall and the sub very close to that wall should yield the best results, generally speaking.

 

My nearfield setup has the sub facing a rear wall, with me sitting a few feet off of that wall, and my desk almost in the middle of the room.  In my case, placing the sub under *or* on the desk would probably be pretty awful.  As it is now, the bass response is quite good. 

 

I wasn't trying to argue about this specific setup (the Focal 2.1 system).  I was speaking about sub placement in general and the idea that high placed subs are usually a bad idea.

 

The details are super important.  Placement is probably 80% of sub "tuning".

 

Brian.