Planar speaker placment guide!

[Florian]

I have written a Exel table where you can enter your room and speaker data. It will calculate the needed distances in order to keep an odd ratio so that you can place your dipole planar speaker correctly. Doing so with greatly improve transparency and bass responce. Klick here to download the small exel file.

http://www.apogeeclub.de/audioreview/ratio.xls

[Bones]

I have written a Exel table where you can enter your room and speaker data. It will calculate the needed distances in order to keep an odd ratio so that you can place your dipole planar speaker correctly. Doing so with greatly improve transparency and bass responce. Klick here to download the small exel file.

http://www.apogeeclub.de/audioreview/ratio.xls

Hi:

I entered the length and width of my room, and the height and width of my Martin Logan Ascent speakers. However, the excel spead sheet did not change values. Do I need to do something else? Does excel need to be running in the background?

[Florian]

That is strange, just enter your distance to the sidewalls and it will show up the odd ratios to the backwall. What i can really recommend for your Martin Logans, are dispersive backwalls :-)

[squeegy200]

Florian,

I've been using your spreadsheet as a guideline in arranging my listening room and my Magnaplanar SMGs in that space. These are much more sensitive to placement than my previous dynamic box speakers.

I've noticed that not only is listening position in relation to the speakers are important, that there are discernable nodes on the vertical axis as well. When I stand up I can hear different timbres and cancellations.

I've read several of the positioning arguements made by other owners and some are advocating lifting of the speakers off the floor.

Are there guidelines for speaker placement in the vertical axis?

[JoeE SP9]

All of the planar speakers I've ever owned or listened to had a different sound when standing unless they were substantially taller than the listener. Acoustat 1+1's and 2+2's do not have this problem as the are constructed to act as quasi line sources in rooms with 8' ceilings. Tilting your MMG's back on the stands will help with the vertical dispersion. Of course, using stands to raise them of the floor so that the vertical middle of the speaker is at ear height will go a lot further towards solving the problem. If I remember correctly, there used to be stands for Quad ESL57's that raised them off the floor because of the vertical dispersion problem.

[squeegy200]

I have written a Exel table where you can enter your room and speaker data. It will calculate the needed distances in order to keep an odd ratio so that you can place your dipole planar speaker correctly. Doing so with greatly improve transparency and bass responce. Klick here to download the small exel file.

http://www.apogeeclub.de/audioreview/ratio.xls

Florian,

The worksheet does not work anymore.

I've been experimenting with the Cardas positioning of my magnaplanars.

[hermanv]

Yeah I know I'm late to the thread. I agree completely about back wave control.

I bought some natural fiber carpet underlayment at a local wool carpet store. If I remember about 40% wool, 20% camel hair and jute. It was about 7/16 thick and reasonably priced. I cut it into 2 panels 6 x 8 feet and hung them behind my Martin Logans so the panels wrapped around the room corners (a narrow 11.5ft room) by about 1.5 feet and went floor to ceiling. Speakers were out from the rear wall about a yard. It all worked great.
http://www.greenfloors.com/HP_CP-Under_Index.htm

Sound Lab sells a commercial absorber panel, it's about 6 feet tall and 2 feet wide with stands. I don't know the price, but since it's Sound Labs it's probably not cheap.
http://www.soundlab-speakers.com/accessories.htm

Also I just found these people 2' x 4' x 4" at $47 each, includes mounting hardware.
http://www.atsacoustics.com/cat--ATS...nels--100.html

[E-Stat]

Sound Lab sells a commercial absorber panel, it's about 6 feet tall and 2 feet wide with stands. I don't know the price, but since it's Sound Labs it's probably not cheap.

No they're not. List is $1170 / pair for the Sallies.

For quite a bit less, however, I have been very successful by making a dozen DIY bass traps. They helped me achieve a remarkably flat response in the bottom three octaves. I also use some absorptive panels directly behind the speakers and placed fake ficus plants at the first reflection points.

rw

[hermanv]

No they're not. List is $1170 / pair for the Sallies.

rw

Heck, that'll buy a speaker cable for one speaker

[BOXMAN]

I have written a Exel table where you can enter your room and speaker data. It will calculate the needed distances in order to keep an odd ratio so that you can place your dipole planar speaker correctly. Doing so with greatly improve transparency and bass responce. Klick here to download the small exel file.

http://www.apogeeclub.de/audioreview/ratio.xls

I am late to the thread... but interested in this spreadsheet. As someone already pointed out, it no longer works. Any idea where another one of these spreadsheets can be found??

Thanks
Boxman

[Florian]

The main clue is to have an odd ratio between the side and backwalls. I can whip up another spreadsheet, but it will take some time since i am quite busy. Just make sure to have an odd ratio.

Cheers


Flo

[hermanv]

Dipole speaker positioning has two issues, one is the back wave sum/difference for clarity, the second is to match room standing waves for good bass.

I found the Cardas placement guide very good for minimal bass nodes.
http://www.cardas.com/content.php?ar...ing=Room+Setup Conveniently this also tends to place the speakers a good distance from the back wall. I set mine at the Cardas distance and then worked with absorptive panels to get the needed clarity. It's a pain, but worth the effort since most dipoles seem to have great clarity easily destroyed by placement problems.

If you are used to conventional speakers, you might not even be aware of the missing clarity. Use the Cardas guide, then get some down quilts and "T" pins. experiment with hanging the absorptive material at various positions behind the speakers with various folding for width and thickness. If you find a combination you like next experiment a little with toe in. Planars on the whole seem to do best with less toe in than you might be used to.

It's possible that more than one iteration might be needed for the absolute best answer.

Now buy or make a permanent panels to replace the down comforter (I find that thicker is usually better) and enjoy the music.