| Re: How seriously do you take room gain?
The massive variability in room architecture, the location of the sub, and the physical characterizes of the room construction, mean generalized statements regarding the amount of room gain obtained at a given frequency are fundamentally useless.
As a example, a new house with an open floor plan, with lots of windows and a vaulted ceiling, will have significantly different room gain characteristics compared to a older house with rectangular rooms, 8' ceilings, and minimal doors and windows.
This means there's no such thing as a "average" room, so generic recommendations to design a sub based on a expected amount of room gain isn't the best idea.
There are room acoustic modeling programs, CARA 2.0 and RPG Acoustics Room Optimizer are two such programs. Using a program like these is as integral to understanding how the room will operate as Unibox or WinISD are to designing the enclosure.
In the end there are usually two options, forget about room gain, design a sub based on the performance of the driver and live with whatever room gain you get. Or design the sub specifically for the driver, the room, and the location of the sub in the room.
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