MartinLogan Speaker - Manual (Page 15)

Room Acoustics 1
Terminology
This is an area that requires both a little background to
understand and some time and experimentation to attain
the best performance from your system .
Your room is actually a component and an important part
of your system . This component is a large variable and can
dramatically add to or subtract from a great sonic experience .
All sound is composed of waves . Each frequency has its
own wave size, with the lower, or bass frequencies literally
encompassing from 10 feet to as much as 40 feet . Your
room participates in this wave experience like a swimming
pool with waves reflecting and becoming enhanced depend-
ing on the size and shape of the room and the types of
surfaces in the room .
Remember that your audio system can actually generate
all of the information required to recreate a sonic event in
time, space, and tonal balance . Acoustically, the role of
an ideal room would be to neither delete nor contribute
to that information . However, nearly every room does to
some degree .
Standing .Waves
Sound coming from a speaker bounces around in a room
until a pattern emerges—this is called a standing wave .
Typically, this is only a problem with frequencies below
100Hz . When this happens different parts of your room
experience either an excess or a lack of bass .
Some people believe that having a room without parallel
walls will eliminate this effect . The truth is that non-parallel
walls only generate different standing wave patterns than
those that occur in rectangular rooms .
Usually, you can excite most of the standing waves in a
room by putting the Abyss in a corner . Listening position
determines which standing waves you will experience .
For instance, if you sit in a corner you will hear most of
the standing waves . This can be an overpowering experi-
ence . Sitting next to a wall can also intensify the levels of the
standing waves that are experienced .
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 may contribute in a negative way to
the sound . Ringing, boominess, and even brightness can
occur simply because surfaces and objects are "singing
along" with your speakers .
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 .
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CoustICs
Your Room