Beolab 5 calibration mic position

Hi,

My BL5 are placed in the middle of my living room (+/- 3.5 m apart from each other) and close to the wall behind them (+/- 0.5 m). My listening position (sweet spot) is +/- 2.5 m perpendicularly from the speakers.

Even though the BL5 have a great off-axis horizontal dispersion, I've rotated them pointing to the sweet spot for aesthetics reasons...

 

Now, the tricky part: does anyone know if I have to rotate the speakers, so that the calibration mic is perpendicular to the wall behind them, before triggering the calibration process?

 

Cheers, Dante. 

No! Calibrate in listening positon

Barry Santini:

No! Calibrate in listening positon

I think what he means is that the microphone might fail to correctly detect the distance and reverb of the wall if not placed as it probably was designed, to measure it directly behind itself. Since the speakers themselves are round, the change won't do anything really to the speakers low frequency noises, just "help" the microphone.

It's a tricky question and I think that since the microphone is not stereo, the reason to change it is less interesting since there won't be two different readings. I don't think the distance will make for much change either.

Maybe best if Geoff can answer this one

Given the long wavelengths of bass notes I doubt it make any difference. Wavelength at 20 Hz is 56.5 feet.

Hi,

The earlier answer is correct: place your speakers, then calibrate. If you move them (rotation is included as a movement) then re-calibrate.

Note that the ABC measurement does not measure things like distances to walls. It measures the radiation resistance on the loudspeaker. On other words, it "sees" the entire room as a "thing" that "pushes back" on the loudspeakers' radiation differently at different frequencies. That resistance is, in effect, a measurement of the entire room's "magnitude response" effect on the loudspeaker in its location. It cannot "see" individual discrete objects or attributes of the room (like distance to walls) - although changing objects, their locations, or the wall distances, will have a resulting effect on the radiation resistance.

Cheers
-geoff