Verity Audio Sarastro IIS - Manual (Page 7)

SARASTRO II OWNER’S MANUAL
R.2.0 September 2009
VERITY AUDIO
PAGE 7
You should always start to position your speakers without
any treatment. If speaker positioning cannot solve standing
waves or reverberation problems read the following.
The principal design factor for internal acoustics of a room,
in addition to shape and size, is the control of sound
absorption and reflection. The total absorption required to
give optimum reverberation is inherent to your room
characteristics, i.e., which surfaces are absorptive or
reflective, the area of these surfaces and the selection of
acoustical materials.
A flutter echo is a rapid (usually regular) succession of
reflected pulses resulting from a single pulse. Clapping
your hands while walking in the room can easily identify
them. They are frequently located at the ceiling corners or
at the center of the ceiling-wall intersections. If flutter
echoes are prominent, please consult your dealer to get
proper assistance on that matter.
The reverberation in the room is the resulting tendency
for sound level in the room to persist after direct sound
ceases. The optimum reverberation time for a room
depends upon room volume, sound frequency, and the
type of sound or reproduced music. The SARASTRO II
performs at its best in lively listening rooms. Overly
damped room will be detrimental to the SARASTRO II’s
performance. Optimum reverberation time (at 500 to 1,000
Hz) should be between 0.4 and 0.6 second.
Standing waves are reflections from opposing parallel
surfaces resulting in serious peaks in the reverberation-
time / frequency curve. In properly proportioned rooms,
resonances can be effectively reduced and standing waves
practically eliminated by introducing numerous sound
treatment devices. The object is to prevent sound reflection
from going back to the point of origin until after several
reflections and/or after being considerably attenuated.
Once again if you feel having a standing wave problem in
your room, please consult your dealer to get proper
assistance on this matter.
Early reflections are the first sound reflections heard at
the listening position. They are usually intense and
annoying. In order of importance, they usually come from
the floor, the sidewalls and the ceiling. Placing diffusors or
absorbers at their image location can either control them.
Your dealer can be of good assistance in properly helping
you with this matter.
In an already well-damped room, we recommend
utilization of diffusion instead of damping.
If you choose to work with a specialized room treatment
device, the included manufacturer’s instructions should be
followed. Ancillary Equipment
Your new SARASTRO II is an extremely precise instrument
that can clearly reveal the qualities of your upstream
equipment. Your SARASTRO II performance will be closely
related to the excellence of its associated equipment.
Subsequently, it would be wise to invest in high-quality
ancillary equipment as your enjoyment will be
consequently rewarded.
The SARASTRO II shows an easy impedance load for most
power amplifiers. It has been evaluated with a wide variety
of power amplifiers and has shown consistent results with
quality solid state and vacuum tube equipment. Superb
performance can be realized from either design.
The uniquely designed and manufactured binding-posts on
the Verity Audio SARASTRO II
accept banana plugs, spade
connectors or bare wires. For best results, we recommend
the use of spade connectors.
When choosing speaker cables, experimentation is the best
way to find which ones will be the most satisfying in your
installation. Your Verity Audio Dealer can be of assistance
in making recommendations.
Power Handling
The power tolerance of a loudspeaker is correlated to its
maximum voice-coil heat dissipation and to its maximum
cone displacement. These parameters are in turn
stimulated by the time, amplitude and spectral
characteristics of the applied musical energy. At low
frequencies, the maximum cone displacement is normally
reached before maximum voice-coil temperature.
With the SARASTRO II’s transducers, because of their
superior ventilation system, the voice-coils will most likely
never reach critical temperatures. But, low frequencies
played at high levels can ask for larger cone displacement
than allowed by the driver suspension. A driver reaching its
maximum displacement will not break unless this situation
is maintained for an inordinate period of time. Before a
driver reaches its maximum displacement, its distortion
level will increase greatly and will become audible. So when
a speaker starts sounding bright and hard or if any
“cracking noise” can be heard, just lower the level until it
sounds comfortable again.
The SARASTRO II has to be played unexpectedly loud
before any occurrence of compression or distortion
appears.