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13
YOUR ROOM
This is one of those areas that requires both a little
background to understand and some time and
experimentation to obtain the best performance
from your system.
Your room is actually a component and an important
part of your system. It can dramatically add to, or
subtract from, a great musical experience.
All sound is composed of waves. Each note
has its own wave size, with the lower bass
notes literally encompassing from 10’ feet to as
much as 40’ feet. Your room participates in this
wave experience like a three dimensional pool
with waves reflecting and becoming enhanced
depending on the size of the room and the types
of surfaces in the room. Remember, your audio
system can literally generate all of the information
required to recreate a musical event in time,
space, and tonal balance. Ideally, your room
should not contribute to that information. However,
every room does contribute to the sound to some
degree. Fortunately MartinLogan had designed the
EM-ESL X to minimize these anomalies.
TERMINOLOGY
Standing Waves
The parallel walls in your room will reinforce
certain notes to the point that they will sound louder
than the rest of the audio spectrum and cause “one
note bass”, “boomy bass” or “bloated bass”. For
instance, 100Hz represents a 10 feet wavelength.
Your room will reinforce that specific frequency if
one of the dominant dimensions is 10 feet. Large
objects in the room such as cabinetry or furniture
can help to minimize this potential problem. Some
serious “audiophiles” will literally build a special
room with no parallel walls just to help eliminate
this phenomenon.
Reflective Surfaces (near-field reflections)
The hard surfaces of your room, particularly if close
to your speaker system, will reflect some waves
back into the room over and over again, confusing
the clarity and imaging of your system. The smaller
sound waves are mostly affected here, and occur in
the mid and high frequencies. This is where voice
and frequencies as high as the cymbals occur.
Resonant Surfaces and Objects
All of the surfaces and objects in your room are
subject to the frequencies generated by your
system. Much like an instrument, they will vibrate
and “carry on” in syncopation with the music, and
contribute in a negative way to the music. Ringing,
boominess, and even brightness can occur simply
because they are “singing along” with your music.
Resonant Cavities
Small alcoves or closet type areas in your room can
be chambers that create their own “standing waves”
and can drum their own “one note” sounds.
Clap your hands. Can you hear an instant echo
respond back? You have near-field reflections.
Stomp your foot. Can you hear a “boom”? You
have standing waves or large panel resonances
such as a poorly supported wall. Put your head in a
small cavity area and talk loudly. Hear a booming?
You’ve just experienced a cavity resonance.
RULES OF THUMB
Hard vs. Soft Surfaces
If the front or back wall of your listening room
is soft, it might benefit you to have a hard or
reflective wall in opposition. The ceiling and floor
should follow the same basic guideline as well.
However, the side walls should be roughly the
same in order to deliver a focused image.
room acoustIcs
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