Manual

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Positioning
Positioning
LS1 Setup
Correct placement of your loudspeakers is essential for achieving the ultimate goal of
reproducing the music as it was intended by the artists. During production in the studio
the producer listened in a so called ’equal triangle‘ setup where the corners of the triangle
between the two loudspeakers and the listener are all 60 degrees. When possible, please
try to reach this arrangement. The distance between the loudspeakers ideally is between
2.5 and 3m.
It is necessary to make sure that both the left and right loudspeaker have a similar
acoustical environment. For example, if one loudspeaker is placed close to a side wall
and the other has free space on its side, the sound of the speaker against the wall will be
enforced by reections and therefore the stereo image shifts to that side. A quick and easy
check is to sit at the listening position and have an assistant talk to you from both speaker
positions. If his voice sounds equal in both positions, you are ne. If he is boomy in one
position and bright in the other, better search further for better postioning. Listen to both
the sound of the direct sound from the assistant and of the ‚room sound‘. In fact, strange
as it may seem, you can hear these effects too when speaking yourself at the loudspeaker
positions. If you cannot nd equal sounding positions for the loudspeakers in your room,
and for instance one speaker has to stand in a corner and the other just a long a wall, you
may use the LS1 EQ to equalize a difference in the low end between both speakers. Please
consult the EQ paragraph of the Software Control Settings chapter in this manual.
The LS1 cabinet is wider than usual, so the effect of turning the loudspeaker around its
vertical axis is larger than you would expect. The off-axis response on the front side of
the LS1 is extremely even (the LS1 sounds just as good slightly off-axis as on-axis), but
it becomes gradually softer when the angle is larger. We can use this to our advantage. In
the classic arrangement the loudspeakers face the listener. The angle of the loudspeakers
relative to the wall behind them is 30 degrees. The superb off-axis performance of the LS1
offers an alternative setup where both loudspeakers are turned slightly further inward, or
’toe in‘. We advice an angle to the wall of 45 degrees. The listener then sits at 15 degrees
off-axis of the loudspeakers. This ’toe in‘ setup has two advantages:
1. For seats left or right of the sweet spot, the stereo image is better preserved. The
reason is that for a left seat the sound of the left loudspeaker will reach the ear more
early. This causes a shift to the left in the stereo image. But at the same time, the listener
is more on-axis of the right speaker and more off-axis of the left speaker. The right loud-
Positioning
speaker therefore becomes slightly louder and the image shifts back to the right again. It
is not perfect, but the net effect is a wider area to enjoy a nice stereo image.
2. The reection of the left loudspeakers‘ sound to the left wall and vice versa becomes
attenuated a bit. Since this reection path is usually relatively short, it needs to be
attenuated to not interfere with the stereo image. An easy trick to check if this reection
is too loud is to listen to a mono sound on one loudspeaker only. Close your eyes and
point in the direction of the sound. Now open your eyes again and look at your nger. If it
is pointing towards the center of the loudspeaker everything is ne. If you point a little bit
off-center in the direction of the wall, the reection is too loud. If turning the LS1's toe-
in does not cure the problem, you will need to apply acoustic absorption at the reective
spots. Mark that by turning the left LS1 like this, its reection on the right wall will become
relatively louder. Usually this is not a problem but rather an advantage because this
reection comes later. Psycho acoustics says it helps the brain to extract the ’ambience‘
information from the recording.
In about 20% of the rooms, the classic setup where the LS1's face the listener still sounds
better. This is usually the case in fairly large rooms or in rooms with acoustics where
left and right reections are very well balanced. Please accept this as an invitation to
experiment and listen in your own environment.
Once you have decided on which of the two setups sounds best, please run the LS1
remote software and set the ’toe in‘ angle in the preferences to your selected 45 degrees
or 30 degrees angle. This applies a small correction to the highest treble, making sure the
frequency response of the direct sound is perfectly linear at the listening position.