MartinLogan Sequel II - Manual (Page 18)

Page 18 Sequel II User's Manual
Listening P Listening P Listening P Listening P Listening Position osition osition osition osition
By now your speakers should be placed approximately 2
to 3 feet from the front wall (wall in front of the listening
position) and at least 1 to 2 feet from the side walls. Your
sitting distance should be further than the distance
between the speakers themselves. What you are trying to
attain is the impression of good center imaging and
stage width.
There is no exact distance between speakers and
listener, but there is a relationship. In long rooms, natu-
rally, that relationship changes. The distance between
the speakers will be far less than the distance from you to
the speaker system. However, in a wide room you will still
find that if the distance from the listener to the speakers
becomes smaller than the distance between the speak-
ers themselves, the image will no longer focus in the
center.
Now that you have positioned your speaker system,
spend some time listening. Wait to make any major
changes in your initial set-up for the next few days as the
speaker system itself will change subtly in its sound. Over
the first 20 hours of play the actual tonal quality will
change slightly with deeper bass and more spacious
highs resulting.
After a few days of listening you can begin to make
refinements and hear the differences of those refinements.
The W The W The W The W The Wall Behind the Listener all Behind the Listener all Behind the Listener all Behind the Listener all Behind the Listener
Near-field reflections can also occur from your back wall
(the wall behind the listening position). If your listening
position is close to the back wall, these reflections can
cause problems and confuse the quality of imaging.
Actually it is better for the wall behind you to be soft than
to be bright. If you have a hard back wall and your
listening position is close to it, experiment with devices
that will soften and absorb information (i.e. wall hang-
ings and possibly even sound absorbing panels).
The W The W The W The W The Wall Behind the Speak all Behind the Speak all Behind the Speak all Behind the Speak all Behind the Speakers ers ers ers ers
The front wall (the wall behind your speakers), should not
be extremely hard or soft. For instance, a pane of glass
will cause reflections, brightness, and confused imaging.
Curtains, drapery and objects such as bookshelving can
be placed along the wall to tame an extremely hard
surface. A standard sheet rock or textured wall is gener-
ally an adequate surface if the rest of the room is not too
bright and hard.
Sometimes walls can be too soft. If the entire front wall
consists of only heavy drapery, your system can literally
sound too soft or dull. You may hear dull, muted music
with little ambience. Harder room surfaces will actually
help in this case.
The front surface should, optimally, be one long wall
without any doors or openings. If you have openings, the
reflection and bass characteristics from one channel to
the other can be different.
The Side W The Side W The Side W The Side W The Side Walls alls alls alls alls
The same requirements exist for side walls. Additionally, a
good rule of thumb is to have the side walls as far away
from the speaker sides as possible, minimizing near field
side wall reflections. Sometimes, if the system is bright or
the imaging is not to your liking, and the side walls are
very near, try putting curtains or softening material
directly to the edge of each speaker. An ideal side wall,
however, is no side wall at all.
Placement