Bass speakers under the floorboards ?

Question

My house will soon be extended. It will be a detatched part of the house with no neighbours adjoining. I want to put some sub woofery under the new flooring so that when i have a house party i can hook up those speakers.

I know alot (or all) of the mid & high range sound will be lost but i just want sound that you can feel. What kind of wattage or type of speaker would do the job??

Answer 1

You can put a buttkicker under the floorboards. These are low frequency transducers that create the tangible feel of very low bass. They shake the floors and they are not too expensive. Couple this with a really good subwoofer or two and look out!

Answer 2

Try this link. I have installed "smart home" systems here in the US, and most use the in-floor powered subs. They are simply mounted between the floor joists, and use a small vent that resembles an A/C vent. Boston acoustics are the only ones I have ever used, but I am certain if you "google it" you'll find more brands to choose from.

http://www.mysimon.com/9566-7869_8-0.html?filter=501174_13380715_1000036_6732564_

These people also carry the Polk Audio woofers specially designed for in floor mounting. If you have never heard/felt the very low bass coming from everywhere in the room, you are in for a real treat! Usually we mount the mids and tweets in wall boxes strategically placed throughout the house, or room. I have even custom made some grills, to match the wall paper. The speakers are virtually invisible.

Answer 3

for fun check this out.... scroll down aways.
http://www.royaldevice.com/custom.htm

But more seriously, i would consider a electronic crossover system that runs a pair of amps. the crossover would take the signal and split it, bass to the floor and mids and highs to your "above ground" speakers. i would put multiple subs throughout the floor of a smaller size with a smaller part of the power going to each as apposed to one or two larger ones with alot of power. simply to avoid fatigues the building structure over time. ultimately the bass will be the same if not better because it will be better distributed. I would look at some car installations to get the concepts. they use the trunk alot like you want to use the floor.

PS yes you would need to vent them to the room (just like the link) and yes it would be costly, and i would recomend having a profesional do it. But certainly subs CAN be placed under the floor. for the speaker vents you could cap them with typical HVAC ( sealled to not rattle of course)and it would look very nice.

Answer 4

Very low bass is all about moving air - and bass can be moved through a vent if it isn't too long. I had a subwoofer enclosure in the trunk of an old car with a 3" thick "duct" with a grille on top and it sounded great. This allowed a huge 12" subwoofer with a somewhat smaller 8" grille.

There are many car subwoofers that have a bandpass design with a small vent where the sound goes out. Simply add a couple of extra "vent" slots to your floor during construction and use a very dense foam gasket to seal the subwoofer enclosures to the floor so the sound will pass through - it will sound like they are in the room with you.

Answer 5

Sounds like a pretty wicked idea. Won't really work though :(

The problem you will have is that any surface strong enough to support you, your friends, and your furniture will be too acoustically absorbent to transfer the bass in to the room.

There is one thing you can do... If you enjoy 4/4 dance music, you can fit a "bass ram", which will pound the sh1t out of your floor until it needs replacing. I went to a club once where the dancefloor bounced with the music.

Thing is, if you dance like I do (like a bloody lunatic!) then you hardly have your feet on the floor at all!

Otherwise, ignore my advice and get yourself a PA system of at least 2Kw power, stick the subs under the floor and the rest on top.

Answer 6

The best you can really do is in-wall subs.

If you put speakers - subs or whatever - behind ANYTHING (.i.e under the floor, behind the wall) - you will not really hear anyting except for sone noises. If you want to experiment - put speakers in the other room, close the door and listen. If you like what you hear - go ahead, make your day....