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volume, project your voice out into the room. Your voice will have an overly
heavy, "chesty" quality because of your proximity to the rear wall.
2. While speaking, slowly move out into the room, progressing in a direction
parallel to the sidewall. It is helpful to have another listener seated in the
listening position to assist you during this process. Listen to how your voice
"frees up" from the added bass energy imparted by the rear wall boundary.
Also notice that your voice is quite spatially dif fuse (to your assistant, your
voice will sound spatially large and dif ficult to localize) as you begin to ease
away from the rear wall.
3. At some point during your progression forward into the room, you will ob-
serve a sonic transition in your voice; it will sound more tonally correct and
less spatially dif fuse (your assistant can now precisely localize the exact ori-
gin of your voice). When you hear this transition, you have entered the inner
edge of the Zone of Neutrality. Place a piece of tape on the floor to mark this
location. Although it will vary from room to room, in most rooms the zone
begins between two and a half to three feet from the rear wall.
4. Continue to walk slowly away from the rear wall. Af ter some distance, usu-
ally one to two feet past the first piece of tape, you will begin to hear your
voice lose focus and appear to reflect (echo) in front of you. This is caused
by the return of the room's boundary contribution; your voice is now in-
teracting with the opposite wall. At the point where you begin to hear the
reflected sound of your voice, you have reached the outer edge of the Zone
of Neutrality. Place a piece of tape on the floor and mark this location. The
distance between the "inner" and "outer" edge tape marks is usually be-
tween eight inches (for small, interactive rooms) and three feet (for large,
more neutral rooms).
5. Now position yourself against the side wall perpendicular to the intended
speaker location. Stand between the two tape marks. Using the same pro-
cedure as above, begin moving into the room toward the opposite sidewall,
progressing between the two pieces of tape. As above, listen for the point in
the room where your voice transitions from bass-heavy and dif fuse to neu-
tral. Mark this point with tape. Continue your progression until there is an
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