Mackie S515 Owners Manual - Page 7
Placement
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Owner's Manual Placement The S500 Series loudspeakers are designed to sit on the floor or stage. The S512 and S515 may also be polemounted via the built-in socket on the bottom of the cabinet. Be sure the pole is capable of supporting the weight of the loudspeaker. The S525 and S518S are NOT designed to be pole-mounted. WARNING: These cabinets have no rigging points and are not suitable for rigging. NEVER attempt to suspend any S500 Series loudspeaker by its handles. As with any loudspeakers, protect them from moisture. If you are setting them up outdoors, make sure they are under cover if you expect rain. Room Acoustics The S500 Series loudspeakers are designed to sound as neutral as possible. However, room acoustics play a crucial role in the overall performance of a sound system. Here are some placement tips to get the best performance from the S500 Series loudspeakers: • Avoid placing loudspeakers in the corners of a room. This increases the low-frequency output and can cause the sound to be muddy and indistinct. • Highly reverberant rooms, like many gymnasiums and auditoriums, are a nightmare for sound system intelligibility. Multiple reflections off the hard walls, ceiling and floor play havoc with the sound. Depending on the situation, you may be able to take some steps to minimize the reflections, such as putting carpet on the floors, closing draperies to cover large glass windows, or hanging tapestries or other materials on the walls to absorb some of the sound. However, in most cases, these remedies are not possible or practical. So what do you do? Making the sound system louder generally doesn't work because the reflections become louder, too. The best approach is to provide as much direct sound coverage to the audience as possible.. The farther away you are from the loudspeaker, the more prominent will be the reflected sound. Use more speakers strategically placed so they are closer to the back of the audience. If the distance between the front and back speakers is more than 100 feet, you should be able to use a delay processor to time-align the sound. Since sound travels about one foot per millisecond, it takes 1/10 of a second to travel 100 feet. • Avoid placing loudspeakers against a wall. This, too, increases the low-frequency output, though not as much as corner placement. However, if you do need to reinforce the low frequencies, this is a good way to do it. • Avoid placing the loudspeakers directly on a hollow stage floor. A hollow stage can resonate at certain frequencies, causing peaks and dips in the frequency response of the room. It is better to place the loudspeakers on a sturdy table or tripod stands. • Position the loudspeakers so the high-frequency drivers are a foot or more above ear level for the audience. (Make allowances for a standing / dancing-in-the-aisles audience). High frequencies are highly directional and tend to be absorbed much easier than lower frequencies. By providing direct line-of-sight from the loudspeakers to the audience, you increase the overall brightness and intelligibility of the sound system. Owner's Manual 7