The Art of Rational Speaker Placement Setup Guide Pdf

If you accept a ii-aqueduct speaker setup and y'all've ever Googled the all-time style to position your speakers, chances are that you lot've come across forums talking nigh the Sumiko Master Set Speaker Placement process. The basic concept of this approach is that it positions each speaker independently to sound best in your particular room rather than placing them based on generic manufacturer recommendations or a perfectly symmetrical configuration. This, in theory, should assist those with asymmetrical and complicated listening rooms (like me) go the best performance possible.

The protocol takes patience to get it right (permit several hours if you are a perfectionist), as both speakers will require much trial and error to go positioned "perfectly" (subjectively speaking) within the room. The results, however, might atomic number 82 you i more than step toward Audio Nirvana.

Co-ordinate to Sumiko Audio, "The almost important component in any audio or theater system is the proper placement and positioning of the speakers into the listening environment. Putting the speakers where they truly belong, and so they don't fight each other, and then they work in total unison not only with each other merely too with the room, is the end all be all for proper music reproduction in the home."

Becoming a truthful "principal" of this process requires training or paid consultation and setup, so go along in listen that online guides are second-manus instructions, but there are several write-ups and audio forum threads that rave about the results by DIY-ers like us.

Beneath is the best step-past-step guide — supposedly presented by John Hunter, the owner of Sumiko Audio and REL — that I came across. I edited it for length and clarity and split some of the steps to make the process easier to follow. Another twist on this arroyo is this "light" methodology, which suggests toeing-in the "anchor" speaker directly toward the listening position from the start. I believe this approach could sacrifice good soundstage, so I adopt the approach below.

Sumiko Master Speaker Setup Protocol

Step one - remove whatsoever (easily) removable audio-visual treatments from the room. Annihilation that is permanently fixed and all your furniture is OK to go out.

Pace 2 - remove the speaker stand spikes to make sliding the stands easier, or at least level all the spikes and then the speaker is completely level. If yous own heavy speakers, utilise furniture sliders to make positioning easier. If yous have difficult floors, try setting the speakers on a soft towel to assist in sliding.

Step 3 - constitute your listening seat. Optimally, you lot volition ready the speakers and your listening seat in the shape of a triangle. Space permitting, it is generally recommended to kickoff with the speakers ready at least 8-12 ft. apart and the listening seat 12-15 ft. back. An equilateral triangle arrangement is ofttimes advised also. Suit accordingly to your room constraints. When properly gear up, the speakers will likely be out at least 18 inches from the front end purlieus wall. Your listening seat likewise should be at least 24 inches from a rear purlieus.

Step iv - place both left and correct speakers straight against the front boundary wall facing direct out into the room. No inward "toe-in" angle should be attempted however. Mostly, start with your speakers set 24-36 inches in from the sidewalls to limit early on reflections (last positioning will change). The left speaker is going to go the "anchor" speaker for the set up.

Note: If you lot have an odd shaped room, starting with the speaker that has the near wall to work along or shortest distance to a rear purlieus may be beneficial.

Step 5 - get grooving. Proper speaker placement requires music. Hunter recommends using a Rob Wasserman song featuring vocals by Jennifer Warnes called "Carol of the Runaway Equus caballus" from his Duets anthology. You could also try streaming it or using this YouTube recording, although the quality isn't as skilful. Another disc regarded for fine-tuning speaker placement is Chesky Records Jazz Sampler & Audiophile Test Compact Disc Vol. 1.

Now, begin playing the "Ballad." What makes this song so constructive for this setup protocol is that "the plucked string bass is at realistic book at realistic timber." And so, the first goal is to go the bass properly coupled to the room and the drivers.

Play this track at volumes where you lot can easily detect bass quality, which is usually between lxxx-95 db. Hunter says sometimes you lot volition need to creepo it up a bit to fully engage the room.

Step half-dozen - get a helper if possible (it will make moving and listening easier). Take your helper slide your anchor speaker out into the room until the bass becomes solid and authoritative. Mark this spot with some painter'south tape.

Make sure your helper stands behind the speaker when he/she moves it and then steps away from information technology, considering their body will touch on the sound if they stand up alongside the speaker.

Step vii - slide the anchor speaker right and left (toward and away from the sidewall) to find the best bass quality. Mark this spot.

Footstep 8 - slide the ballast speaker farther out into the room to find other points where the bass couples properly in your room. Mark these positions with your tape.

Notation: There may exist a dozen spots within a three-human foot zone of your first spot. This is where the procedure can go deadening, because Hunter says as piffling every bit one-third of an inch tin differentiate good bass quality from lifeless bass.

Step 9 - listen to all the practiced bass points until y'all find your favorite. Mark information technology.

Think that steps six-9 are all done with just the anchor speaker playing directly out while the other speaker is playing straight into the room from its position confronting the front wall.

Step x - establish the "toe in" bending of your anchor speaker toward your listening seat.

You want the widest possible soundstage without the sound becoming also thin. Hunter says he normally ends up seeing most ii-thirds of the inside wall of the speaker chiffonier when it is positioned nigh right.

Practice not toe in or toe out excessively, which ruins the soundstage. The sound will exist very natural when the bending is right — too wide or too narrow will make the audio sparse or seem similar information technology is coming from two speakers instead of the space between them.

Your anchor is now set. Mark this spot.

Pace 11 - reinsert the anchor speaker's spikes and level the speaker.

Pace 12 - gear up the second speaker's position. Motion it slowly out into the room while listening for the soundstage to line upward equally in front of you. Past this, Hunter means the soundstage is flat in forepart of you, non tilted like one speaker sounds closer than the other.

Remember to proceed this speaker oriented straight alee.

Step xiii - move the speaker correct and left until you hear the soundstage go cohesive — Warnes should sound similar she is standing betwixt your speakers.

Step 14 - toe in the speaker very slightly until you hear Warnes' voice become a "body" centered in the soundstage. You lot will hear the audio "congeal nicely" when this is right. It may be necessary to make very minor bending adjustments to get her voice centered. Exist patient and yous volition be rewarded.

If the soundstage is not linear, meaning one speaker sounds more than forward than the other, then simply slide the second speaker front or dorsum slightly until the soundstage is "level." Moving it right or left adjusts the centering of Warnes' vocalization.

You should at present have accomplished audio coupling of the speakers to your room boundaries. To test if this is the instance, you should be able to stand up directly over either speaker and conspicuously hear the other speaker.

Step 15 - marking the final location of both speakers.

Pace 16 - reinsert the 2nd speaker'due south spikes.

Stride 17 - begin adjusting the critical rake angle of the anchor speaker.

If your speakers or speaker stands do not accept adaptable spikes, y'all can try using door shims or wedge spacers. Suit the spikes to get the speaker level beyond the front and raked back to get the beam of the tweeter firing an inch or two higher up your ears when seated in your listening position.

Listen to the quality of Warnes' vocalization. She should appear to be ear level or slightly above ear level in the soundstage.

Call up, this is a personal option. Many audiophiles prefer ear level considering the sound is slightly fuller. A little to a higher place ear level may audio more natural or like a alive musical event.

Step xviii - begin adjusting the spikes on the second speaker to match the "height" of the ballast speaker.

Step nineteen - in one case immersed in eargasm-inducing sound, have measurements of the speaker locations from the walls. Take digital photos. Map it out. Eventually, your setup volition get shifted out of identify somehow. You need to take these measurements and then you don't have to repeat the setup process (except for when you get new speakers).

Stride 20 - reinstall whatever acoustic treatments you removed (or experiment with some new ones) to see if you tin can improve upon the room'due south sound, only don't touch the speakers' locations.

If your ears aren't fatigued by this point, Hunter says he likes to follow up with some confirmation tests using the Chesky album previously mentioned. Track 10 is great for confirming left and right positioning: "On cut 10, the speaker starts out two anxiety from the microphone in centre stage. Then he moves mid-way right, full correct, and off-stage correct. He and so repeats this on the left. Just slide your right speaker correct or left to get the sound staging perfect." Track 11 verifies your rake angles with "Over, Lateral, Under, and Upwardly" tones.

While completing this process may not make you a true Sumiko Master, what you have done, hopefully, is couple your speakers to your room based upon your chief listening position.

If this seems likewise involved, check out these other speaker placement calculators and guides.

Permit me know your results, tips, and tricks. Every bit I setup my new listening room, I programme to try several configurations to effigy out which approach is really the "master."

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Source: https://www.thesoundapprentice.com/2019/11/sumiko-speaker-placement-guide.html

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