Speaker Placement

Introduction

Although the DS6.3, DS6.5 and DS6.7 have extensive ability to compensate for unusual placements with their unique piv- oting woofers, tweeters and acoustic fine- tuning switches, placement is still the pri- mary tool for satisfying your particular lis- tening needs. In this section, we discuss how speakers should be placed and how woofers and tweeters should be directed and how the acoustic fine-tuning switches should be set for different purposes.

Placement for Critical Listening

If you like to imagine that the band or orchestra is playing in front of you as you listen to music, or you are very conscious of clarity, detail and the textures of the individual instruments, or you listen criti- cally to movie soundtracks or music videos in your home theater, you will need your speakers placed so that they are optimized for critical listening. Here are some guidelines to make the process of placement quick and easy.

Make sure the sound will not be blocked or reflected off of furniture or other objects. You should have a direct line of sight with the front of the speaker. To determine the best position, measure the “listening” distance between the ideal lis- tening position (your favorite chair or couch) and the location in which you plan to install the speakers. Try to place the speakers so that they are equally distant from your listening spot and at least one half of the listening distance apart (this maintains a large pleasant stereo “image”). In home theater applications where there is a center channel you may choose to space the left and right main speakers far- ther apart for a “bigger than life” sound with Dolby® encoded movies and TV shows. However, for combined music and movie usage stay within the good place- ment zone for music. For example; if you are ten feet back from the speakers, the speakers should be between five and ten feet apart (See Figure 4).

Woofers and tweeters should be directed at the listening position.

Speaker Placement

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this example,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the speakers

 

 

Direct woofer and

 

 

 

could be

 

 

tweeter towards

 

 

 

placed from

 

 

listener

 

 

 

five to 10 feet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

apart, since the

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

listener is 10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

feet back from

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the speakers

Critical

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10'

 

5'

 

10'

 

Listening

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Position

Direct woofer and tweeter towards listener

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Niles Audio DS6.7, DS6.5, DS6.3 manual Speaker Placement, Introduction, Placement for Critical Listening