Sub Alignment: L-Acoustics, d&b, NEXO, Coda, RCF, Funktion-One & dB Technologies

My most popular Facebook post from the last 4 months is this one where I simply point out that NEXO’s recommended subwoofer alignment method is the relative/absolute method. People were surprised.

If that fact surprises you then this is going to be a bombshell: L-Acoustics, d&b audiotechnik, Coda Audio, RCF, Funktion-One and dB Technologies all recommend the same sub alignment method.

I have published several articles discussing this method already, but here’s a quick refresher:

Create an alignment preset for two sources that are equidistant.
Modify that alignment in the field, using delay to equalize any distance offset.

With each of these manufacturer guides there are several commonalities:

Alignment is important. Of course they want you to get all of the decibels that you paid for.
If an audio analyzer is unavailable or inappropriate, use the relative/absolute method instead. Some people don’t own an audio analyzer, have not invested the years of practice to master its operation, or don’t have time to set it up. Some circumstances are not appropriate for an audio analyzer, like when the reflections in an arena make the data inactionable.

Interestingly, d&b would like you to start with their modeling software to find alignment, while L-Acoustics eliminates the possibility of LF alignment in their modeling software, preferring to provide you with explicit pre-alignment values in their documentation.

L-Acoustics

L-Acoustrics Prest Guide v18.0

What follows are pages and pages of pre-alignment delay values depending on which speakers you are attempting to combine. This is exactly what SubAligner does, except it is not limited to a single manufacturer.