A-15
Nº502 Media Console Appendix
bass, so a speaker placed inappropriately will produce either
insufficient or excessive bass.
This last point is very important. In most speaker designs, high-frequency
sound is directional, while low-frequency sound is omnidirectional. If
you’ve ever stood behind a speaker, this phenomenom is quickly apparent
as you’ll hear more bass than anything else. High frequencies are usually
projected in front of the speakers, while the bass, or low frequencies,
radiate in all directions.
So a speaker set in a corner will reflect the bass from both walls, while the
treble, or high frequencies, are not reflected from the corner walls at all.
Some speakers are designed to be placed in a corner and are hence
designed to accommodate for the expected wall reflections. If one of these
speakers is then placed freestanding away from the wall, the bass will not
be adequate because it will not have the corner reflections to “boost” the
bass sound.
Room Modes Room modes are resonances that occur when sound wave frequencies
reinforce each other as they reflect back and forth betweeen the hard
boundaries – the walls, ceiling, and floor – of the room. The size and
shape of the room determines which specific frequencies resonate.
A typical room exhibits many room modes. The resulting “sound” of a
room is the addition of all the room’s modes. Since not all room modes
have a positive effect, the room “sound” tends to be complicated. Other
factors, such as wall stiffness or the position of furniture in the room, can
also have an effect on the room’s resonances. At higher frequencies, these
effects become less predictable and can change as people move around
the room. However, at low frequencies, the modes are predictably
consistent due to their long wavelengths, which means that
low-frequency mode problems can be mitigated.
Corner position is bad
unless speaker
specifically designed
to be placed here
Open staircase
can resonate
Bad unless
speaker was intended
to be placed on a
bookshelf
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