Verity Audio Tamino - Manual (Page 7)

Tamino OWNER’S MANUAL
V.3.0 March 10, 2004
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. They can be
easily identified by tapping your hands while walking in the
room. They are frequently located at the ceiling corners or at
the center of the ceiling-wall intersections. If flutter echos 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 Tamino performs at its best in lively
listening rooms. Overly damped room will be detrimental to
the Tamino’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 side
walls and the ceiling. They can either be controlled by placing
diffusors or absorbers at their image location. 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 Tamino is an extremely precise instrument that can
clearly reveal the qualities of your upstream equipment. Your
Tamino 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 Tamino 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 Tamino
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 Tamino’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 Tamino has to be played unexpectedly loud before any
occurrence of compression or distortion appears.
Cabinet Resonance
Cabinet resonances are controlled in a very special way. Their
amplitudes are lowered and their frequencies are increased.
Because higher frequencies are more directional, it will be
most unlikely that they get the chance to reach the listening
point. Of course, the listening room has to be properly treated.
Also, traveling high-frequency sonic waves attenuate faster than
their low frequency counterpart. A unique cabinet bracing
arrangement can break a wall resonance into multiple higher