Installation guide

ARCHITECT
Model 1280 EQ • Model 1260
Model 1680 EQ • Model 1660
Installer’s Guide
™
Equalizing Procedures
11
Equalization Procedures
(Architect Model 1680 EQ & Architect Model 1280 EQ)
Benets of Equalization
Rarely is the room layout and room decor designed to get the
most out of the audio system. In fact, almost always the oppo-
site is the case where the speaker positions and sizes are dictat-
ed by some factors which are actually contrary to good sound.
This real world situation is where equalization can provide great
benets.
Speaker positions, furniture, and general room layouts may
cause peaks in the frequency response. Fortunately these peaks
can be tamed by judicious equalization. Also, it may be that the
client has specic tastes, such as being the most interested in
hearing voices such as ball game broadcasts, and you can tailor
the sound to these tastes.
At all times, though, the laws of physics are hard to violate.
Equalization can not make terrible acoustics sound terric only
better. If the room has a tile oor and glass walls for example,
the best case results will still be pretty bad by most measures.
Further, while equalization can do wonders to help a less than
perfect speaker, nothing will make a mediocre speaker sound
fabulous. In other words, for best results, start with good speak-
ers and reasonable room acoustics, if possible.
Equalizing the System
Before proceeding on equalizing the system, it is a good idea to
make sure everything is connected and working properly. You
know how to check connections and here are some reminders
specic to the Architect, as well as the steps to equalize.
1. Turn on the system. The Power light on the front panel should
be blue .
2. Play pink noise through the system into the zones you are
going to adjust. If needed, there is a pink noise audio le at
www.audiocontrol.com. Search for “pink noise”.
3. Now grab your trusty real time analyzer (RTA) and go into the
zone you wish to adjust.
4. Place the microphone in the middle of the area of listening at
the height of the typical listeners head.
5. In general, use the equalizer controls to lower peaks in the
frequency response rst. Peaks obscure the surrounding
sounds and lowering the peaks will unleash overshadowed
sounds.
Note: For the absolutely best
results, The speaker optimizer
controls on The Architect
tm
should be adjusted with a real time
analyzer such as the AudioControl
Industrial SA-3052.
SA-3052