MartinLogan Odyssey Placement, Listening Position, The Wall Behind the Listener, The Side Walls

PLACEMENT

Listening Position

By now your speakers should be placed approximately two to three feet from the front wall, the wall in front of the listening position, and at least one to two 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 setup for the next few days as the speaker system itself will change subtly in its sound. Over the first 40 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 of those refinements.

The Wall Behind the Listener

Near-field reflections can also occur from your back wall (the wall behind the listening position). If your listening position is close to the back wall, these reflections can cause problems and confuse the quality of imaging. Actually it is better for the wall behind you 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 (i.e. wall hangings and possibly even sound absorbing panels).

The Wall Behind the Speakers

The front surface, 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 bookshelves can be placed along the wall to soften a hard surface. A standard

sheet rock or textured wall is generally an adequate 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 sound too soft or dull. You may 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 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. First begin by toeing your speakers in towards the listening area and then facing them straight into the room. You will notice that the tonal balance changes slightly. You will also notice the imaging changing. Generally it is found that the ideal listening position is with the speakers slightly toed-in so that you are listening to the inner third of the curved transducer section.

Experimenting with the toe-in will help in terms of tonal balance. You will notice that as the speakers are toed-out, the system becomes slightly brighter than when toed-in. This design gives you the flexibility to compensate for a soft or bright room.

Tilting the Speakers Backwards and Forwards

As can be seen from the diagrams in the Room Acoustics section of this manual, the vertical dispersion is directional above and below the stator panel itself. In some instances, if you are sitting close to the floor, slight forward tilting of the speakers can enhance clarity and precision.

8Placement