Loudspeaker placement. When it comes to placement of traditional box loudspeakers it is actually possible to think differently with RoomPerfect™, i.e. to break away from conventional ‘free space’ placement. Normally, you need to choose a loudspeaker placement well away from rear and side walls to secure the best possible frequency response. Due to the fact that a traditional box loudspeaker has omnipolar dispersion in the bass region, this ‘free space’ placement has a big disadvantage namely that you actually risk ‘destroying’ the impulse response. The reason for this is that you hear both the direct sound from the speaker and later all the reflections from the walls. The reflections are delayed as a consequence of the distance to the walls and will therefore arrive later thus smearing the ‘attack’ of e.g. a drum beat. Typically back wall reflections are the most annoying because they arrive from the same direction as the direct sound from the loudspeaker. Side wall reflections are easier for the brain to cope with simply because they arrive from another direction. Therefore they are often regarded as adding ambience and localization clues. If you place the loudspeaker close to the back wall the bass reflections from the wall and the direct sound will arrive simultaneously at the listening position – i.e. the impulse response in the bass region can be improved considerably and RoomPerfect™ can easily compensate for the uneven frequency response as a consequence of the placement. So, with RoomPerfect™, it can actually be an advantage to choose what’s normally regarded as a less ideal ‘close wall‘ loudspeaker placement as this will not only improve the impulse response. Also, when compensating for the increased efficiency, the load on both amplifier and loudspeaker is decreased whereby less distortion and better headroom is achieved. And taking energy out of the system also has another advantage since pumping less energy into the room means that room modes are less excited. Thus you achieve a much more even power response across the room – i.e. the differences between peaks and dips in the response are reduced dramatically. In a case like this the RoomCorrection index will also be quite high since correction in the bass region is needed. However, the index number is not high because you have a ‘poor’ system – it’s high just because you have chosen a loudspeaker position that improves the impulse response but then requires compensation for the increased efficiency in the bass region. Try it out and see what works for you – near wall or ‘free space’ placement - RoomPerfect™ works in both cases