Speaker Installation
20 M1 ACTIVE REFERENCE MANUAL
Playback check mode (vertical mid-field)After you’ve got your mix just right it’s always good practice to perform a “playback
check” by standing the M1 Actives vertically and making the listening triangle
larger. The purpose of the playback check is to simulate what your masterpiece will
sound like in a “typical” home listening environment. It is in this configuration that
the imaging specificity of your mix can best be evaluated. Generally, in the playback
check mode you want to arrange the speakers in the same equilateral listening
triangle that you do in a nearfield setup, but instead of each side of the triangle being
about 3 feet long, the distances between stereo speakers and to your listening
position should be between 7 and 12 feet.
When setting the left and right speakers vertically, place the tweeters toward the
center with the ports toward the outside. In this vertical position, the M1 Active
becomes a “line source” speaker which is the most common home set up. (A 12”
three-way with woofer on bottom, midrange in the center and tweeter at the top is a
line source, as are most forms of tower speakers.) When the M1 Active is set
vertically in its “column” configuration, the horizontal dispersion (left and right) of
the speaker is widest, and the vertical dispersion (up and down) is narrowest.
Unfortunately a vertical setup will also increase room effects, so there are minimum
recommended setup distances from side and back walls: the speakers should be a
minimum of 2.5 feet from the side walls and 3 feet from the rear walls. See the
illustration on page 26.
After you’ve got the requisite distances from the side and back walls, it’s often
helpful to adjust the 7 to 12 foot equilateral listening triangle distances. What you
want to find is the maximum distance that you can separate the two speakers while
still holding a solid center image. If you get this placement correct and you’ve done a
good job in the mix, you should be rewarded with a soundstage that accurately
places the musicians in the width and depth perspective in which they were
recorded. The sound should be very similar to what you heard at your mixing
board, with possibly a little more ambience contributed by the listening room.
The “other” playback check mode, sometimes considered of greater importance than
the home environment, is to listen to your mix over a car audio system. Bear in mind
that an expertly designed car audio system can approach the imaging and
soundstaging capabilities of an optimally setup studio or living room, but most times
this is NOT the case. The inherent limitations of an always-off-axis listening position
and the variables of speaker placement, bass coupling (boost) in the small interior
and numerous other factors make the car environment highly suspect. So,
understand the sonic capabilities (and deficiencies) of your (or other) car audio
systems, and evaluate your mix accordingly.