Gryphon Pendragon - Manual (Page 14)

A box in a Box
The differences between rooms are often bigger and more
profound than the differences between speakers. This is the
reason why a speaker with a great subjective review can di-
sappoint greatly when placed in another room. Often it is more
a test of how a certain speaker interacts with a certain room,
rather than the actual quality of the speaker.
In short, you listen to the combination of speaker and room.
In real life it is easier to buy a new speaker than to buy a new
room. Depending on the individual situation – is it a dedicated
sound room or is it a living room with other considerations to
take and respect – but acoustics can be greatly improved in
most rooms and can basically be divided into 2 directions –
absorption or diffusion.
a. Absorption is reducing the sound level at certain frequen-
cies.
b. Diffraction is scattering reflections and removing negative
effects of reflections from the walls that interfere with the di-
rect sound from the speaker system
At Gryphon we are biased towards diffusion as we find that ab-
sorption in its extreme is killing dynamics and live feeling and
is often pushing the system to hard because of the loos of
sound level. Damping may be required to control an excess of
energy in a certain frequency area,. Diffusion can not do that.
The Pendragon is a dipole speaker system where the mid-
range and tweeter panels is radiating sound forward and
backwards. Consequently it is interacting with the back wall
more than a box speaker.
It is not possible to give plug and play directions to any spea-
ker system,. A large degree is the individual – and often mi-
nute – adjustments of position of speaker and listening
position that is crucial for optimum performance.
In the following we will describe a starting- point set-up based
on our experience and it should only serve as a guideline.
Keep in mind that the set-up that sound right – is right.
As speakers run in,. minor adjustments may be required for
final set-up.
The bass is a huge challenge in set-up and reason for much
aggravation,. However, the Pendragon active woofer with its
adjustments to the room is making that part more easy.
In our reference room ( 60 sq m ) we do not have any damping
( absorption ) behind the speakers but some diffusion on this
and more on the rest of the walls. Often some damping on the
back wall may be the right solution – the live / dead end phi-
losophy – If ceiling is low, damping at first reflection is sugge-
sted. For a ultimate-take-no-prisoners- approach, the
traditional table in front of the listener should be avoided as it
can generate reflections just as the close ceeling.
The Pendragon may at first sight look very much as some of