Setup and Placement

Left/Right Speaker Placement

Place your CLX speakers so the curvilinear electrostatic transducer is orientated inside, towards the listening posi- tion (figure 3).

Listening Position

By now your speakers should be placed so the electrostatic panels are approximately four feet from the front wall (the wall in front of the listening position) and about two feet from the side walls. Your sitting distance should be fur- ther than the distance between the speakers themselves to achieve 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. In a wide room, you will still find that if the dis- tance 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 time listening. Wait to make any major changes in your initial setup for the next few days as the speaker system itself will change subtly in its sound. Over the first 100 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 refinements and hear the differences.

Figure .3.. Orientation of the left and right speakers.

The Wall Behind the Listener

Near-field reflections can occur from your back wall (the wall behind the listening position). If your listening posi- tion is close to the back wall, these reflections can confuse imaging quality. It is better for the wall behind you to be absorptive than to be reflective. If you have a hard back wall and your listening position is close to it, experiment with devices that will absorb information (i.e. wall hang- ings and possibly even sound absorbing panels).

The Wall Behind the Speakers

The front surface, the wall behind the speakers, should not be extremely hard or soft. A pane of glass will cause reflections, brightness and confused imaging. Curtains, drapery and objects such as bookshelves can be placed along the wall to diffuse an overly reflective surface. A standard smooth or textured wall is generally an adequate surface if the rest of the room is not too bright and hard. Walls can also be too soft. If the entire front wall consists of heavy drapery, your system may sound dull. You may hear muted music with little ambience. Harder surfaces will actually help in this case.

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

The Side Walls

MartinLogan’s unique controlled dispersion electrostatic transducer inherently minimizes side wall reflections—a position as little as two feet from the side walls often proves adequate. A good practice is to have the side walls as far away from the speaker sides as possible. Sometimes, if the system is bright or the imaging is not to your liking, and the side walls 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.

Experimentation

Toe-in—Now you can begin to experiment with the angle of your speakers. First begin by facing your speakers straight into the room and then by slightly angling them