Checking Monitor Placement - Dynaudio AIR 15 Reference Manual

Checking monitor
placement
When checking the placement of your monitors, you
first have to focus on the low frequencies. The signals
to be used are the low-frequency sweeps (tracks 31 to
39 from the Dynaudio Professional AIR test tone sets).
Low-frequency sweeps
The tracks 31 to 38 contains the following sweep se-
quences:
Track 31: 200 to 20 Hz
►
Track 32: 160 to 20 Hz
►
Track 33: 125 to 20 Hz
►
Track 34: 100 to 20 Hz
►
Track 35: 80 to 20 Hz
►
Track 36: 63 to 20 Hz
►
Track 37: 50 to 20 Hz
►
Track 38: 40 to 20 Hz
►
During the sweeps you will hear short "bleeps" indicat-
ing when the signal passes one of the ISO center fre-
quencies (see tables in the Appendix).
There are two "bleeps" every time the frequency pass-
es a whole octave center frequency and one "bleep"
every time the in-between 1/3-octave center frequen-
cies are passed.
Play all the low-frequency sweep tracks using only one
monitor at a time.
Dynaudio Professional AIR reference manual – 2014-09-28
Evaluation
From your listening position, you should hear the sig-
nal smooth and even throughout all frequency sweeps
(bearing in mind that the frequency response of the ear
is not flat).
If you have a sound level meter, it should be set to
"LIN" with no frequency weighting. If the meter does not
have a LIN position, you can use the C-weighting, al-
though the response is attenuated approximately 3 dB
at 31.5 Hz and approximately 6 dB at 20 Hz.
In the Appendix, you can find instructions on how you
can alternatively use a studio microphone if you do not
have a sound level meter.
If the results are OK, proceed to "Calibrating the main
monitors" on page 57.
If the results are not OK, you must reposition the mon-
itors.
You have to define at what frequency the response
becomes bad. Once you have located the problematic
frequency, you need to set a higher frequency as the
cross-over frequency between the main monitors and
a subwoofer.
If it is not possible for you to find good positions for the
main monitors and/or for the subwoofer(s), you should
consider changing the acoustics of the room.
Equalization is a common tool for obtaining a smoother
frequency response for steady-state signals (such as
the sweeps). But remember that equalizing can never
repair bad acoustics.
Checking and optimizing monitor placement
55