MartinLogan Monolith III user manual General Placement, Back Wall, Front Wall, Side Walls

Placement

General Placement

Start by making certain that both speakers are the same distance from the walls behind or beside them and that their “toe-in” angle is the same. At this time you may want to enlist the help of a friend or family member to assist you.

It is generally true that, as you move your speakers farther forward into the listening environment, you will derive more spaciousness from them. Toeing them toward the middle of the listening area will enhance brightness.

As you place and listen, keep in mind that tight bass and clear resolution indicate proper placement and that the acoustical image is in focus. Don’t hesitate to experiment, but give each new combination of positions a thorough test. The time and effort you invest here will be well spent.

By now your speakers should be placed approximately 2 to 3 feet from the back wall and at least 1 to 2 feet from the side walls. Your sitting distance should be further than the distance between the speakers themselves. What you are trying to attain is the impression of good center imaging and stage width.

There is no exact distance between speakers and listener, but there is a relationship. In long rooms, naturally, that relationship changes. The distance between the speakers will be far less than the distance from you to the speaker system. However, in a wide room you will still find that if the distance from the listener to the speakers becomes smaller than the distance between the speakers themselves, the image will no longer focus in the center.

Now that you have positioned your speaker system, spend some time listening. Wait to make any major changes in your initial set-up for the next few days as the speaker system itself will change subtly in its sound. Over the first 20 hours of play the actual tonal quality will change slightly with deeper bass and more spacious highs resulting.

After a few days of listening you can begin to make refine- ments and hear the differences of those refinements.

The Back Wall

Near-field reflections can also occur from your back wall. If your listening position is close to a back wall, these reflec- tions can cause problems and confuse the quality of imaging. Actually it is better for the back wall to be soft than to be bright. If you have a hard back wall and your listening position is close to it, experiment with devices that will soften and absorb information, ie: wall hangings and possibly even sound absorbing panels.

The Front Wall

The wall behind your speakers should not be extremely hard or soft. For instance, a pane of glass will cause reflections, brightness, and confused imaging. Curtains, drapery, and objects such as bookshelving can be placed along the back wall to tame an extremely hard surface. A standard sheet rock or textured wall is generally an adequate back surface if the rest of the room is not too bright and hard.

Sometimes walls can be too soft. If the entire front wall consists of only heavy drapery, your system can literally sound too soft or dull. You will hear dull, muted music with little ambience. Harder room surfaces will actually help in this case.

The front surface should, optimally, be one long wall without any doors or openings. If you have openings, the reflection and bass characteristics from one channel to the other can be different.

The Side Walls

The same requirements exist for side walls. Additionally, a good rule of thumb is to have the side walls as far away from the speaker sides as possible, minimizing near field side wall reflections. Sometimes, if the system is bright or the imaging is not to your liking, and the sidewalls are very near, try putting curtains or softening material directly to the edge of each speaker. An ideal side wall, however, is no side wall at all.

Monolith III User's Manual Page21