Listening Position - MartinLogan Classic ESL 9 User Manual

P LAC EMEN T

Listening Position

Start with the rear of your speakers placed approximately
eight inches from the front wall (the wall in front of the listen-
ing position) and the edge of the electrostatic stat panel about
two feet from the side walls. Your sitting distance should be
further than the distance between the speakers themselves.
You are trying to attain the impression of good center imaging
and stage width.
There is no exact distance between speakers and listener,
but there is a relationship. In long rooms, naturally, that rela-
tionship changes. The distance between the speakers will
be far less than the distance from you to the speaker system.
However, in a wide room, you will still find that if the distance
from the listener to the speakers becomes smaller than the
distance between the speakers themselves, the image will no
longer focus in the center.
Now that you have positioned your speaker system, spend
time listening. Wait to make any major changes in your initial
setup for the next few days as the speaker system itself will
change subtly in its sound. Over the first 72 hours of play the
actual tonal quality will change slightly with deeper bass and
more spacious highs resulting. After a few days of listening you
can begin to make refinements and hear the differences.
The Wall Behind the Listener
Near-field reflections can also occur from your back wall
(the wall behind the listening position). If your listening posi-
tion is close to the back wall, these reflections can cause
problems and confuse imaging quality. It is better for the
wall behind you to be absorptive than to be reflective. If you
have a hard back wall and your listening position is close to
it, experiment with devices that will absorb information (i.e.
wall hangings and possibly even sound absorbing panels).
The Wall Behind the Speakers
The front surface, the wall behind the speakers, should not
be extremely hard or soft. A pane of glass will cause reflec-
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tions, brightness and confused imaging. Curtains, drapery and
objects such as bookshelves can be placed along the wall to
diffuse an overly reflective surface. A standard sheet rock or
textured wall is generally an adequate surface if the rest of the
room is not too bright and hard. Walls can also be too soft. If
the entire front wall consists of heavy drapery, your system can
sound dull. You may hear muted music with little ambience.
Harder surfaces will actually help in this case.
The front surface ideally should be one long wall without
any doors or openings. If you have openings, the reflection
and bass characteristics from each channel can be different.
The Side Walls
A good rule of thumb is to have the side walls as far away from
the speaker sides as possible. However, MartinLogan's unique
controlled dispersion electrostatic transducer inherently mini-
mizes side wall reflections—a position as little as two feet or
less from the side walls often proves adequate. Sometimes, if
the system is bright or the imaging is not to your liking, and the
side walls are very near, try putting curtains or softening mate-
rial directly to the edge of each speaker. An ideal side wall,
however, is no side wall at all.
Experimentation
Toe-in—Now you can begin to experiment. First begin by toe-
ing your speakers in towards the listening area and then facing
them straight into the room. You will notice the tonal balance
and imaging changing. You will notice that as the speakers are
toed-in, the system becomes slightly brighter than when toed-
out. This design gives you the flexibility to compensate for a
soft or bright room.
Generally it is found that the ideal listening position is with the
speakers slightly toed-in so that you are listening to the inner
third of the curved transducer section. A simple, yet effective
method to achieve proper toe involves sitting at the listening
position, holding a flashlight under your chin and pointing it at
each speaker. The reflection of the flashlight should be within
the inner third of the panel.