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Practice of sound / Installation and placement tips
This chapter contains common information on
loudspeaker placement and installation.
These are general rules, so there are exceptions.
In which room do
you achieve the best
sound?
No matter how good the equipment is, in the wrong
listening environment it will inevitably sound bad.
There are some basic rules concerning a proper
loudspeaker installation:
Reflections
Carpets, curtains and soft furniture absorb mid
range and high frequency sounds, and this is
normally preferable. Big empty areas, on the
contrary, reflect it and produce hard reflections
that may lead to a blurry dialogue. Apart from
colouring the sound, also the perspective of the
sound will deteriorate. Reflections in the room can
roughly be compared to the reflections that cause
ghost pictures on a TV screen.
Amplification of bass
frequencies
A loudspeaker that is placed near a wall, ceiling or
floor will amplify lower frequencies in a sometimes
not desirable way (since it may lead to an indistinct
sound reproduction). This amplification becomes
even more obvious if the loudspeaker is placed near
a corner. Thus, for a sound as clear as possible, the
loudspeaker should be placed at least 30 cm (about
12 inch) away from the wall.
Some constructions are designed to be placed close
to a wall.
Furniture
Be aware that furniture may vibrate creating bad
sound at loud bass levels.
Room dimension
Quadratic rooms or rooms where the length is
exactly twice as long as the width should be
avoided, since they may create unwanted
resonances.
Cables
Try to keep them as short as possible. By its
electrical parameters, a long conductor will have a
bigger influence on the sound than a short one. It
may also work as an antenna picking up various
signals that may become a constant noise in an
active subwoofer.
Make sure that all connections are clean and not
oxidized. All connections should be mechanically
stable, both power, signal and loudspeaker cables.
Signal cables should be separated from other
cables.
