MartinLogan Vista Specifications download pdf (Page 12)

12 Room Acoustics

This is one of those areas that requires both a little back-

ground to understand and some time and experimentation

to obtain the best performance from your system.

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 size, with the lower bass notes literally encompassing

from 10’ feet to as much as 40’ feet. Your room partici-

pates 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 literally 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 contribute to the sound to some degree. Fortunately

MartinLogan had designed the Vista 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 a

10 feet wavelength. Your room will reinforce that specific

frequency if one of the dominant dimensions is 10 feet.

Large objects in the room such as cabinetry or furniture

can help to minimize this potential problem. Some seri-

ous “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

over and over again, 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 the cymbals occur.

Resonant Surfaces and Objects

All of the surfaces and objects in your room are subject to

the frequencies generated by your system. Much like an

instrument, they will vibrate and “carry on” 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 “singing along” with your music.

Resonant Cavities

Small alcoves or closet type areas in your room can be

chambers that create their own “standing waves” and can

drum their own “one note” sounds.

Clap your hands. Can you hear an instant echo respond

back? You have near-field reflections. Stomp your foot

on the floor. Can you hear a “boom”? You have standing

waves or large panel resonances such as a poorly sup-

ported wall. Put your head in a small cavity area and talk

loudly. Can you hear a booming? You’ve just experienced

a cavity resonance.

Rules of Thumb

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 a little 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. The point is that

balance is the optimum environment.

Breakup Objects

Objects with complex shapes, such as bookshelves, cabinetry

and multiple shaped walls can help break up those sonic

gremlins 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

vibrations vary from 20 per second to 20,000 per sec-

Your Room

ROOM ACOUSTICS

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MartinLogan Vista Specifications Page 12

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