TheDirector
Model D3400 • Model D4400
Installer’s Guide
®
23
Equalization Benefits
Another set of variables is the shape and volume of your
listening room. Large rooms require more bass energy to
excite waves within them. Small rooms need less energy, but
reflect it differently. And then there’s the fact that most rooms
don’t have four walls anymore, but open into dining rooms,
lofts, cathedral ceilings, etc. All of this means that predicting
sound interaction patterns is very difficult due to the irregu
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larities of the room shape.
As you can see, room acoustics is an important but com
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plicated subject. To learn more about room acoustics, get a
copy of AudioControl’s Technical Paper 107, “Small Room
Acoustics De-Mythologized”. You can download this paper
from www.audiocontrol.com (search “De-mythologized”) or
if you’re still into the printed page, call us and we’ll mail you
a copy. The overall point that we’re trying to make is that
the various rooms in a home function as gigantic mechanical
equalizers, boosting or cutting certain frequencies depending
on size, shape, volume, acoustic treatment and the position of
the speakers.
Benefits of Equalization
Rarely is the room and room decor designed to get the
most out of the audio system. In fact, almost always the op
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posite is the case where the speaker positions and sizes are
dictated by some factors which are actually contrary to good
sound. This real world situation is where equalization can
provide great benefits.
Speaker positions, furniture, and general room layouts
may cause peaks in the frequency response. Fortunately these
peaks can be tamed by judicious equalization. Also, it may
be that the client has specific tastes, such as being the most
interested in hearing voices such as ball game broadcasts, and
you can tailor the sound to these tastes. Remember there are
memories in The Director and you could use different set
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tings via the memories for different sources.
At all times, though, the laws of physics are hard to vio
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late. Equalization can not make terrible acoustics sound
terrific, only better. If the room has a tile floor and glass walls
for example, the best case results will still be pretty bad by
most measures. Further, while equalization can do wonders to
help a less than perfect speaker, nothing will make a mediocre
speaker sound fabulous. In other words, for best results, start
with good speakers and reasonable room acoustics, if possible.
