Avalon Acoustics Sentinel Room Treatment and System / Listener Position, Toe-In, Apex‘ Couplers

Room Treatment and System / Listener Position

Selecting the proper room and listener positions within your listening environment can dramatically improve system performance. The following points highlight the fundamental concepts in room treatment and positioning from the in-depth discussions in Chapter 9, Room Acoustics and Speaker Position (beginning on page 41) and in Chapter 10, Listener Position (page 55):

•Left to right room symmetry aids in producing a balanced sound stage.

•Image depth is enhanced when the distance to the rear wall is increased. This is normally easier to accomplish when the speakers are placed along the short wall of the listening room.

•The side wall and inter-speaker distances can be calculated using the 4 : 10 : 4 ratio.

•The most even bass response will be attained when the distances to the side and rear walls are not overly similar.

•A comfortable, centered listening position at a minimum distance of three meters from the system allows proper wave front convergence.

Toe-In

The exemplary horizontal polar response of the Sentinel Active Reference System makes large amounts of toe-in unnecessary. The optimum toe-in position is between two and three degrees. In situations where strong reflections from the side walls are a problem, pointing the speakers inward up to a maximum of five degrees can be helpful.

Apex‘ Couplers

Supplied with your Avalon Acoustics loudspeakers are twenty Apex‘ couplers, used to couple the speaker and crossover cabinets to the floor, thereby minimizing time-smearing resonance effects. The result is an increase in focus and solidity of the sonic images.

On hardwood floors, use a large coin, such as a quarter, to protect the floor from the pointed spike.

Refer to the set-up procedure in Chapter 3, System Set-up (beginning on page 15) for details of Apex‘ coupler installation.

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