MartinLogan Monolith III - Manual (Page 15)

Page15 Monolith III User's Manual
+4dB
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40 Hz
30 Hz 50 Hz
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f r e q u e n c y b o o s t / c u t
Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6: MONOLITH IIIx CROSSOVER Bass Contour controls.
room equalizer, designed to neutral-
ize the specific problem areas of your
room, thus helping you optimize the
performance of the
MONOLITH III.
Tuning Your Room Tuning Your Room Tuning Your Room Tuning Your Room Tuning Your Room
One of the best ways to assess how
your room is affecting your system's
performance is by doing a 1/3 octave
analysis of your room. These devices,
called 1/3 octave analyzers, may be
obtained or rented from your dealer.
Some dealers can even provide you
with this analysis. The information
gained by this analysis will help you
establish the proper control settings
for your
MONOLITH IIIx CROSSOVER,
thus allowing you to bring your
system back to “flat” for optimal
system performance.
If a real-time analyzer is not available,
a simple sine-wave generator and
your ears may be used. By attaching
the sine-wave generator to your
system and slowly and consistently
sweeping from 100 Hz to 20 Hz and
back again, and listening in different
places in your room for what we call
room nodes, or depressions, you can
hear where the room either empha-
sizes certain bass frequencies or
cancels them. If you set the
frequency
control of the crossover to the same
frequency as that of the "worst
offender", and adjust the
boost/cut
control to its appropriate position
(either up to cancel a void or down to
cancel a peak), you should begin to
establish a smooth progression from
lows to highs. Your goal here is to
have no lumps or recessions
throughout the low frequency sweep.
If neither a real-time analyzer nor a
sine-wave generator are available, put
on your favorite musical cut with
“moving bass” (bass information that
moves up and down the scale). Listen
carefully to this cut once or twice and
note whether the progression of bass
is smooth throughout the musical
spectrum. If it is smooth and extended
without any noticeable absences or
increases of music at each note, then
you have an optimal sound with no
need to adjust the crossover controls.
However, if you note an absence or
increase of energy at a specific area,
adjust your
frequency control to that
frequency and boost or cut progres-
sively depending on whether you want
more bass or less bass. Here,
experimentation will be the factor.
Inevitably, this is the final experiment.
Even after using a sine-wave genera-
tor or real-time analyzer you will want
to listen and fine-tune your system
with real music using your ears.
Remember, what we often perceive
as deep bass actually occurs at 40 to
50 Hz. Energy below 30 Hz is virtually
inaudible. You may sense it and feel it
as pressurization and movement in
your body, but you don’t really hear it.
So, when you are experiencing bass
energy, you will probably want to set
your controls in the 30 to 50 Hz range
and adjust them accordingly.