Owner’s Manual
Subwoofer Placement
Subwoofer Placement
Placement of your subwoofer is a critical component in maximizing the per- formance of your
An easy way to find the right spot to place your new
Place the subwoofer as close to your favorite listening position as possible. If pos- sible, place the unit in front of your couch or easy chair, right in the room’s “sweet spot”. Provided that there is no damage to your furniture, you may even place the subwoofer on the chair or couch, but remember that the
Activate the test tone from your processor or receiver’s internal test tone generator, or use your favorite test disc so that pink noise plays through the subwoofer .While the test tone is playing, walk around your room to find the spots where you hear the best bass response. Sometimes this may be in the center of the room, while in other cases you may find the best spot in a corner or along a side wall.
Turn off the test tone and move the subwoofer to the location where you hear the best bass response. If that location is unacceptable or impractical, repeat the procedure to the spot that is the best compromise between bass performance and aesthetic considerations.
Notes On Subwoofer Placement
Try to avoid creating a listening position that falls directly between the front and back walls and this may cause a strong interference effect due to the collision between bass waves bouncing off the rear wall and new bass waves from the
In other situations you might encounter a “null”, which is caused by two low frequency waves canceling each other out. When this happens you will find that your favorite listening position is bass shy. In this type of placement situation bass response will suffer greatly regardless of how powerful the subwoofer is. The best way to solve this problem is to change the location of the seating position so that the distance to the front of the room is different than that to the back of the room.
Setting the ECS-10’s Controls
Phase Switch
Depending on the absolute phase of your main speakers and amplifier, as well as the relative distance from the
Variable Crossover
By adjusting the variable crossover on the
Determine the +/- 3dB point of your main speakers. This frequency is usually found on the speaker’s specifications sheet or may often be available on the speaker manufacturer’s web site. Start with the crossover set approximately to this point. By experimenting with the crossover frequency and level control, you can
If the actual +/- 3dB point cannot be obtained from the speakers’ specifications or the manufacturer’s web site, you can use the following chart as a guideline:
40 Hz Large tower speaker with one 12 or
60 Hz Small tower or large bookshelf speaker with one
80 Hz Bookshelf speaker with one
100 Hz Bookshelf speaker with one
120 Hz Satellite speaker with one
Volume Level
Using the
Note: The Radio Shack meter is down about 12 dB at 16 Hz, 7 dB at 20 Hz, and 4 dB at 25 Hz. Add these numbers to the readout to compensate for these errors if necessary.
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