When playing in a large room or on a big stage, getting a great sound from your amp is
easy. Generally, in this type of setting, you would simply crank the amp up to full
power, and it will sound great.
Playing at home, or in any small room, is a different story. In a case like this, the
acoustic properties of the room can have more of an influence than the amplifier can,
and will often conspire to cause real problems with the sound you hear from your
amplifier.
There are many types of problems that can happen in a small room. Here are a few
suggestions for how to deal with them:
If you have the amp sitting on a hardwood, tile, or concrete floor in a small room, it may
sound harsh in the upper midrange, because of reflections off the floor in front of the
amp. To help solve this problem, you might try placing a small piece of carpet (or a
doormat, for example), directly in front of the amp.
To begin, it should be noted that the Royalist is always at its best when placed directly
on the floor (with one exception, which will be noted later). If it is positioned off the
floor, on a stand or some other device, the tonal balance will not be optimal. It will
sound thinner and brighter than it should.
Next, you will find that the sound you hear is greatly influenced by where you place the
amp in the room, and by the orientation of the amp with respect to the listening
position (i.e. if the amp is pointing at you or away from you).
We strongly suggest experimenting by moving the amp around to different places in the
room, playing through it at each location, to find the place that sounds the best.
You will also notice that the sound of the amp changes dramatically depending on
whether you are listening to it on-axis (pointed directly at you) or off-axis (pointed away
from you). We generally suggest a slightly off-axis listening position. You may want to
experiment to find the best orientation for your listening room.
Carpeting can cause problems as well, and it’s not quite as simple as rolling off the high
frequencies and making the amp sound dark. Often, the problem is that it causes a dip
in a certain region in the midrange, leaving a hole in the lower midrange that makes the
amp sound harsh and brittle in the top end. This generally can’t be helped by moving
the amp to a different location in the room. The only solution we found is to raise the
amp up a few inches off the floor. You may lose some bottom end in doing this, but the
positive effect in smoothing the midrange response will more than make up for it.
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