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THE LISTENING ROOM
Every room has its own distinctive acoustics, which influence the way we experience the sound from
a speaker� In actual fact, it's a matter of how the room accommodates the sound and then damps
it� You can influence the acoustics of your listening room in various ways�
Some of the sound you hear comes not from the actual speakers but from reflections from floor,
ceiling and walls� These reflections are damped by objects such as furniture, plants and carpets� If
the sound is bright, soft items such as curtains and carpets can help� If the room has large window
panes, drawing the curtains will prevent reflections from the glass surfaces�
Both the amount and quality of the deep bass depend on the size and shape of the room, and the
position of the speakers� If positioned near a side or back wall, this will accentuate the bass� A cor-
ner location will accentuate it even more, but will also increase the reflections� The decision is yours,
so experiment with different positions to find which provides the ideal sound for you�
As a basic rule, try to avoid large, hard and reflective areas in the immediate vicinity of your loud-
speakers� In the same way that a mirror reflects light, they will reflect sound from the speakers at
almost full strength but with a slight delay due to the relatively low speed of sound� This will disturb
the precision and spacial effect of sound reproduction� Try hanging a soft textile surface behind the
speaker, place a rug in front of it, or place a large plant to the side and experience the surprisingly
large effect doing so will have on the quality and precision of the sound�
Once you are happy with the positioning of your speakers, it is important to ensure that they are
completely stable� For floor models it is essential that you use the accompanying spikes�
POWER AND ACOUSTIC PRESSURE
How loud a speaker is able to play and still sound good is completely dependent on the signal
it has to reproduce� So, in practice, you cannot define an unequivocal level for use in comparing
different speakers�
Obviously, lots of pure, undistorted output from a large amplifier is better than a distorted signal
from a small amplifier stretched beyond its capacity� The signal from a distorting (clipping) ampli-
fier contains much more high-frequency information than an undistorted signal, and therefore
puts a heavy strain on the tweeter� Consequently, speakers are most often damaged by small
amplifiers having to work too hard - and very rarely by large amplifiers, which are practically run-
ning idle�
It is worth noting that when the tone controls are turned above the neutral setting this signifi-
cantly burdens both speakers and amplifier� On a good sound system tone controls should only be
used to compensate for poor recordings and not to permanently compensate for weaknesses else-
where in the system� So, DALI recommends that the tone controls generally be set to the neutral
position, and you achieve your desired sound image through correct positioning of the speakers�
Ensuring that you keep the volume low enough so the sound remains clear and undistorted will
minimise the strain on both speakers and amplifier�
All DALI loudspeakers are designed with linear impedance to be an optimal amplifier load� The
result is significantly more open and detailed sonic image�
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