5
216 divided by 3 is 72 (all to the nearest inch)
216 divided by 5 is 43
216 divided by 7 is 31
216 divided by 9 is 24
216 divided by 11 is 20
216 divided by 13 is 17 (and so on; eventually
the lines pile on top of each other or the speaker runs into
the wall.) The results are the distances in inches that the
center of the speakers can be placed into the length of the
room, away from the wall behind them, to minimize the
nodes and anti-nodes.
Now we can graph these odd dimensions distances on a
drawing of the room. We only need to graph them for the
wall where we intend to place the speakers.
S
ETTING-
U
P
T
HE
S
PEAKERS
The Model Treo requires a break-in period of at least 100 hours at a moderate
volume level before its performance stabilizes. Higher volume levels will not
shorten this break in period.
Vandersteen speakers will produce excellent, satisfying sound placed almost
anywhere in a room. With all the possible variables in room layout, there are
no magical formulas for determining the best speaker placement in every room.
Since every room is different, we recommend that you try the speakers in every
domestically acceptable location to find where they sound the best in your par-
ticular listening environment. The following sections contain suggestions that
may be helpful in your placement experiments.
S
PEAKER
P
LACEMENT
O
DD
D
IMENSIONS
P
LACEMENT
Research on speaker placement has produced a method
for reducing the nodes and anti-nodes in many rooms by
positioning the loudspeakers on the odd dimensional inter-
sections of the room. The odd dimensional intersections
are the intersections of the imaginary lines you would
draw if you divided the length of your room and the width
of your room by odd numbers.
As an example, we will use a rectangular room measur-
ing 14 feet wide by 18 feet long. We’ll assume that you
want to set the speakers on one of the short walls, al-
though this method works equally well for long wall
placement.
The first step is to take the length of the room, (18 feet
in our example) convert it from feet to inches, (18 X 12 =
216) and divide the result by odd numbers.
17
24
31
43
72
20
We use the same method to figure how far the centers of
the speakers should be from the side walls. We take the
width of the room, (14 feet) convert it from feet to inches,
Problems can arise when you attempt to place a given
loudspeaker, either front radiating or dipole, into a typical
domestic environment. These problems are a function of
the physical dimensions of the room. The room’s dimen-
sions dictate where in the room a node or anti-node will
occur. Frequency response dips and peaks caused by
nodes and anti-nodes can easily overwhelm the inherent
accuracy of a loudspeaker.
If, for example, you place a loudspeaker with excellent
frequency response characteristics in the corner of a room,
you will increase response below about 200Hz by 6dB.
This particular condition is a worst case example but simi-
lar conditions apply throughout the room to some extent.
The Treo is not magnetically shielded and
should be positioned at least 10 inches away
from a direct view television set.
