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Avalon Acoustics AVALON INDRA User Manual

Avalon indra user's manual
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D
ESIGNED BY
This product is certified to meet the requirements of the European Union (EU)
Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Directive (89/336/EEC). Because the permanent
magnets attached to the loudspeaker drivers produce magnetic fields, it is
recommended that the product not be positioned in very close proximity to computer
monitors or television sets.
INDRA
R
S
N
ERIAL
UMBERS
H
ANDCRAFTED
___________________________
___________________________
___________________________
____________________________
N
P
A
EIL
ATEL FOR
VALON
:
________________
B
:
Y
A
COUSTICS

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Summary of Contents for Avalon Acoustics AVALON INDRA

  • Page 1 INDRA ERIAL ESIGNED BY This product is certified to meet the requirements of the European Union (EU) Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Directive (89/336/EEC). Because the permanent magnets attached to the loudspeaker drivers produce magnetic fields, it is recommended that the product not be positioned in very close proximity to computer monitors or television sets.

  • Page 2: Table Of Contents

    Table of Contents 1 Introduction ... 4 2 Unpacking Instructions ... 5 Introduction ... 5 Contents ... 5 2.1 Opening the Crate ... 6 2.2 Installing the Grilles ... 7 Orientation of the Felt Anti-Diffraction Mask ... 7 2.3 Replacing Grille Pins ... 7 3 Wiring Instructions ...
  • Page 3 9 Accuracy of Bass Reproduction ... 33 Introduction ... 33 9.1 Sensitivity to Time-Related Information ... 34 "Fast Bass" ... 34 9.2 Rationale ... 35 Anechoic vs. In-Room Frequency Response ... 35 9.3 Measurements of Audio Equipment ... 36 A Correlation with Amplifier Measurements ... 36 Loudspeaker Measurements ...

  • Page 4: Introduction

    1 Introduction Congratulations on your purchase of A technologically advanced high-energy transducers ever created. represents the culmination of 20 years of research and development in NDRA the areas of transient response, bandwidth, noise floor and octave-to-octave energy balance. The result sets a new standard for realistic reproduction of the complete musical event.

  • Page 5: Unpacking Instructions

    2 Unpacking Instructions Introduction Your A VALON COUSTICS ensure their safe arrival. It is recommended to save these crates for possible future use. Due to the weight of the speakers, it will require two persons to un-crate them and position them for listening. Please arrange for your dealer or another able bodied person to assist in this project.

  • Page 6: Opening The Crate

    2.1 Opening the Crate The crate features a one-piece top assembly which is fastened to the crate bottom with screws around the lower perimeter. To unpack, remove the screws and lift the upper portion of the crate straight up (this will require two people).

  • Page 7: Installing The Grilles

    2.2 Installing the Grilles The grille assemblies are behind a panel on the outside of the speaker crate. Remove the screws securing the panel, and then carefully pull the grilles straight out. The grilles are installed with friction fasteners and press into place on the speaker cabinets.

  • Page 8: Replacing Grille Pins

    2.3 Replacing Grille Pins The grille pins installed on the grille assemblies are fragile and can be easily damaged. Should any of the pins break, you may replace them using the following procedure. 1. Place the grille assembly face-down on a padded surface (a towel or carpeting).
  • Page 9 4. Carefully pull the grille cloth away from the frame mounting hole. The mounting hole must be clear of all obstacles during pin installation. 5. Place the exposed end of the grille pin in the open mounting hole. Check to insure that the grille cloth is not trapped between the pin and frame. Use a small hammer and gently tap the new grille pin in place.

  • Page 10: Wiring Instructions

    3 Wiring Instructions Introduction The crossover is housed in a sealed, non-accessible chamber in the bottom of the speaker cabinet, to minimize the effect of vibration on the components. The I is equipped with high-quality binding post for connecting the NDRA speaker cables.

  • Page 11: Break-In Period

    4 Break-in Period Your new A VALON COUSTICS will not perform to their full sonic potential when first installed in your system. This is partially due to a residual polarization of the dielectric materials used in the crossover capacitors and internal wiring. loudspeakers, the electrical signal will gradually anneal these materials.

  • Page 12: Maximizing Performance

    5 Maximizing Performance These details are imperative to obtaining optimum results from your A loudspeakers. COUSTICS Break-in The break-in period is critical to maximizing sonic performance and should take place before other adjustments (see the discussion on page 11). The break-in should begin with three to six hours of quiet music, followed by 200 to 300 hours of loud and dynamic source material.

  • Page 13: Toe-In

    Toe-In Adjusting the toe-in angle of the speakers is useful in tailoring the sound to best match the characteristics of your system and listening room. When the speakers are facing straight forward, they tend to create a large, expansive sound-stage, painted with broad brush strokes. As they are rotated toward the listening position, the image becomes more compact, with increased focus, creating a greater sense of intimacy.

  • Page 14: First Reflection Points

    First Reflection Points Since the ear/brain system tends to integrate the sounds arriving within a 10 millisecond time window, it is important to control the early reflections arriving from the sidewalls to the listening position. A hard-surfaced wall can produce a strong frequency-dependent reflection that can interfere with the reproduced sound-stage, as well as change the perceived tonal balance of the system.

  • Page 15: Care Of Your Loudspeakers

    6 Care of Your Loudspeakers Cabinet (Hardwood Finish) ’ hardwood finished loudspeakers are supplied with a VALON COUSTICS special polish and two lint-free polishing cloths, in order to properly care for the high quality furniture lacquer. The following polishing instructions should be observed: IMPORTANT: Use the supplied furniture polish ONLY.

  • Page 16: Warranty

    7 Warranty Your A loudspeakers are warranted to the original, registered VALON COUSTICS purchaser against defects in workmanship and materials for a period of three years from the date of first purchase, provided that the enclosed registration card is returned to the factory within seven days of the purchase date. If the registration card is not returned within the seven day period, this warranty is null and void, and you will not be notified of future updates.

  • Page 17: Warranty Statement

    Warranty Statement 1. A warrants the materials, workmanship, and proper VALON COUSTICS functioning of this product for a period of three years to the original registered purchaser, provided that the completed registration card is returned to within seven days of the date of purchase. If the registration VALON COUSTICS card is not returned to the factory within the seven day period, this warranty is...
  • Page 18 6. The above warranty is the sole warranty given by A , and is VALON COUSTICS in lieu of all other warranties. All implied warranties, including warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose shall be strictly limited in duration to three years from the date of shipment from the factory, and upon the expiration of the warranty period (three years), A shall...

  • Page 19: Room Acoustics And Speaker Position

    8 Room Acoustics and Speaker Position Introduction The listening room forms the final link of the playback system, as important as any other component in the chain. Just as an otherwise superb system is handicapped by an inferior pre-amplifier (for example), so can a well-matched system be hindered by poor room acoustics.

  • Page 20: An Optical Analogy

    An Optical Analogy Let us use a visual analogy to aid our understanding of acoustics. Imagine that you are in a room that is lit only by a candle in its center. There is (approximately) a uniform amount of light cast in all directions. If a large mirror is held closely to candle, one half of the room becomes darkened, while the other half receives twice as much light.

  • Page 21: Standing Waves

    8.1 Standing Waves The parallel surfaces of most listening rooms can lead to a potential problem in the low frequencies. A sound wave can be repeatedly reflected from opposing surfaces, back and forth. If the distance between the surfaces is an integral multiple of one-half the sound wavelength, a standing wave will be set up.

  • Page 22: Flutter Echo

    8.2 Flutter Echo These parallel, reflective surfaces can also produce a different audible problem. If there is little absorption at higher frequencies, a musical transient containing high frequencies, such as a hand clap or the strike of a percussion instrument, can be heard bouncing repeatedly between the surfaces. Called flutter echo (or slap echo), these multiple reflections can obscure musical detail.

  • Page 23: Early Reflections

    8.3 Early Reflections Another situation that can reduce the subjective quality of reproduced sound is the presence of early reflections. By early reflections, we are referring to reflected sound waves that reach the listener within 10 to 20 milliseconds of the direct signal from the loudspeaker.

  • Page 24: Avoiding Early Reflections

    Avoiding Early Reflections The speed of sound is approximately one foot (30 cm) per millisecond. Therefore, to preserve the natural soundstage on your recordings, there should be no reflected sounds arriving at the listening position with a path length less than ten feet (3 meters) longer than the direct path from speaker to listener (see Figure 8.1).
  • Page 25 Since the floor is within 5 feet of the speaker, it is best to have a carpeted floor to absorb floor reflections. A thick, dense carpet and pad will absorb lower frequencies more effectively than a thin one. Due to their complex structure, carpets and pads of natural materials, such as wool and jute, will exhibit a more uniform absorption over the frequency spectrum than synthetic materials will.

  • Page 26: Bass Reinforcement

    8.4 Bass reinforcement By bass reinforcement, we mean the effect of the room boundaries on the propagation of sound. It is widely known that speaker placement relative to the floor and walls can affect the relative amount of bass that the system produces.
  • Page 27 Figure 8.4 - Same conditions as above, except speaker is 6.6 feet from the reflecting surface. occurs at a lower frequency. By properly selecting the distances to each surface, we can extend the in- room bass response of the speaker much deeper than its anechoic response. Please see Figure 8.5.
  • Page 28 Conversely, improper placement of the loudspeakers can result in uneven frequency response. This results in diminished bass quality. Please refer to Figure 8.6. Figure 8.6 - Uneven frequency response caused by improper placement of the speakers. In this case, the speaker is 2.0 feet from both the side and rear walls.
  • Page 29 Figure 8.8 - In-room response when the speaker is placed 3.6 feet from the side wall, and 6.6 feet from the rear wall. There are typically three reflective surfaces near each speaker: the floor, the rear wall, and the side wall. Each of these surfaces produces its own reflection, and hence its own cancellation and reinforcement.

  • Page 30: Summary Of Recommendations

    8.5 Summary of Recommendations Now that we have looked at some of the common problems of listening rooms, as well as their cures, let us summarize our findings and recommendations. Flutter Echo and Standing Waves These situations are the result of the room having parallel, reflective surfaces. The potential problems are independent of the audio system, and need to be addressed at the source.

  • Page 31: Speaker Placement

    Speaker Placement Although your A VALON COUSTICS variety of positions relative to the walls of the room, it is still wise to experiment a bit to achieve optimal results. The suggested minimum distances for the INDRA are 3 feet from one wall (side or rear), and 5 feet from the other (all distances are measured to the center of the woofer cone).

  • Page 32: A Listening Room Example

    8.6 A Listening Room Example In order to make these points more clear, an example of a room layout is given in Figure 8.9, illustrating the principles we have given. DRAPERIES SPEAKER AM P AM P SPEAKER Figure 8.9 - Example listening room. The area around the speakers is free of objects that would produce early reflections.

  • Page 33: Accuracy Of Bass Reproduction

    9 Accuracy of Bass Reproduction Introduction We have all had the experience of listening to speakers with poor bass quality. Perhaps the bass was muddy, or ill-defined. Possibly the bass was exaggerated or bloated. In any case, these type of distortions are distracting and can keep us from enjoying the full measure of the performer's intent.

  • Page 34: Sensitivity To Time-Related Information

    9.1 Sensitivity to Time-Related Information It is widely known that the human ear/brain system is extremely sensitive to time-related distortions. This can be understood when one realizes that directional and spatial information is provided by inter-aural time (and phase) differences. During the period of man's evolution, the ability to accurately determine the direction and distance of sound sources conferred a decided survival advantage, hence our present day aural sensitivity to time-related information.

  • Page 35: Rationale

    9.2 Rationale There is an old saying, "There's no such thing as a free lunch." There are many trade-offs in speaker design, as in almost any area one can think of. In this case, the trade off is between transient response and anechoic frequency response (the speaker's frequency response in an anechoic chamber).

  • Page 36: Measurements Of Audio Equipment

    9.3 Measurements of Audio Equipment It should be recognized that measurements are not the final arbiter of sound quality of audio components. Often times a measurement standard has evolved because it is easily performed, or because it is easily repeatable, or it has shown some link to certain audible characteristics.

  • Page 37: Loudspeaker Measurements

    Loudspeaker Measurements Returning to loudspeakers, a similar situation has developed. Although nobody listens to music in an anechoic chamber, loudspeaker measurements are commonly performed in them. made for performing low frequency measurements in a more realistic setting, there has been no agreement as to what that setting should be. Loudspeakers continue to be measured in a test chamber that is equivalent to the absence of any room at all.

  • Page 38: Designing For Accurate Bass Reproduction

    Designing for Accurate Bass Reproduction How, then, does one arrive at the goal of a loudspeaker that provides tonal accuracy in the listening room? The answer, in large part, comes in the form of the digital computer. It is possible to create a mathematical model of a listening room, and predict the response of a given speaker in that room.

  • Page 39: Listening Qualities

    A speaker with excessive in-room bass response can create these effects. On the other hand, a speaker system with rolled-off bass can shrink the size of instruments, turning the same stand-up bass into a cello-sized instrument.

  • Page 40: Transient Response Effects

    Transient Response Effects A speaker with poor transient response will store energy, releasing it after the initial musical transient has passed. This causes a loss of detail and obscures important musical information. Also associated with poor transient response is a narrow-band resonance, which can emphasize specific notes. When listening for the low-frequency transient accuracy of a speaker, it will be useful to utilize a broad variety of recordings.

  • Page 41: Conclusion

    9.4 Conclusion Most loudspeakers have been designed to perform well in the frequency domain when measured in an anechoic test chamber. We have seen how this design paradigm produces audible bass distortion and exaggeration. While these exaggerations may sometimes seem impressive in the short term, they quickly prove to be distracting from the musical intentions of the composer.

  • Page 42: Features

    10 Features  Advanced ultra-light weight ceramic and Nomex/Kevlar driver diaphragm materials minimize energy storage and time-domain distortion.  Each driver individually tested and matched for optimum performance.  Smooth, wide polar response for superlative imaging capabilities.  Non-reactive, fully damped impedance characteristic allows for ideal interface with any amplifier.

  • Page 43: Specifications

    11 Specifications Driver Complement Sensitivity Impedance Frequency Response Recommended Power Wiring Methods Dimensions Weight (1)1” Concave Ceramic NeoDymium Tweeter (1) 3.5” Concave Ceramic Dome Midrange (2) 7" Nomex Kevlar Composite Cone Woofers 87 dB 4 ohms nominal 28Hz to 25kHz 50 to 200 watts 2 Position Binding Post 41"...

  • Page 44: Notes

    12 Notes...

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