31 SECRETS TO

BETTER SOUND
Avantgarde-USA

31 SECRETS TO 31 SECRETS TO BETTER SOUND ™

BETTER SOUND
31 SECRETS TO Dear Music Lover,
These “31 Secrets to Better Sound”
were gained from nearly thirty years of
31 Secrets to Better Sound is divided into two
general areas. The first is “Optimizing Your System’s
Performance,” and the second is “Thinking Outside

BETTER SOUND
solid installation and live music record-
ing experience. After hearing the results,
clients and staff often asked, “Why
don’t you write that stuff down?”
the Box.”
I hope you’ll find most of what follows to be
pretty good advice. In general, it’s applicable to
almost every system, at most levels.…

31 SECRETS TO
Frankly, I never thought it was any
big deal. But as the years have gone by,
there’s still not much that’s been said
or written about some of these topics.
Finally, the time seemed right to do it

BETTER SOUND
now that the next millenium is here!
The following topics may sometimes be related
to Avantgarde Hornspeakers, and sometimes not at
all. When appropriate, the topic’s applicability to the

31 SECRETS TO
Hornspeakers will be indicated with a symbol .
Since some of what you are about to hear goes
against “common knowledge,” I only ask two things:
1) Keep an open mind until you’ve heard the

BETTER SOUND
entire position and you’ve thought about it a bit.
2) If you disagree with one point, don’t assume
that’ll happen with the rest. I guarantee that you’ll
find some topics that’ll have you nodding in agreement.
 PART ONE
OPTIMIZING YOUR SYSTEM’S PERFORMANCE
1
1) Why you should be sour on a wide
“Sweet Spot”
A wide sweet spot is almost like having your own
harmonic distortion generator! There’s simply no way
a serious listener should be satisfied to sit more than a
foot away from the “equal path length intersection”
(center point) of sound from a pair of loudspeakers.
Inter-channel phase and timing information has just
been badly compromised, destroying instrumental
timbres. How is it that audiophiles will accept only
phase and time-aligned loudspeakers and then expect
to sit off the acoustic center-point, totally destroying
the inter-channel phase/time information? Look at it
this way…
First, since you probably know this stuff, please
forgive the simplified averaged wavelengths, but for
purposes of illustration, let’s assume that a 1100 Hz
tone (or harmonic) has a length of about 12 inches.
Then 550 Hz is almost 2 feet in length (from the top of
the sound-wave crest to the top of the next). And 2
kHz is almost 6 inches in length, 4 kHz is 3 inches, etc.
Imagine that a female vocalist is recorded with
her image centrally located in the stereo stage. If you
sit two feet off center, that means that any funda-
mental notes and their harmonics from at least 500
Hz and above have been altered, some dramatically,
some slightly. This is audible, and it’s depressingly
measurable! Before we examine the disastrous effects,
let’s look at what’s happened to cause the problem…
Wait a minute! What about imaging? Let’s say
that now you’re about a foot closer to the left speaker
than you are to the right one. Imagine a centrally re-
corded image that is reproduced at equal volume (am-
plitude) from both speakers in order to give the illu-
sion of a precise center image.
Without going too far into recording techniques,
a panned mono center image (such as in a studio) will
appear to have shifted left somewhat. While a center
image recorded from a stereo pair of mics seems to
“stay put” a little better. But these are phantom images
2
at best, lacking in the ultimate richness of tone and
body. Here’s why…
It’s not the potential “image wander ” that’s
troublesome. It’s the harmonic distortion! (Techni-
cally, it’s not distortion, but the alteration of harmonic
relationships.) The positive cycle (top of the wave
crest) of a 1000 Hz overtone arrives at your ear from
the (closer) left speaker before it does from the right
one. There’ll be an audible—and very measurable—
change at that frequency (or harmonic overtone).
Should the distance be equivalent to a half-wave-
length further (6 inches), then that particular overtone
(harmonic) will arrive exactly out of phase. And you
know how your stereo plays less bass when the speakers
are out of phase? Well, the effect is exactly the same—
a reduction in level at that particular frequency.
Why is this important? You’ve heard of voice-
prints. That’s where a recording of your voice can be
used to positively identify you, no matter how hard
you try to shift the sound of your voice. How does it
work? The unique relationships of vocal overtones
are different for each voice. For example, the first har-
monic may be 87.3% of the fundamental, the second
just 48.1%, the third 54.7%, etc.
The exact relationship of these overtones (their
relative strength, compared to the fundamental) is the
identifying “genetic code” of your voice. Well it turns
out that all instruments and voices have their own
particular set of harmonic ratios. That’s how we know
to differentiate two different instruments that are
playing exactly the same note—say A (440 Hz). And
that’s how an original Guarneri will be chosen over a
“replica”—it’s all in the “tone”—which is actually the
harmonic—or overtone structure.
So, if you’re sitting where the path lengths are
significantly unequal from the left and right speakers,
you are absolutely guaranteed to hear wild shifts in
the harmonics, meaning that an instrument or voice
will not sound exactly as it should. This is not just
some subjective acoustic theory. It’s not only audible;
it’s also measurable in your room at your listening seat!
In fact, you’ve just altered your system’s har-
monic relationships. So why did you buy all that stuff
with “vanishingly low distortion” if you’re going to
introduce a far worse version by not sitting in the
center point where the path lengths are equal? Inci-
dentally, this is an incontrovertible law of physics that is
part of the good—and the bad—of stereophony.
It doesn’t matter if your loudspeakers produce a
smooth response off-axis. The varying wavelengths
at a position off the acoustic center will always pro-
duce uneven response on centrally recorded images.
Here’s a simple test for you. Put on a Sheffield or
other disc that contains pink noise in both channels
(pink noise is best, because it contains equal energy
per octave, just like music). If you can, put your preamp
in mono. What you want is equal amplitude in each
channel. Now, from the center position, slowly move
your head to the left or right. That huge change in tonal
balance is exactly what happens if you sit off axis.
And because the wavelengths vary according to
frequency, the varying time arrivals of harmonics also
produce an unpredictable (well, it is predictable in that
it’s never a good thing) cancellation effect. And a ‘wide
sweet spot’ isn’t really so sweet…
Now that we’ve told it like it is, let’s also admit
to having wonderful experiences listening to music
while others have occupied the best seat. If a system
has dynamics, if it’s effortless, if it at least starts out
being pretty accurate timbrally, then it can be quite
listenable off-axis. Just remember that the phantom
image produced off-axis is only an approximation.
Sweet, it ain’t!
2
2) Fine tune your tonal balance with stereo
separation and toe-in
Most audiophiles know, that—by aiming a
speaker a bit off-axis (perhaps to crossfire behind you
a foot or two)—they can take the “edge” off the sound,
when compared to aiming the speakers directly at the
primary listening seat. Aiming straight ahead—for
some loudspeakers—results in the best overall fre-
quency balance (generally when this is the case, the
manufacturer or their dealers will make a point of
advising you of this). Aiming more toward the listen-
ing position is commonly called “toe-in.”
But did you know that stereo separation—often
a matter of a few inches—can make a difference in
perceived “warmth?” Most audiophiles would suggest
moving the speakers a bit further apart (to get closer
to sidewalls for bass reinforcement) as a way of warm-
ing up the sound. But 30 years of experience contra-
dicts this idea. Getting a bit closer to the sidewalls
may add more bass (and more unpleasant reflections),
but the overall sound often gets thinner.
Actually, if your sound is a bit thin, and you’d
like a bit more fullness, mid-range body, or warmth,
the best way is often to bring your speakers a few inches
closer together. I’ve encountered situations where only
an inch or so apiece toward the center gave me the
balance I was looking for.
Of course, when you do this, it changes your toe-
in slightly so as to aim more to the center, so if you’ve
picked the angle of your speakers for toe-in, you’ll need
to toe them out just slightly to accommodate for the
move. And you may just find that you don’t need the
speakers as far off-axis as you thought when you origi-
nally settled on the toe-in.
After doing this for hundreds (maybe thousands)
of people, I was still baffled as to why this should be
the case. About 18 years ago, after observing the effect
with spaced omni microphones (where an inch or two
difference in separation could yield a warmer or cooler
sound), I at least developed a theory about what’s
happening. We perceive warm or cool sound to some
extent by the amount of energy present in the lower
mid-range/upper bass. Well, the wavelengths of these
frequencies are fairly long, say 2’-6’ in length. If we
bring our speakers a bit closer together, the reproduced
sound “couples” ever so slightly better, slightly shifting
the sonic temperature to “warmer.”
Whether the theory is correct or not, you defi-
nitely can change the balance of your system with
subtle changes in loudspeaker separation and toe-in.
3
3) Set up a grid to begin your speaker installation
Since stereophony depends on precise time arrival
from each channel to a centrally located listening
position, as you move your speakers around in the
3
room, you’ll need a temporary floor grid to keep from
arriving at erroneous conclusions. Here’s an accurate
technique:
Find the position (from side to side) where you’ll
be sitting (we’ll discover the front-to-back position
in the next part). If your room is symmetrical, and
you plan to sit in the middle, measure how wide the
room is; divide that measurement by two, and that’ll
be your centerline. I recommend you use tape that
can be lifted easily from carpet or flooring. Lay down
your tape between the general speaker placement area,
and also in the general listening area. You’ll have to
move the seating furniture out of the way while you’re
installing your grid.
If your room isn’t symmetrical, decide on how far
you think you’ll want to sit from the nearest sidewall.
Mark it on the floor (your seating has already been
removed). Measure the distance. Now, at the speaker
end of the room, mark the floor at the same distance
from the sidewall. This is your centerline, from the
listening area to the speaker area. At the speaker end of
the room, mark the floor every six inches or so away
from the centerline, beginning in the area where you
generally suspect the speakers may be placed.
Now, swing your tape from the general listening
position on the centerline so that it crosses the speaker
spacing marks you’ve just laid down. While you’re
about it, place some marks on the floor that repre-
sent about six inch intervals—varying distances from
the proposed sitting area. It doesn’t matter if you don’t
end up sitting there; we only need an equal path length
from the centerline to aid us in moving the speakers
forward and back repeatedly and equally.
At the end of the next part, you’ll be making some
fine adjustments in speaker position, considerably less
than six-inch increments. At this final point, you’ll
need to recheck your measurements from your
centerline for final positioning.
4
4) A simple three-step speaker installation tech-
nique for satisfying results
This three-step technique will get you to a satis-
fying sound faster than any other system I’ve seen.
4
The three steps must be followed in this order.
1. Bass
2. Image
3. Frequency response or tonal balance
OK, what do we do at each step?
First, you’ve got to get the bass generally pretty
good. This means that if you have a full-range speaker,
it should reproduce the deepest bass with the great-
est smoothness.
Why does the bass come first? Until you know
how far away you’ll be sitting (speaker position and
listening position), how can you proceed to step 2,
getting the best stereo image? And we’ve seen that we
can make some adjustments in the overall frequency
balance with subtle changes in position (separation and
toe-in). But first we’ve got to at least get the distance
to the speakers from the listening seat before we can
begin to decide how far apart we want our speakers.
1) The best bass—a throwback to early TVs.
Here’s how long I’ve been teaching this technique
for getting the best bass—I started out using a TV
analogy that asked the installer to compare this step
to the tuning methods from TVs of the ‘60s and early
‘70s! Those TVs had a “fine tuning” knob and “chan-
nel selector ” switch. Here’s the analogy:
Finding the best placement for the speaker in the
room is a bit like fine tuning for best reception. But
finding the best place to locate the listening seat is a
bit like using the channel selector! In other words,
the most important consideration (whenever possible)
is to discover where in the room you should sit to
take advantage of the least negative room interactions
(obvious peaks and dips in the bass), and the most
positive room interactions (the most extension and
attack without annoying overhang).
This is because your room (unless it’s exception-
ally large—say 20 x 35 x 12 or larger) will have obvi-
ous standing waves developing in the bass region
(we’ll call this region 25 Hz to 250 Hz). These stand-
ing waves are very measurable and they are quite au-
dible as resonances or “suck-outs.” They exist due to
your room’s particular geometry. Moving a speaker
forward and back in the room can make a noticeable
difference in the bass. But moving the seat forward
and back the same distance in an average room will
result in much more dramatic differences in bass per-
formance.
Although these resonant room frequencies can be
considered axially, tangentially, and obliquely, our
primary concern here is with axial. These consist of
destructive (to varying degrees) waves and construc-
tive (to varying degrees) waves. A destructive stand-
ing wave is produced when two or more wavelengths
meet at a point in a room, and—due to the time ar-
rival of these waves—some will arrive slightly (or even
directly) out of phase with others.
The varying time arrival is based primarily on
room geometry (for example—length of the room vs.
height). This results in a cancellation of frequencies
at that particular point in the room. Destructive
standing waves produce dips in frequency response.
Conversely, constructive standing waves can produce
peaks in response.
The following system assumes you’ve placed the
speakers in a generally acceptable position in the room:
A simple way to prove this theory is to put on a
CD recording with a repetitive bass line (preferably
the upright acoustic bass—maybe Ray Brown). You’ll
need to move your listening seat out of the way, per-
haps to the side of the room. While it’s playing on
repeat (that’s why I chose CD as the source), walk
back and forth slowly through the larger proposed lis-
tening area. You’ll notice dramatic differences in bass
quality and quantity in a space of +/– 2-3 feet.
Listen closer and you’ll find the smaller “window”
of acceptability for that particular bass line. Once
you’ve found the best spot to locate the seat (again,
only for that particular series of bass notes), you’ll
notice that moving the speaker forward and back an
equivalent difference makes much less of a difference.
This is all to say that your room resonances are
going to be pretty much the same for most likely
speaker placements, so find out where in the listen-
ing end of the room these resonances are least objec-
tionable, and that’s where you’ll sit.
A quick note on finding the overall best bass lis-
tening position in a room—the quickest way to do it
is with a real-time analyzer, preferably 1/3 octave.
You’ll need to use pink noise as your source, set on
the slowest filter, using flat or C-weighting. You’re
only looking at the region from around 25 Hz up to
about 250 Hz. You’ll notice immediately that fairly
small movements forward and back in the room are
very obvious on the display as the various peaks and
dips become quite easy to see.
Don’t have a RTA sitting around? Try to borrow
or rent one for a few hours. By the way, I do NOT
recommend using a Radio Shack SPL meter and test
tones for this procedure. Actually, if the tones were
1/3 octave pink noise bands, it could work, but un-
fortunately the Radio Shack meter simply isn’t very
accurate in its frequency response. You could use the
test disc and your ears, though!
Can’t find a RTA, or you’re uncomfortable tech-
nically with the idea of looking at how your room
behaves in the bass resonance region? Then find sev-
eral recordings of music representative of the stuff you
like to hear, and adjust for the best bass by listening
while moving back and forth in the general listening
position.
What you’re listening for is the majority of the
bass reproduced with the notes neither emphasized
nor diminished. You’re also listening for the deepest
bass. But sometimes the price for getting the deepest
bass in an average room is an uneven bass response in
the region where most bass notes occur.
This is where you’ll have to pick the best com-
promise to your ears. At this point, you’ll find that a
difference of six inches or less forward or back will
usually present you with a choice of the bass com-
promise you prefer. Once you’ve discovered this lis-
tening position that is least affected by room reso-
nances, mark this spot (or at least measure how far it
is to the wall behind you and write it down).
Now you can play with fine-tuning where the
speakers go to make the bass better. Once you have
that position to the point that is best to your ears,
you’ll need to recheck the listening position a bit to
5
make sure that a slight distance forward or back isn’t
necessary now.
2) Imaging and the X-files
Finally you’ve established—pretty closely—where
you’ll be, and approximately how far away the speak-
ers will be. Once you know “X,” you can start to work
on “Y.” X is the distance from your ear to the plane of
the tweeter (should be equidistant from the listening
seat to each speaker). Let’s say X is 10 feet. A general
guideline is to start Y at about 75% of X. Y is the
distance from the center of the left tweeter to the
center of the right. We use the tweeter because it’s
the primary source for directional cues (imaging).
A note on separation—this is to your taste. I per-
sonally like Y to be about 85% of X for most speakers.
For planar speakers, Y may be smaller, maybe as small
as 70% of X. Some companies want you to use an
equilateral triangle (X and Y are equal in distance), or
greater.
I suggest playing a mono source like female vocal
and keep pulling the speakers apart until the voice
becomes a fairly precise point between the speakers.
Pulling it apart any further results in a too small voice
or one that now begins to come from each speaker.
Bring them back to the point where it worked, switch
from mono to stereo and check out the image.
This technique assumes you’ve established a
“grid” on the floor so that movements are the same
for both channels.
3) Frequency response or tonal balance
Remember how we said that changing the sepa-
ration could yield a cooler or warmer sound? And how
toe-in can also dramatically affect balance (particu-
larly high frequency balance)? Well, now you’re at that
point (this assumes that your speakers are either non-
adjustable, i.e. tweeter lever control, bass level con-
trol, etc., or that you’ve selected the nominal “flat”
position as a starting point).
Here’s an example—and listen, it’s just an ex-
ample—you might feel quite differently. I find that if
I set up most direct radiating speakers on an equilat-
6
eral triangle, the sound (for my taste) is usually too
lean. I can hear all the tiny sounds in the soundstage,
but it’s become a precise, almost mechanical sound.
It’s not “relaxed” for want of a better word. It’s makes
great audiophile stuff, but the sound just doesn’t have
the body and warmth that I hear with live music.
And yet, I know highly respected reviewers and manu-
facturers who prefer to listen with Y being greater
than X. That’s why it’s your taste—remember, it’s
not about some notion of “accuracy,” it’s about the
music and you.
Step 3 is the real fine-tuning that will make the
difference for you. One final note—some audiophiles
adjust toe-in to make the speaker seem to “disappear.”
This is usually not on axis, but aimed to crossfire
somewhere behind your head, or even aimed straight
ahead. This is your call as well. I recommend going
for the musical balance before going for an audiophile
sound effect, but sometimes you can get both, so go
for it if you like…
5
5) Don’t forget to listen at different seating
heights.
If you have the ability to experiment with differ-
ent seating heights, do so. You’ll find that those stand-
ing waves affect your sound vertically as well. Some-
times raising or lowering your listening position can
produce a more neutral and more alive sound, so if
it’s possible check it out.
At a friend’s home, we actually built a 3” plat-
form under his sofa. The sound is better, yet the ap-
pearance and utility of the sofa are largely unaffected.
Note that if you do plan to change the listening
position’s height, be sure it’s standing waves you hear
and not different time arrival from the speakers. A
way to check that aspect is to slightly tilt the speaker
backward or forward to see if it’s simply an effect
from the relationship of the speaker ’s vertical angle
to the listening seat. About the only speakers where
this might not need to be considered would be any
concentric array, or one where the tweeters are be-
side the mids.
6 8
6) Don’t consider speaker placement final until
you’ve discovered the correct AC polarity for all
components.
Incorrect AC polarity from just one component
can make your system sound harsher than it should.
Since I assume you already know this, and you know
how to correct it, here is one thing you may not have
considered:
Components with incorrect AC polarity will of
course look for a ground path. Where do they share
the ground? Usually it’s on the shield side of connec-
tors and interconnects. Since this shield is common
to both channels, it can present a slightly “grungy”
center fill that you may not notice until it’s been
eradicated.
If you have carefully set your speakers up for a
precise image, and then you correct the AC polarity,
depending on the polarity’s interaction with the other
components, you may get a “hole in the middle” when
the artificial center fill (mono) information is re-
moved. With some systems, I’ve found that I needed
to bring the speakers an inch or two closer together
to correct for what had been a false center fill. Try it
and see what you think…
7
7) Don’t place your components, especially source
components, in areas where there are bass rein-
forcement modes.
Try to avoid placing components (especially
source components) in areas where the bass is very
strong or exaggerated due to standing waves. CD
transports and turntables lose their life and dynam-
ics when they’re being bombarded by resonance in-
ducing bass frequencies.
The worst two places:
1. In a corner, especially one on the wall opposite
the speakers.
2. Anywhere on the wall behind you.
Move your components out of these areas and
listen to how much more effortless the presentation
seems to be (and with better bass).
8) Absorb or diffuse the area behind you (if it’s
within 4-6 feet)
OK, I think we should go light on all these room
treatments (yes, I admit that the Hornspeakers facili-
tate this position). But there’s one place that—depend-
ing on where you sit in your room—you need to ab-
sorb or diffuse sound, no matter what kind of loud-
speakers you own.
If you’re sitting fairly close to the wall behind
you (if it’s within 4-6 feet), it’s good practice to di-
minish the first reflections from the main speakers
that return from the rear wall. These reflections tend
to smear articulation, add unwanted colorations, and
mess with your musical enjoyment. Personally, I pre-
fer absorbing them, since I don’t want to add addi-
tional reflections to those already recorded, but there
are cases to be made for diffusing as well.
The best absorptive materials (producing the least
sound of their own) are natural materials like cotton
or wool. But if you can’t come up with something
soft enough or thick enough, you’re better off to re-
sort to some absorbent panels than leaving the rear
wall reflective and undamped.
9
9) Thou shalt have no reflective surfaces
before you
This isn’t always practical or possible, but if you
have a coffee table or other reflective surface in front
of you—at least when you’re listening seriously—if
you can’t move it away from in front of you, try to
drape a towel or blanket over it while listening. And
if you have a significant other, you’ve already
stretched the boundaries with moving the table or
covering it, so be sure to PUT THINGS BACK…
Getting rid of early and unwanted reflections will
allow you to hear more of the music.
10
10) Don’t look into a glare when you listen
to music
If you have a window on the wall at the end of the
room where your speakers are located, when you’re
listening in the daytime, use drapes, shades or whatever
it takes to reduce the light streaming in as you face the
7

speakers. Try it and you’ll find your enjoyment in-
creases, and psychoacoustic “glare” decreases…
11
11) It really does sound better at night
Most audiophiles have noticed this phenomenon.
There are many conjectures. Here are mine:
1. The power line feed is more pure—there’s less
machinery and motors to mess with it.
2. There may be more power available, especially
in times of peak demand (weekdays in the summer).
3. It’s quieter.
4. You’re winding down and can be more atten-
tive to the music.
5. There are less distractions.
6. It’s generally darker in the room.
7. You can make it very dark, which provides the
ultimate home listening situation, as you remove the
distracting visual cues that prevent a suspension of
disbelief.
12
12) Precise Volume Setting
If you want to maximize your musical enjoyment,
you need a preamp, receiver, or perhaps a CD player
or DAC with volume increments of 1 dB or less.
“Good enough” simply isn’t—at least when you’re
setting the volume for a piece of music. Learn to rec-
ognize the point where the music speaks to you, and
make sure you play it there. You can’t set it and for-
get it, because different recordings of the same music
will likely have been recorded with a different per-
spective and recording level.
The next time you play the same CD or LP, don’t
assume that the position you used last time will work
this time. Your mood, your attentiveness, the noise/
distractions around you, even the temperature and
humidity—all contribute to the “ambience” in your
room at that time.
When you get the volume right for that music at
that time in your room, the result can be capable of
lifting you out of your daily life experience and caus-
ing your spirits to soar—just like live music does.
8
13
13) Bi-amp and get five times the effective power
Gosh, I sound like I’m hyping bi-amping! This
info is useful only for those who have speakers that
allow bi-amplification. (Avantgardes do, but do you
really need to worry about more power when 5 watts
could chase you from the room?)
The “power break” in music, depending on the
type of music, is between 400 Hz and 200 Hz. Gener-
ally, dense harmonics draw a lot of power. Bass notes
below 100 Hz, although they can be loud, are almost
sinusoidal in nature (simple rather than dense). They
may be the easiest waveforms to produce.
So if you bi-amp at or near the power break for
your kind of music, when you add another amp of equal
power, each amp is having to work half as hard. Since
you doubled the available power, you have double the
power with half the requirement to produce the same
output. That’s four times the available power.
Where do we get five times the power? Bi-amping
vertically seems to add just that additional available
peak capability before audible distress. We say it’s like
having five times the power.
14
14) Bi-amp vertically
Vertical bi-amplification is using a stereo amp for
each channel. For example, the right channel amp will
have one channel playing low frequencies, and the
other channel playing high frequencies. There are sev-
eral reasons we recommend this procedure, rather
than using one stereo amp for the lows and the other
for the higher frequencies:
1. Imaging is better. You’re separating power sup-
plies and all channel information from one chassis to
another. The effect is the same as monoblocks vs. ste-
reo amps.
2. Dynamics are better. Generally, when big bass
transients occur, they appear in both channels. In this
technique, when the power supply of the amp is hit
by a big bass transient, the other half of the amp’s
supply is still unaffected (well, maybe not as much
anyway). So the overload capability is expanded,
whereas a “bass amp” would have instantly and audi-
bly crumpled under the demand. And should the bass
channel temporarily overload in a vertical configura-
tion, you may not notice it as readily because the rest
of the music is not being clipped.
3. You’re forced to use the same amps…
15
15) Bi-amp with similar amps
When you use dissimilar amps for top and bot-
tom, the sound never really coalesces as well. Yes, there
are music lovers using a transistor amp in the bass
and a tube amp on top. But these amps won’t have
equivalent transfer characteristics. Their sound will
be different. They’ll have different dynamics. The
sound may be interesting, but it’ll never really sound
continuous and focused, top-to-bottom.
Here’s a test to check it out—Use a channel from
the transistor amp on one full range speaker (say, the
left), and a channel from the tube amp on the other
full-range speaker. Balance the left and right channels
with your balance control. Play a mono source, or at
least a vocalist whose image is panned to the center.
What happened? You can’t get a good center image!
Why? The amps have different transfer characteris-
tics, even slightly different phase characteristics.
So if the combo were no good for basic stereo,
why would you want to use it in a manner that will
only serve to subtly alter dynamics and instrumental
and vocal timbres?
16
16) When adjusting bass levels with a bi-amplified
system, if you can’t adjust spectral balance to
.5dB, forget about biamping
If you’re attempting to use one of those electronic
crossovers with only 1 dB level adjustments, you’ll
have a hard time relaxing and enjoying your music.
No matter how good its line stage sounds. Unless you
happen to get lucky and the setting is close to where
you need to be.
Even though 1 dB is theoretically almost impos-
sible to discern as a difference in volume, years of prac-
tical experience (and even blind testing) has proven
that we humans can easily resolve shifts in spectral
balance to well below .5 dB! And once you get it
“nailed,” it’s unmistakably right. Until then, you’ll feel
the urge to get up and change settings for each re-
cording….
17
17) When bi-amping, make final tuning adjust-
ments with vocals and high frequencies
If you’re crossing over between a bass driver and
the rest of the musical spectrum, DO NOT use bass
instruments to adjust your balance between bass
level and mid/highs! A starting point could be male
vocals, but ultimately you need to use female vocals.
Adjust by ear to get the sound to neither be a “head”
sound or a “chest” sound. When you get the level
right on a variety of female vocals, you’ll stop feeling
the need to change levels with different recordings.
Of course, you did this by fine adjustments below
.5dB level…
If you’d like to refine your bass crossover level
even more, the sound of wooden drumsticks on cym-
bals is a great “finisher.” Most folks wouldn’t think
that adjusting bass level could affect the timbre of
such instruments, but one listen and they find out
the truth…
18
18) Angle those panel speakers! (vertically)
If you have electrostatics or planar magnetics (or
even D’Appolito dynamic arrays), if you want to in-
crease your musical impact, angle those speakers for-
ward or backward (if it’s safe)! Obviously when you’re
through listening seriously, put them back in their
“natural” position.
Essentially, you want to put the middle of the
panel speaker (or D’Appolito array) at 90° to your ear
height. If it’s a tall model, this usually means it’s to
be tipped forward. Now, I didn’t say this was attrac-
tive. Of course with such speakers as InnerSounds,
Quad 63’s (with the grilles down), and Martin Logans,
it’s easy to see if you’re in the 90° position, because
your reflection will appear dead center of the panel’s
height.
But all you have to do is listen (I first discovered
this in the mid ’70s, when I was Magnepan’s National
Sales Manager), and see if you don’t appreciate the
difference. Please do be sure it can’t fall over and hurt
9
some one or some thing. When these speakers are not
angled, they can still sound quite peasant, as long as
you don’t think about the “smearing” that’s going on
from a lack of focus.
19
19) Brace those panels too!
This is not very elegant visually, but try it some-
time when your significant other is away… If your
panel speaker is fairly thin and it easily rocks back
and forth with slight pressure applied at the top, then
you ought to at least try bracing. If you have found
what number 18 (above) can do for you, you’re prob-
ably in need of a brace anyway!
As a starter, just make a long pole that sits on the
floor, with a right angle “hook” that can fit over the
top of the speaker (from the back, so as not to inter-
fere with the output from the front of the speaker).
Use some piece of metal already shaped to do the trick,
or even use duct tape temporarily to test the effect.
You’re ultimately gonna want to firmly brace the pole
to the floor, but just wedging something against it so
that it can’t move on the floor is enough to test it out
for yourself.
Once you’ve heard the effect, a little creative
thinking and you can come up with your own braces.
Don’t want to go too far here, but a brace that
prevents the speaker panel from torsional flex (side-
to-side) is also worthwhile.
I don’t recommend that you do numbers 18 and
19 unless you are slightly compulsive and you don’t
have a situation that demands full-time visual appeal.
But if you were into full-time visual appeal, you
wouldn’t have those big panels (or horns or coffins)
anyway, would you?
20
20) Equalization vs. notch filters—or—no band
boosters here
Here’s a tip of the hat to Richard Vandersteen. In
his model 5 Loudspeaker he introduced equalization
in the only place that it makes sense in high-fidelity
music systems—the bass!
The only thing I might suggest is to refrain from
boosting bass frequencies that appear to be room de-
10
pendent. These dips in response are a product of can-
cellations from positive and negative wavefronts crash-
ing into one another. If you boost these dips (with
equalization), the only outcome is that your amp works
harder, your woofers work harder, but—as a rule—
you’ll get no more output at that frequency at your
listening seat, no matter how much boost you apply!
Since the negative wave is boosted as much as
the positive, increasing that frequency can’t produce
more output at your listening position. Your system
will probably sound worse, and it’ll overload sooner.
Judicious use of notching the peaks (meaning that
you pull down the peaks in response and ignore the
dips, except through physical location, never through
equalization boosts) will yield an astonishing improve-
ment in the overall sound, assuming that the basic
speaker is already very good. There are some simple
ways to introduce this concept when bi-amping.
21
21) The moving peak (vibrating seat)
You probably don’t have this problem, but you
might know someone who does! As the guy who
wrote the owner’s manual for the Magnepan Tympani
1Ds, I thought I pretty much knew it all when it came
to installing these speakers and getting the most from
them in any room.
That’s why I’ll never forget the humbling lesson
I learned as an audio “guru.” Here’s what happened:
As a high-end dealer in the early 80s, I had sold a
pair of Timpani 1Ds for use in an Audio Research sys-
tem. I went out to install the system (which I always
insisted on—and your dealer should do it for you as
well). I always carried along a 1/3-octave real time
analyzer so that I could quickly see where the bass
standing wave problems were.
Within an hour or so, I had found the best place
to locate the speakers (somewhat tricky due to the
negative bass wave emanated from the rear of the
speaker), and the best place for the listening seat.
Using the 3-step installation technique outlined above
(number 4), I worked to get the sound to where I’d be
proud to send a prospect over to my client’s house to
hear what the Maggies sounded like in a home.
 As I left, my client was effusively thanking me
for getting him better sound than he thought was
possible. I was a hero.
A week later, he calls me to complain about a
“thickness in the mid-bass.” I don’t know if you re-
member the Tympani 1Ds, but bass definition and
timbre was their best quality (HP, writing in TAS,
adopted the T1D as the bass unit for his hybrid QRS/
1D system). There was NO WAY we could have a
thickness in the loudspeaker ’s bass, he must’ve
changed some component or something (in other
words, I was convinced it couldn’t be my installation!)
Well, I finally stopped by later that day, expecting
to point out the offending component. But nothing
was changed in the system! And boy, was the upper
bass thick! I got out my trusty RTA. Sure enough, there
was at least a 6dB peak at about 125 Hz. Where did
this come from? Well, I couldn’t figure it out, but as I
moved the RTA about two-three feet in front of the
listening position I’d selected (and even marked!), the
bass peak disappeared. So we moved the seat forward,
and just to be sure, listened to hear what the guru (me)
had fixed. Woah, the peak was back!
I measured the response behind the listening seat
where we had originally determined was the best seat
in the house (literally). Now the peak was gone!
Anyway, I started to think I was on Candid Cam-
era, I was looking so foolish. Then I noticed it. My
client had a shiny new sofa. When I had set the sys-
tem up, we had used an occasional chair for the lis-
tening sessions. This sofa had a tightly stretched back
panel (leather/leatherette). It was stretched so tightly,
it produced its own tympanic sympathetic resonances
at 125 Hz. Removing the sofa solved the mystery.
So check out any system where the seating could
cause a similar effect. I’m still surprised at how many
systems can be affected…
22
22) Install a wood floor on your existing concrete
slab to improve your sound
Before spending lots more money on new com-
ponents (even Avantgardes!), if your listening room
is on a concrete slab with wall-to-wall carpeting, for
a modest investment you can transform the sound of
your system. I discovered this phenomenon first when
making master concert recordings. When we recorded
a concert in a venue with concrete flooring, the sound
of instruments took on a whitish coloration. Those
same musicians, when playing at a venue with a
wooden surface, made a wholly more musical sound.
And they would comment on the live sound them-
selves. The difference is a slightly colder less involv-
ing sound vs. a warmer more compelling sound.
All you need to do is put down some 2x4s on their
sides and fire the nails that hold them in place into
the concrete. Consider putting some insulation in the
void between the concrete and the bottom of the
wooden floor that gets screwed to the 2x4s. You want
to keep the solidity of the concrete surface, only
change its timbre. The floor doesn’t have to be ex-
posed hardwood planks. It can be plywood subflooring
on which you re-install your wall-to-wall carpeting.
No amp or preamp or cable can make such a tremen-
dous improvement!
23
23) Breaking in your Components—From Cold and
Dead to Warm and Alive
You already know the advantages of breaking in
components. Some folks say a week is enough. I’d like
to suggest that I haven’t heard any component that
doesn’t continue to “relax” in the first 200 hours (if
not more).
With speakers, placing them face to face and out
of phase is the best method for maximum level that
isn’t as intrusive.
With amplifiers and speaker cables, you might
consider an 8-10 ohm wire wound resistor from Ra-
dio Shack across the positive and negative tips of the
load (speaker) end of the cable.
With preamps and source components, it’s easy—
just run the piece without turning on the amplifier.
I suggest three sources for break in:
1. The Purist Audio break in disc. Fastest and most
effective. But, if you’re gonna have to hear it, this
might not be the one. I got mine from Terry Combs
at Sound Mind/ViVA in Dallas (214 327 2073)
11
 2. The Cardas “surf ” technique. This exercises the
components nicely, and if you have to hear it, there
are companies who sell similar sounds as a sleep aid!
Check with a Cardas dealer. I usually refer to Casey
McKee at Ne Plus Ultra in Austin (512 241 0000).
3. This gets tricky, but if you have any MUSIC,
try playing that …
24
24) Vinyl and VTA—listening and compensat-
ing—including temperature shifts—tracking force
and the sound of LPs
Although I can’t take credit for inventing VTA
(or the Internet), I WAS there when the guy who re-
ally discovered its effects was demonstrating it to us
all. It was in 1976. The guy was David Shreve, who
was marketing his modified version of the Rabco SL-
8E straight-line tracking tonearm. At Audio Research
where I was working at the time, David would rou-
tinely drop by to install updates to his arm.
So I began to investigate the effects for myself.
Not long after that, Jim Winey’s tonearm appeared,
and a simple VTA adjustment was included on it. It
made it easy to hear the differences. I think this arm
is still one of the better arms ever produced, but ulti-
mately—with the encroachment of CD, Jim couldn’t
justify making it any longer.
As a side note, Jim understood that a low mass
arm is of no particular value. What is of value is a
large ratio of moment of inertia at the headshell vs.
the counterweight. That’s why his arm had such ex-
plosive dynamics. The counterweight had adjustable
weights so that you could keep it snuggled up tightly
against the pivot point.
OK, if you have the VTA of your phono cartridge
dialed in, the question is, what was the room like
when you made the final adjustment? If the room
was warmer by about 5 degrees (maybe you had tube
electronics helping to warm the room), then when
you first start playing your records next time, chances
are that your VTA will sound as if it’s “off ” slightly.
That’s because the effect of a slightly colder and stiffer
cantilever is the same as slightly raising your VTA.
So, in a cooler room, it’s likely to sound cooler!
12
To avoid having to readjust the VTA, and thereby
distract you from the music, there’s a shortcut. Sim-
ply add about .1 gram to the tracking force. Do this
once and you’ll know how much it requires next time.
As the room warms up (and the cantilever becomes
more flexible from use and temperature), just reset
the tracking force to its former position.
The reverse is true with a warmer room than
normal. You’ll need to back off the tracking force
about .1 gram or so.
25
25) Fine tune your stereo image with anti-skate
OK, let’s assume you have tracking force, VTA,
overhang, and all that good stuff adjusted to your lik-
ing. Of course, we’re assuming that your arm is not a
straight-line tracker, but is pivoted. So how do you set
anti-skate? After setting it to the manufacturer ’s
marked position, try this:
While listening to a LP with a voice known to be
centrally located in the stereo image, listen to where
the voice appears in the stereo image at your seat (this
assumes you’ve already performed the speaker instal-
lation and properly located the listening seat on equal
path-lengths). This adjustment is best performed at
about mid-way into the side of the LP. Then, add a
slight amount of anti-skate. The image should shift
very slightly to the right from its former position.
Reducing anti-skate will shift the center image slightly
to the left. Simply make the appropriate adjustment
until the image is locked in the center of your stereo
soundstage.
PART TWO
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX
26
26) Don’t believe the “experts” when they tell
you that, since bass is omni-directional, you only
need one subwoofer.
Unfortunately, while this theory is based on some
fact, the end result is far from correct. Low bass may be
“non-directional,” but the Experts are dead wrong
when they say you only need one good subwoofer.
 No matter how great a single sub is, it kills the
music. Over the years, we’ve proved this fact to many
skeptics by playing acoustic recordings that contained
no apparent bass at all!
Here’s the reason why: Direct and reflected long-
wavelength low frequency cues will arrive at each ste-
reo microphone at slightly different times. Therefore,
stereo subwoofers play these differing time-arrival
spatial cues in each channel.
Subwoofers provide the cues for a sense of space
that can transform a system from simply sounding
good to sounding real. This is accomplished because
our ears decode spatial cues by picking up reflected
sounds off of walls and ceilings. The time of arrival
tells us how big the space may be.
Low frequencies have long wavelengths (mean-
ing greater travel distances), and our brain decodes
them as spatial cues. Acoustic recordings carry these
low frequency spatial cues which are essential in our
ability to suspend disbelief. This is how we hear and
accept the illusion presented by recordings with a “we
are there” perspective.
A virtual three-dimensional image can be created,
with each instrument or voice seemingly occupying
a palpable space in the stereo sound stage in front of
the listener. This is related to the ear-brain low fre-
quency spatial cues.
When the bass is combined into one channel, the
differing time arrivals from each channel are simply
canceled as out-of-phase information. The acoustic sig-
nature of the space is irretrievably lost. It no longer quali-
fies as a realistic recording of real instruments in a
real space.
As a dramatic test of our theory, we’ve played
our master recordings of hand-bell choirs recorded in
a church or cathedral (predominantly high frequencies
with some mid-range and no bass).
Sophisticated skeptics (an oxymoron?) are dumb-
founded when they hear the ambient soundfield
collapse when we use one monaural woofer instead of
a stereo pair. (Of course, the bass level was precisely
adjusted to match that of two woofers when one
woofer was played).
It’s important to note that the practice of using
two subwoofers for home theater does not solve the
problem for music. Although there are two subwoofers,
they are both getting the same monaural signal from
the A/V processor, so the stereo sound-field informa-
tion on your CDs or LPs is still irretrievably lost.
In fact, increasing the mono bass channel to even
more output than is required adds nothing to the acous-
tic signature of the space. As a high-end designer, I typi-
cally wouldn’t install a single subwoofer in a music sys-
tem due to its detrimental effect on the illusion.
27
27) Why you should forget about reproducing the
most “slam” and the “tightest” bass if you’re in
this hobby for the music.
Forget about reproducing the most “slam” and the
“tightest” bass if you’re in this hobby for the music
(this DOES NOT endorse boomy bass). For example,
some transistorized gear tends to “dry up” the bass,
often robbing it of the weight we hear at live con-
certs. Weight can be subtle or strong in its effect on
the illusion of live music in the home. Weight is fun-
damental in producing the body of an instrument or
voice, its palpability. Without weight, the sound is
disembodied, lacking believability. Weight is a function
of bass quality, as well as bloom (not boom).
Some audiophiles rave over how “tight” the bass
is with certain transistorized electronics, as if tight-
ness alone is a desirable musical attribute. This “tight-
ness” is a drying—a shriveling—of the very founda-
tion of music.
Ask yourself, “Have I ever commented on how
tight the bass was at any acoustic concert? How do
the string basses sound in your concert hall? Aren’t
they gutty, stringy, and resonant?
Along those lines, ask yourself when have you
ever evaluated how much ‘slam’ you heard in a jazz
or blues club? Or in a concert hall?
How about the bass at amplified concerts, includ-
ing most clubs? Can you imagine telling a guitarist that
his carefully selected electric guitar amp (usually always
a tube unit, such as a Marshall) needs tighter bass,
especially since he picked it for its “full and rich” sound?
13
28
28) Why a woofer’s “speed” is irrelevant to bass
quality.
This is another belief that persists in hanging
around with no basis in fact. Looked at another way,
speed is a measure of how many cycles per second a
driver can reproduce with low distortion and flat
frequency response. A “fast” driver is one that can play
high frequencies (say 20 kHz). That’s a Tweeter, not
a Woofer.
What IS desirable is good rise time/transient re-
sponse—and equally as desirable—excellent settling
time. Speakers that exhibit this characteristic are
sometimes said to be “fast.”
Most bass speakers are asked to travel great dis-
tances and then immediately settle down to nothing
to await the next signal. In fact, that never occurs.
The best speakers do a better job of this.
An excellent technique to overcome the problem
is to employ big motors on low mass drivers that have
their peak excursion requirement reduced by using a
horn or multiple drivers.
29
29) Low driver mass alone doesn’t determine
loudspeaker transient response.
Ok, I used to propagate this notion when I worked
as the National Sales Manager for a famous loud-
speaker manufacturer back in the ‘70s. I later found
out I was wrong. But the idea has persisted to this
day. Maybe I did too good of a job…
Here’s an analogy—Suppose you had two NHRA
top fuel dragsters. They both weigh the same (their
mass is equal). What’s required to get one down the
strip faster than the other?
The answer is a more powerful engine. It’s no
different in audio. A driver could theoretically have
twice the mass of another, and still respond as
quickly if it has a twice as powerful magnet/voice
coil “motor.”
Of course, if the motor were equal in strength
with two speakers, then the lower mass unit would
theoretically have the better transient response. Still,
having a “low-mass” driver means absolutely noth-
ing by itself.
14
30
30) Why wide dispersion might be a bad idea
If we don’t have speakers with wide dispersion,
we can’t be real audiophiles. That’s what the Experts
tell us. But which Experts want to talk about speaker
coloration off axis? And how much room reverbera-
tion do we need? In a moment, we’ll examine these
effects.
First, when recording engineers make a record-
ing, they carefully decide how much direct vs. rever-
berant field to include in the recording. When you
listen to the recording, its reverberant field is already
there. So why would a music lover want to create a
false “soundstage” with reflections that are adding to
the originally recorded reverberant field? Recording
engineers use near-field monitors solely to remove any
unwanted room reflections/colorations from their re-
cordings. Again, why would we want our rooms to
introduce a sound that was originally unwanted?
This dubious argument of purposely introducing
reflected sound into music reproduced in the home
was debunked by J. Gordon Holt, in Stereophile in the
’70’s. The product? The Bose 901 (Bose was claiming
89% reflected sound, 11% direct—a ratio they mea-
sured in the concert hall).
Holt correctly pointed out (the lone voice of rea-
son in the face of scores of rave reviews for this “break-
through” concept) that adding 89% more reflections
(to a recording that already had captured most of the
hall sound) was a recipe for sonic disaster. Of course
Bose kept telling the reflected sound story and the rest is
the stuff of marketing legend!
Today we’ve forgotten that lesson from Holt. We
spend lots of time and money in placing acoustic treat-
ments just to absorb or diffuse the reflections from
wide dispersion speakers. But even diffusing the re-
flections doesn’t remove the extra energy. It can add
‘spaciousness’ to the recording, but as usual, there’s
no free lunch…
No matter how wonderfully a speaker performs
on axis, it’ll be badly colored off-axis, especially as the
drivers reach their crossover point and begin to “beam.”
Depending on how colored the speaker is when heard
off-axis (and they all are badly colored off-axis—just look
at their polar responses), we end up diffusing/dispers-
ing some of the worst kind of colorations!
When we add that badly colored sound to the
sound of our rooms, we may have an interestingly
“spacious” sound. What we end up with is “hi-fi,” and
not really related to the live event (even if it’s a multi-
tracked studio recording).
This is essentially the phenomenon known as the
Haas Effect, which basically says that reflections ar-
riving soon after the direct sound will smear (obscure)
inner detail because the late arrival confuses the ear
and prevents discrimination.
“Controlled dispersion” loudspeakers project the
recorded sound with amazing detail because the ear
doesn’t have to decode unwanted and colored reflec-
tions. Why waste our time and money on expensive
room treatments that only serve to further the ad-
vancement of a questionable practice?
31
31) Why digital room “correction” might not be a
good thing
OK, this one is just for you to think about. If you
don’t agree, that’s OK . For a moment, consider how
our ears adapt to what is natural. If your friend speaks
to you in your listening room, from a location between
where your speakers sit, his/her voice will be very
believable. Your ears know the voice and it’s in a
familiar (not necessarily perfect) environment.
If we record that voice in a sound recording booth
(a space generally devoid of room reflections), and play
it back on your system, the voice will be very believable
(assuming any reasonably good loudspeaker). Since
there is no room sound in the recording, it will be as if
your friend is in the room, since the listening room’s
effects are now introduced. In other words, your
friend’s voice wasn’t artificially “corrected.”
Now if we were to introduce mid/high frequency
“room corrections,” that same voice, when played back,
would most likely sound quite unnatural. That’s because
our hearing is wonderfully adaptable. It factors in the
sound of the listening room. When we’ve become
accustomed to a space’s acoustics, changing them to
meet some arbitrarily chosen tailored response may
yield a new sound, but will it actually make instru-
ments sound more like themselves in that room?
There is a stronger case to be made for “room cor-
rections” in the boundary dependent region (perhaps
from 300 Hz down). Most rooms, especially average
or small in size, will have some unfortunate peaks
and valleys in the lower frequencies, caused by stand-
ing waves adding or canceling certain frequencies. In
this low frequency region, the sonic effects of a nasty
peak at 120 Hz are not pleasant. Introducing a notch
here to remove such a peak will make for a more mu-
sically natural sound.
However, you cannot electronically correct for a
cancellation (frequency response dip) that is due to
room effects. A cancellation is still a cancellation. As
you add progressively more output in that region, it
will progressively introduce more cancellation!
If a loudspeaker has a peak somewhere in its 30-
300 Hz response region, that may be corrected, but
generally, when we encounter large peaks and dips in
this region from a good loudspeaker, it’s almost always
a room interaction. Actually the best way to deal with
these—where possible—is to find a better location to
sit (and to some extent, re-locating the speakers).
You’ve Made It!
Well, you’ve survived 31 Secrets to Better Sound! If
you picked up an insight or two, it was worth it to
write all this stuff down. Please drop me a note if you
found any of it worthwhile. Sorry, but I don’t have
time to debate any points—this was a think-piece,
not a basis for arguing differing positions…
Use anything here that seems useful, and then
forget about all this tweaky stuff and listen to some
music! After all, at Avantgarde-USA, when it’s all said
and done, “It’s About the Music…”
All the Best,
Jim Smith
Jim Smith
President, Avantgarde-USA
15
 INDEX TO THE 31 SECRETS TO BETTER SOUND
Part One
Optimizing Your System’s Performance...................2
1) Why you should be sour on a wide “Sweet Spot”.....2
2) Fine tune your tonal balance with stereo separa-
tion and toe-in..............................................................2
3) Set up a grid to begin your speaker installation.......3
4) A simple three-step speaker installation technique
for satisfying results........................................................3
5) Don’t forget to listen at different seating heights....4
6) Don’t consider speaker placement final until you’ve
discovered the correct AC polarity for all components..6
7) Don’t place your components, especially source
components, in areas where there are bass reinforce-
ment modes.....................................................................7
8) Absorb or diffuse the area behind you (if it’s within
4-6 feet)............................................................................7
9) Thou shalt have no reflective surfaces before you.....7
10) Don’t look into a glare when you listen to
music........................................................................7
11) It really does sound better at night.........................8
12) Precise Volume Setting............................................8
13) Bi-amp and get five times the effective power......8
14) Bi-amp vertically......................................................8
15) Bi-amp with similar amps.......................................9
16) When adjusting bass levels with a bi-amplified
system, if you can’t adjust spectral balance to .5dB,
forget about biamping...................................................9
17) When bi-amping, make final tuning adjustments
with vocals and high frequencies..................................9
Avantgarde-USA LLC
6445 Calamar Drive, Cumming, GA 30040
Telephone: 770-777-2095 Fax: 770-777-2108 www.avantgarde-usa.com e-mail: hornguys@aol.com
Copyright © 2001 James F. Smith, Avantgarde-USA LLC
™
18) Angle those panel speakers! (vertically).................9
19) Brace those panels too!..........................................10
20) Equalization vs. notch filters—or—no band boost-
ers here..........................................................................10
21) The moving peak (vibrating seat).........................10
22) Install a wood floor on your existing concrete slab
to improve your sound.................................................11
23) Breaking in your Components—From Cold and
Dead to Warm and Alive..............................................11
24) Vinyl and VTA—listening and compensating—
including temperature shifts—tracking force and the
sound of LPs...................................................................12
25) Fine tune your stereo image with anti-skate.......12
Part Two
Thinking Outside the Box......................................12
26) Don’t believe the “experts” when they tell you
that, since bass is omni-directional, you only need one
subwoofer......................................................................12
27) Why you should forget about reproducing the
most “slam” and the “tightest” bass if you’re in this
hobby for the music......................................................13
28) Why a woofer ’s “speed” is irrelevant to bass
quality...........................................................................14
29) Low driver mass alone doesn’t determine loud-
speaker transient response...........................................14
30) Why wide dispersion might be a bad idea...........14
31) Why digital room “correction” might not be a good
thing.................................................................................15