A speaker placement tip that speaker manuals get wrong (2017)
This article does not mention that <i>scientific measurement</i> with a <i>calibrated measurement microphone</i> can take all of the guesswork out of speaker placement, just like you need a calibrated color measurement puck (and associated color-management software) to guarantee accurate color on computer monitors and printers. A measurement microphone tells you if the 200Hz frequency is too loud or too quiet with respect to the 1000Hz frequency, and so on, just like color management tells you if red #FF0000 is oversaturated or undersaturated with respect to the sRGB or DCI-P3 or whatever color space you are targeting. I bought a UMIK-1 microphone, downloaded the factory .txt calibration file, and used the roomeqwizard.com software to tune my systems. Works great. Human audible sound travels in waves at frequencies in the 16Hz-20KHz range. Those waves bounce around the room and interact to make certain frequencies louder and others quieter (&quot;standing waves&quot;). This <i>room response</i> is especially important below 250-500Hz: search for &quot;Schroeder Frequency&quot; if curious.