Niles Audio AT5 - Manual (Page 19)

Speaker Phase
Speaker wire has two conductors. One
conductor is attached to the negative (-)
terminals and one conductor is attached to
the positive (+) terminals of both your
speaker and your amplifier. Usually, the
wire is marked for your convenience.
There are different ways wires are marked:
a stripe on one wire, a ribbed area of one
conductor you can only feel, different col-
ors of metal wire on each conductor, or
there might be a fabric strand or string
wound into one of the conductors. Of
course, there are some wires which appear
completely identical. Be careful, or you
might make a mistake.
If you make a mistake, one speaker will be
playing “out-of-phase” with the other
speaker. An out-of-phase pair of speakers
work against each other and the sound of
the two speakers playing together will be
lacking in bass and be “phasey” sounding.
If you suspect the sound is not right and
you cannot see any markings on the wire,
try this simple test:
1. Stand half way between the two speakers.
2. Play some music with the amplifier or
radio set to Mono.
3. Listen to the richness of the bass and the
loudness of the sound.
4. Turn off the amplifier and reverse the con-
nections on one amplifier channel only.
5. Repeat the listening test with the same
setting of the volume control. When the
sound has a richer bass and is slightly
louder the speakers are working together
or “in-phase”.
Adjusting the Bass and Treble Controls
The AT Advanced Technology loud-
speakers feature separate baffle-mounted
bass and treble controls for fine tuning
after installation. Each control provides
for approximately 3dB in steps of 1dB of
Bass or Treble reduction. This is useful if
the speakers are placed near boundaries
(Bass Cut) or in a room with highly
reflective surfaces like glass or tile.
(Treble Cut). (See Figure 18).
18
Ins
talla
tion
of
the Speak
er and Grille in Ne
w or Exis
ting Cons
tr
uc
tion
Figure 17
Figure 18