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This is the element of your system that requires back-
ground to understand and some time and experimentation
to obtain best performance.
Your room is actually a component and an important part
of your system. This component is a very large variable
and can dramatically add to, or subtract from, a great
musical experience.
All sound is composed of waves. Each note has its
own wave length, with the lower bass notes ranging from
10’ feet to 40’ feet or more. Your room participates in
this wave experience like a three dimensional pool with
waves reflecting and becoming enhanced depending
on the size of the room and the types of surfaces in the room.
Remember, your audio system can generate all of the
information required to recreate a musical event in
time, space, and tonal balance. Ideally, your room should
not contribute to that information. However, every room
does influence the sound to some degree. Fortunately
MartinLogan has designed the CLX to minimize these
anomalies.
Let’s talk about a few important terms before we begin.
Terminology
Standing Waves
The parallel walls in your room will reinforce certain notes
to the point that they will sound louder than the rest of the
audio spectrum and cause “one note bass”, “boomy bass”
or “bloated bass”. For instance, 100Hz represents approxi-
mately a 10 feet wavelength. Your room will reinforce that
specific frequency if one of its dominant dimensions is 10
feet. Large objects in the room such as cabinetry or furni-
ture can help to minimize this potential problem. Some
serious “audiophiles” will literally build a special room with
no parallel walls just to help eliminate this phenomenon.
Reflective Surfaces (near-field reflections)
The hard surfaces of your room, particularly if close to your
speaker system, will reflect some waves back into the room,
confusing the clarity and imaging of your system. The
smaller sound waves are mostly affected here, and occur
in the mid and high frequencies. This is where voice and
frequencies as high as cymbals occur.
Resonant Surfaces and Objects
All of the surfaces and objects in your room interact with
the frequencies generated by your system. Much like
an instrument, they will vibrate in syncopation with the
music, and contribute in a negative way to the music.
Ringing, boominess, and even brightness can occur simply
because they are resonating with your music.
Resonant Cavities
Small alcoves or closet-type volumes in your room can
be chambers that create their own “standing waves” and
can contribute their own sounds.
Clap your hands. If you hear an instant echo respond
back you have near-field reflections. Stomp your foot on
the floor. If you hear a “boom” you have standing waves
or large panel resonances. Put your head in a small cavity
area and talk loudly. If you hear a booming you’ve just
experienced a cavity resonance.
General Rules
Hard vs. Soft Surfaces
If the front or back wall of your listening room is soft, it
might benefit you to have a hard or reflective wall in
opposition. The ceiling and floor should follow the same
basic guideline as well. However, the side walls should be
roughly the same in order to deliver a focused image.
This rule suggests that some reflection is good. As a matter
of fact, some rooms can be so “over damped” with carpet-
ing, drapes and sound absorbers that the music system can
sound dull and lifeless. On the other hand, rooms can be
so hard that the system can sound like a gymnasium with
too much reflection and brightness. Balance is the optimum
environment.
Breakup Objects
Objects with complex shapes, such as bookshelves, cabinetry
and multiple shaped walls can help break up sonic anom-
alies and diffuse any dominant frequencies.
Solid Coupling
Your loudspeaker system generates frequency vibrations or
waves into the room. This is how it creates sound. These
audible vibrations vary from 20 per second to 20,000 per
second. If your speaker system is not securely affixed to the
floor or solid surface, it can shake as it produces sound
Your Room
Room Acoustics 11
room aCoustICs