Dynaudio AIR 15, Reference Manual

Page: 58 / 129

Checking and optimizing monitor placement
Dynaudio Professional AIR reference manual – 2014-09-28 55
Checking monitor
placement
When checking the placement of your monitors, you
first have to focus on the low frequencies. The signals
to be used are the low-frequency sweeps (tracks 31 to
39 from the Dynaudio Professional AIR test tone sets).
Low-frequency sweeps
The tracks 31 to 38 contains the following sweep se-
quences:
►
Track 31: 200 to 20 Hz
►
Track 32: 160 to 20 Hz
►
Track 33: 125 to 20 Hz
►
Track 34: 100 to 20 Hz
►
Track 35: 80 to 20 Hz
►
Track 36: 63 to 20 Hz
►
Track 37: 50 to 20 Hz
►
Track 38: 40 to 20 Hz
During the sweeps you will hear short “bleeps” indicat-
ing when the signal passes one of the ISO center fre-
quencies (see tables in the Appendix).
There are two “bleeps” every time the frequency pass-
es a whole octave center frequency and one “bleep”
every time the in-between 1/3-octave center frequen-
cies are passed.
Play all the low-frequency sweep tracks using only one
monitor at a time.
Evaluation
From your listening position, you should hear the sig-
nal smooth and even throughout all frequency sweeps
(bearing in mind that the frequency response of the ear
is not flat).
If you have a sound level meter, it should be set to
“LIN” with no frequency weighting. If the meter does not
have a LIN position, you can use the C-weighting, al-
though the response is attenuated approximately 3 dB
at 31.5 Hz and approximately 6 dB at 20 Hz.
In the Appendix, you can find instructions on how you
can alternatively use a studio microphone if you do not
have a sound level meter.
If the results are OK, proceed to “Calibrating the main
monitors” on page 57.
If the results are not OK, you must reposition the mon-
itors.
You have to define at what frequency the response
becomes bad. Once you have located the problematic
frequency, you need to set a higher frequency as the
cross-over frequency between the main monitors and
a subwoofer.
If it is not possible for you to find good positions for the
main monitors and/or for the subwoofer(s), you should
consider changing the acoustics of the room.
Equalization is a common tool for obtaining a smoother
frequency response for steady-state signals (such as
the sweeps). But remember that equalizing can never
repair bad acoustics.