Xstat Ethos User Manual Download Page 12

12     Room Acoustics

This is one of those areas that requires both a little back-

ground to understand and some time and experimentation 

to obtain the best performance from your system.

Your room is actually a component and an important part 

of your system. This component is a very large variable 

and can dramatically add to, or subtract from, a great 

musical experience.

All sound is composed of waves. Each note has its own 

wave size, with the lower bass notes literally encompassing 

from 10’ feet to as much as 40’ feet. Your room partici-

pates in this wave experience like a three dimensional pool 

with waves reflecting and becoming enhanced depending  

on the size of the room and the types of surfaces in the room. 

Remember, your audio system can literally generate all of 

the information required to recreate a musical event in 

time, space, and tonal balance. Ideally, your room should 

not contribute to that information. However, every room 

does contribute to the sound to some degree. Fortunately 

MartinLogan had designed the Ethos to minimize these 

anomalies

Let’s talk about a few important terms before we begin.

Terminology

Standing .Waves

The parallel walls in your room will reinforce certain notes 

to the point that they will sound louder than the rest of 

the audio spectrum and cause “one note bass”, “boomy 

bass” or “bloated bass”. For instance, 100Hz represents a 

10 feet wavelength. Your room will reinforce that specific 

frequency if one of the dominant dimensions is 10 feet. 

Large objects in the room such as cabinetry or furniture 

can help to minimize this potential problem. Some seri-

ous “audiophiles” will literally build a special room with 

no parallel walls just to help eliminate this phenomenon.

Reflective .Surfaces .(near-field .reflections)

The hard surfaces of your room, particularly if close to your 

speaker system, will reflect some waves back into the room 

over and over again, confusing the clarity and imaging of 

your system. The smaller sound waves are mostly affected 

here, and occur in the mid and high frequencies. This is 

where voice and frequencies as high as the cymbals occur.

Resonant .Surfaces .and .Objects

All of the surfaces and objects in your room are subject to 

the frequencies generated by your system. Much like an 

instrument, they will vibrate and “carry on” in syncopation 

with the music, and contribute in a negative way to the 

music. Ringing, boominess, and even brightness can occur 

simply because they are “singing along” with your music. 

Resonant .Cavities

Small alcoves or closet type areas in your room can be 

chambers that create their own “standing waves” and can 

drum their own “one note” sounds.

Clap your hands. Can you hear an instant echo respond 

back? You have near-field reflections. Stomp your foot 

on the floor. Can you hear a “boom”? You have standing 

waves or large panel resonances such as a poorly sup-

ported wall. Put your head in a small cavity area and talk 

loudly. Can you hear a booming? You’ve just experienced 

a cavity resonance.

Rules of Thumb

Hard .vs . .Soft .Surfaces

If the front or back wall of your listening room is soft, it 

might benefit you to have a hard or reflective wall in 

opposition. The ceiling and floor should follow the same 

basic guideline as well. However, the side walls should be 

roughly the same in order to deliver a focused image. 

This rule suggests that a little reflection is good. As a matter 

of fact, some rooms can be so “over damped” with carpet-

ing, drapes and sound absorbers that the music system 

can sound dull and lifeless. On the other hand, rooms can 

be so hard that the system can sound like a gymnasium 

with too much reflection and brightness. The point is that 

balance is the optimum environment.

Breakup .Objects

Objects with complex shapes, such as bookshelves, cabinetry 

and multiple shaped walls can help break up those sonic 

gremlins and diffuse any dominant frequencies.

Solid .Coupling

Your loudspeaker system generates frequency vibrations or 

waves into the room. This is how it creates sound. These 

vibrations vary from 20 per second to 20,000 per sec-

Your Room

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oom

 a

CoustICs

Summary of Contents for Ethos

Page 1: ...E T H O S u s e r s m a n u a l tm...

Page 2: ...on tainer Each individual unit has a unique serial number Bass Setting ________________ ________________ left channel right channel This device complies with part 15 of the FCC Rules Operation is subj...

Page 3: ...Thank you to you the MartinLogan owner for loving what we do and for making it possible for us to do what we love...

Page 4: ...ordance with the European Union WEEE Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive effective August 13 2005 we would like to notify you that this product may contain regulated materials which up...

Page 5: ...ith the lightning bolt symbol should be connected by an instructed person or by way of ready made terminals The power cord should remain readily oper able should any abnormal conditions occur Step 1 U...

Page 6: ...This advanced crossover topology flawlessly preserves microscopic subtleties while effortlessly handling the broadest range of dynamics con tained within even the most demanding sonic source The mater...

Page 7: ...the meaning of the different colors No color No power The Ethos is not plugged in Blue Play mode This indicates the Ethos detects an audio signal and has automatically switched into play mode Red Sta...

Page 8: ...udible effect Under no circumstance should a wire of gauge higher thinner than 16 be used In general the lon ger the length used the greater the necessity of a lower gauge and the lower the gauge the...

Page 9: ...face if the rest of the room is not too bright and hard Walls can also be too soft If the entire front wall consists of heavy drapery your system can sound dull You may hear muted music with little am...

Page 10: ...ers Move your speaker slightly forward into the room What happened to the bass response What happened to the imaging If the imaging is more open and spacious and the bass response is tightened that is...

Page 11: ...18 x 5 the distance from the side walls to the center of the curvilinear transducer The Ethos is a very refined speaker and benefits from care in setup With these tips in mind you will find over your...

Page 12: ...your system The smaller sound waves are mostly affected here and occur in the mid and high frequencies This is where voice and frequencies as high as the cymbals occur Resonant Surfaces and Objects A...

Page 13: ...s to your ears and then the reflected informa tion as it arrives at your ears later in time can result in confusion of the precious timing information that carries the clues to imaging Consequently th...

Page 14: ...Large flat panel speakers exhibit venetian blind effects due to this phenomenon This is one reason why many manufacturers opt for small drivers i e tweeters and midrange to approximate what is known a...

Page 15: ...placed on each speaker Front Left and Front Right If these speakers will be the same two used for your stereo playback they should be of very high quality and able to play loudly over 102 dB and repr...

Page 16: ...or to the sonic purity of the electrostatic concept due to its exceptional linearity and low distortion Since the diaphragm of an electrostatic speaker is uniform ly driven over its entire area it can...

Page 17: ...e designed to operate within a nar row fixed bandwidth of the frequency range and then combined electrically so that the sum of the parts equals the total signal While nice in theory we must deal with...

Page 18: ...atic transducer a controlled horizontal dispersion pattern could be achieved yet the purity of the almost massless electrostatic diaphragm remained uncompromised After creating this technology MartinL...

Page 19: ...linearity and efficiency AirFrame Technology Ultra rigid extruded aerospace grade aluminum alloy AirFrame technology rigidifies and secures the XStat electrostatic panel to the woofer cabinet while at...

Page 20: ...rostatic speaker After a short time Rice and Kellogg had narrowed the field of contestants down to the cone and the electrostat The outcome would dictate the way that future generations would refer to...

Page 21: ...t could not be played very loud it had poor bass performance it presented a dif ficult load that some amplifiers did not like its dispersion was very directional and its power handling was limited to...

Page 22: ...nuts in another We use many brands with great success Again we have no favorites we use electronics and cables quite interchangeably We would suggest listening to a number of brands and above all els...

Page 23: ...static electricity that builds up on the surface of your television screen How do MartinLogan speakers hold up over a long term in the humidity of tropical climates We should tell you that MartinLogan...

Page 24: ...tably dust Vacuuming is recommended These noises may be caused by dirt and dust particles collecting on the speaker by high humidity Dirt and dust may need to be vacuumed off Please see the FAQ regard...

Page 25: ...Dimensional Drawings 25 Dimensional Drawings...

Page 26: ...ation at www martinlogan com MartinLogan may not honor warranty service claims unless we have a completed Warranty Registration card on file If you did not receive a Certificate of Registration with y...

Page 27: ...und wave caused by some type of mechanical interference such as a cabinet edge grill frame or other similar object Diaphragm A thin flexible membrane or cone that vibrates in response to electrical si...

Page 28: ...mean square The effective value of a given waveform is its RMS value Acoustic power is proportional to the square of the RMS sound pressure Resistance That property of a conductor by which it opposes...

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