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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. It is not necessary to listen to your system in a specially-designed sound chamber in
order to enjoy it. In fact, a dedicated listening room usually requires additional sound
treatment, due to a lack of other items in the room that can help provide good acoustics.
However, a degree of attention to set-up can greatly increase your listening satisfaction, no
matter what your listening situation.
Listening in a properly set-up room can be a startling experience. Due to the limitations of the
two-channel format and the listening environment, the illusion of actually being transported to
the recording site cannot usually be achieved. However, an uncanny sense of realism can be
created. Perhaps it is best described as if the front half of your listening room has been
removed, so that it now opens out into the recording site.
To optimize your equipment set-up and the listening-room acoustics requires a basic
understanding of the principles which affect the propagation of sound in the room. Also, we
will discuss the way in which our brain interprets spatial cues, and how the room acoustics
can affect our sonic perceptions.