Click here to purchase the entire book in PDF format. Configuration There are some basic rules to follow in the placement of loudspeakers in the listening space. The first and possibly most important rule of thumb is to remember that all loudspeakers should be placed at ear-level and aimed at the listening position. This is particularly applicable to the tweeters in the loudspeaker enclosure. Both of these simple rules are due to the fact that loudspeakers beam - that is to say that they are directional at high frequencies. In addition, you want your reproduced sound stage to be on your horizon, therefore the loudspeakers should be at your height. If it is required to place the loudspeakers higher (or lower) than the horizontal plane occupied by your ears, they should be angled downwards (or upwards) to point at your head. The next issue is one of loudspeaker proximity to boundaries. As we discussed placing a loudspeaker immediately next to a boundary such as a wall will result in a boost of the low frequency components in the device. In addition a loudspeaker placed against a wall will couple much better to room modes in the corresponding dimension, resulting in larger resonant peaks in the room response. As a result, it is typically considered good practice to place loudspeakers on stands at least 1 m from any rigid surface. Of course, there are many situations where this is simply not possible. In these cases, correction of the loudspeaker's response should be considered, either through post-crossover gain manipulation as is possible in many active monitors, or using equalization. There are a couple of other issues to consider in this regard, some of which are covered below in Section 10.2.4.