Wilson Audio WATCH Center Series 3 - Manual (Page 32)

Section 5.2—Left and Right Channels
Determining Front to Back Distance
The proper setup of the left and right channels is crucial for optimum system perfor-
mance. If these speakers are not set up correctly, the entire system will suffer from poor
integration. Please follow these steps carefully:
• Place the speaker in an appropriate location relative to your screen and lis-
tening area. Make certain to remove the grills and spikes.
• Toe the speakers in so that you can just barely see the inside edge when
seated in the primary listening position.
• Using removable masking tape, graph off the floor so that you can accurate-
ly move both speakers forward and backward in 1/2 inch increments.
• Place your multi-channel processor into stereo mode.
• Using a piece of full range music (dynamic with a lot of low frequency in-
formation) played at a moderately high level, take notes on the sound qual-
ity. Pay specific attention to upper and lower bass quality, dynamic con-
trasts, image height, and focus.
• Move the speakers back or forward in 1 inch increments and then 1/2 inch
increments.
Note: Moving the speakers BACK will generally increase low bass, sharpen focus,
lower image height, and increase dynamics up to the point where you go too far,
in which case the sound will start to lose these qualities in addition to becoming
boomy and slow sounding. Moving the speakers FORWARD will increase air and
bloom, raise image height, and generally increase the sense of space. Moving too
far forward will cause the soundstage to become unnaturally high with a lack of
focus, dynamics, and low-end extension.
• Find the front to back location where the bass is tight, dynamics are cor-
rect, image is well-focused, and you find the best soundstaging. Mark this
as your final front to back location.
Determining Side to Side Distance
The distance the speakers are from the side walls is very important. This distance de-
termines the amount of comb filtering you will hear. In effect, you are “tuning” the comb
filter interaction between the speaker and the wall. Perform the side to side analysis as
follows:
• Place a piece of tape on the floor parallel to the front edge of the speaker
and again mark off 1/2 inch increments side to side.
• Using only one channel/speaker at a time, now determine the optimum po-
sition with regard to side walls.
Note: A high quality, solo piano recording works well for this step.
• While music is playing, slowly move the speakers left or right 1 inch then
1/2 inch at a time until you achieve the best harmonic integrity.
You should not need to move the speaker any more than one inch left or right from
the original location. Do this independently for each channel. What you will hear when the
speaker moves into the correct location is a reduction of hardness and muddied harmonics
from the piano.
Note: If you continue moving the speaker past this point, you will begin to hear again
this fatiguing artifact.
When you have determined the optimum location for each speaker, mark it carefully,
and make certain the toe-in is correct. When installing the spikes, the speakers may shift
slightly, but you can move them precisely back to the correct location again using your
tape markers.
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5 . 2 — L
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W i l s o n A u d i o S p e c i a l t i e s W i l s o n A u d i o S p e c i a l t i e s