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Placement 9
P
laCement
By now your speakers should be placed approximately
two to three feet from the front wall, the wall in front of the
listening position, and about two feet from the side walls.
Your sitting distance should be further than the distance
between the speakers themselves. You are trying to attain
the impression of good center imaging and stage width.
There is no exact distance between speakers and listener,
but there is a relationship. In long rooms, naturally, that
relationship changes. The distance between the speakers
will be far less than the distance from you to the speaker
system. However, in a wide room, you will still find that
if the distance from the listener to the speakers becomes
smaller than the distance between the speakers them-
selves, the image will no longer focus in the center.
Now that you have positioned your speaker system,
spend time listening. Wait to make any major changes in
your initial setup for the next few days as the speaker sys-
tem itself will change subtly in its sound. Over the first 72
hours of play the actual tonal quality will change slightly
with deeper bass and more spacious highs resulting. After
a few days of listening you can begin to make refinements
and hear the differences.
The Wall Behind the Listener
Near-field reflections can also occur from your back wall (the
wall behind the listening position). If your listening position
is close to the back wall, these reflections can cause prob-
lems and confuse imaging quality. It is better for the wall
behind you to be absorptive than to be reflective. If you
have a hard back wall and your listening position is close to
it, experiment with devices that will absorb information (i.e.
wall hangings and possibly even sound absorbing panels).
The Wall Behind the Speakers
The front surface, the wall behind the speakers, should
not be extremely hard or soft. A pane of glass will cause
reflections, brightness and confused imaging. Curtains,
drapery and objects such as bookshelves can be placed
along the wall to diffuse an overly reflective surface. A
standard sheet rock or textured wall is generally an ade-
quate surface 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 ambience. Harder
surfaces will actually help in this case.
The front surface ideally should be one long wall without
any doors or openings. If you have openings, the reflection
and bass characteristics from each channel can be different.
The Side Walls
A good rule of thumb is to have the side walls as far
away from the speaker sides as possible. However,
MartinLogan’s unique controlled dispersion electrostatic
transducer inherently minimizes side wall reflections—
a position as little as two feet from the side walls often
proves adequate. Sometimes, if the system is bright or the
imaging is not to your liking, and the side walls are very
near, try putting curtains or softening material directly to
the edge of each speaker. An ideal side wall, however, is
no side wall at all.
Experimentation
Toe-in— Now you can begin to experiment. First begin
by toeing your speakers in towards the listening area and
then facing them straight into the room. You will notice
the tonal balance and imaging changing. You will notice
that as the speakers are toed-out, the system becomes
slightly brighter than when toed-in. This design gives you
the flexibility to compensate for a soft or bright room.
Generally it is found that the ideal listening position is
with the speakers slightly toed-in so that you are listening
to the inner third of the curved transducer section. A sim-
ple, yet effective method to achieve proper toe involves
sitting at the listening position, holding a flashlight under
your chin and pointing it at each speaker. The reflection
of the flashlight should be within the inner third of the
panel (see figure 3).
Tilting .the .Speakers .Backwards .and .Forwards— As the
diagrams show in the Dispersion Interactions section of
this manual (page 14), the vertical dispersion is directional
above and below the stator panel itself. In some instances,
if you are sitting close to the floor, slight forward tilting of
the speakers can enhance clarity and precision.
Imaging— In their final location, your Ethos’s can have
a stage width somewhat wider than the speakers them-
selves. On well recorded music, the instruments can
Listening Position