Pro Ject Speaker Strauss User Manual

4. Ma rc h 2004  
CABINETS  
Our speaker designs feature massive and inert cabinet  
construction. Vienna Acoustics cabinets are designed with the  
latest computer modelling techniques and use a combination  
of amorphous materials in order to ensure that they are both  
stiff and well damped. Additionally, our designs feature narrow  
front baffles in order to promote accurate imaging. The  
combination of precise build construction using furniture grade  
finishing techniques and complex internal damping produce  
designs capable of accurately rendering music.  
CONNECTIONS  
The massive Vienna Acoustics input terminals are designed to  
accept banana plugs, spade terminals or bare wire connec-  
tion. Make certain that all connections are well tightened  
since poor contact between speaker cable and input  
connector can lead to degradation of sound quality.  
It is also a good idea to make a point of regularly cleaning all  
connections in your system since oxidation will build up on a  
regular basis. We use gold plated terminals which do not  
oxidize, but contaminants or surface build-up on your spea-  
ker cables and connectors may degrade sound quality.  
While it is popular among some audiophile circles to fit  
duplicate sets of binding posts for "bi-wiring", we have cho-  
sen to follow sound engineering practises. Our crossovers are  
configured as an organic whole, intended to optimize every  
known aspect of driver integration.  
It is our belief that with the high quality of wire currently  
available, it is in most cases possible to obtain higher  
performance from a single run of superior cable to two lesser  
runs of cable. By keeping a single ground plane in our  
 
correlation to either sound quality or drive capability the user  
is cautioned that amplifiers of low wattage ratings, when  
stressed beyond their limits will produce audible amounts of  
distortion. This distortion can and will damage loudspeaker  
components and will not be covered by warranty.  
BURNING OR BREAKING IN NEW  
LOUDSPEAKERS  
Your loudspeakers contain a large number of precision built  
moving parts. These parts require playing time initially to  
develop their maximum smoothness and extension. Very  
audible improvements can be observed during about 30 hours  
of playing. Additional improvements will be evident after 100  
hours of playing time, at which point the speakers have  
reached their full musical potential.  
POSITIONING  
Room acoustics and positioning of the speakers within the  
room have an important effect on sound quality. To find the  
optimal position for your speakers we offer the following hints:  
FREE AIR SET-UP  
If the room is large and space permits, allow a minimum of 1  
meter away from the rear wall (the wall behind the spea-  
kers). Small movements of the speaker forwards and  
backwards will establish where a speaker sits most com-  
fortably. Find the location that gives a full balance without  
sounding heavy.  
Remember, in a free air set-up the distance from the rear wall  
determines how low the speaker will go in a room and also  
determines depth of image. Positioning too close to a  
 
rear wall may boost the middle bass frequencies and rob the  
speaker of some transparency and precision. In general, it is  
best to avoid corner placement of loudspeakers since  
the  
bass tends to become exaggerated and corners rarely are an  
optimal placement for image quality.  
NEAR WALL POSITIONING  
Many people will simply find it undesirable or disruptive to  
place speakers in "free space", that is well away from the  
back wall. Vienna Acoustics loudspeakers may be set-up close  
to a rear wall, though keep in mind that less toe-in, as  
described below, will probably be needed. When working close  
to a rear wall, even the tiniest movements will have a  
relatively important effect on sound quality. Work slowly and  
methodically, following the instructions below and good sound  
quality can be achieved.  
DISTANCE BETWEEN THE  
SPEAKERS AND TOE-IN  
Most stereo systems are set-up with their speakers too close  
together. As a rough guideline, the distance between spea-  
kers should be about 70 % of the room width as a star-ting  
point, assuming that your speakers are aiming down the  
length of the room.  
Too close together and they will create "ghost" images,  
double images that blur clarity and focus. Too far apart and  
they will begin sounding thin and in extreme cases, will create  
separate left and right soundstages. Move them inwards and  
outwards, again in small movements as though you were  
adjusting the image on a pair of binoculars until a single well-  
unified image is obtained.  
 
Toe-In: In an ideal room, the speakers may be set-up so that  
the speakers fire directly forward. For the rest of us, some  
degree of toe-in, that is rotating the speakers cabinets until  
they point at the listener is desirable. Toe-in reduces sidewall  
reflections of the mid and upper frequencies. Though one  
might reasonably conclude that aiming a speaker at the  
listener would result in a brighter sound, this is actually NOT  
the case. Toeing a speaker inward will result in a smoother,  
warmer and usually more focused sound.  
Important Tip:  
The distance between speakers is interrelated to the degree  
of toe-in. If a speaker loses clarity from toeing in, try  
increasing the distance between them slightly. This will have  
the effect of "opening up" the speaker and restoring clarity.  
ROOM TREATMENT  
Good sounding rooms have a well-balanced acoustic. This  
does not mean that your home should look like a recording  
studio. Commonly found furnishing such as bookshelves,  
carpeting and furniture all exhibit beneficial amount of  
absorption and dispersion. Rooms with little furniture,  
carpeting or other surfaces will demonstrate poor damping and  
will produce a hard, bright sound.  
As a general rule, it is helpful to have more of these sorts of  
things in the space immediately around the speakers than  
scattered throughout the space. A thick carpet or area rug  
mounted between your listening position and the speakers is  
of tremendous benefit in controlling reflections off the floor.  
Tapestries, hanging rugs and/or drapes on the side walls hung  
slightly ahead of the speaker position will damp reflections off  
these surfaces.  
 
OPTIONAL SANDFILLING  
Some of our floorstanding models feature an additional hidden  
chamber accessible through the base that may be sand filled  
for the final touch in system tuning. Sand filling is an  
easy and cheap way to improve the reproduction of the bass  
range. It raises the weight and stability of the system and  
quiets the enclosures throughout a remarkable damping  
effect. To fill in the sand, put the speaker on the top on a  
soft cloth to protect the cabinet. Then fill in the sand through  
the central hole at the base until the chamber is completely  
filled up and seal it with the black stubble.  
!Do not use moist sand - it can damage the wooden cabinet!  
MAINTENANCE  
Your speaker cabinets can be cleaned periodically with a soft,  
slightly damp cloth. It is not necessary to wax them. Our  
cabinets feature a smooth but strong finish. Still, please keep  
them out of direct sunlight and heat, since the colour of the  
veneer would pale. Should the bass drivers become dusty, it  
is safe to use a soft brush to clean the woofers.  
* Under NO circumstances should you attempt to clean dust  
from the tweeter. Doing so will damage the delicate silk  
domes.  
 
Additional Instructions  
for  
STRAUSS  
Please take care of further important features of STRAUSS: On the backside of  
STRAUSS, on the terminal, under the binding posts, you will find a sinking,  
housing a tiny switch, possible to be moved by any sharp toollike a spike. This  
is an important room tuning aid: It allows you to influence high frequencies.  
Symbols:  
N
is for Neutral  
-
is for smoothened tweeter response.  
This switch provides you with the perfection in room tuning: In Neutral-position  
the switch has no connection to the crossover, but with the lowering switch  
position you are able to fine-tune on conditions like bright sounding, reflective  
rooms, echoing undamped walls, or any other “cold” circumstances like  
analytical electronic environment, gaining back the so important natural  
balance.  
You can influence STRAUSS´ environment not only with the switches, but by  
positioning STRAUSS regarding his basses on the side. As they are mounted on  
one side of the cabinet (left and right speaker), it is possible to let them fire  
inwards or outwards and so to influence the bass response to match room  
acoustic. This room-tuning is made possible by the bass-modes in a room,  
which change immediately by being stimulated on different places. As an  
indication, in most cases a positioning with basses outwards creates a more  
powerful bass response, whereas basses inwards tend to more slender bass  
reaction. We suggest to start with position “outwards“.  
Base mounting:  
The beautiful lyric base decouples the frontplate and features a choice of  
adjustable 3-spike-point or 4-spike-point application:  
We suggest to use the 4-spike-point application, both for perfect weight  
allocation (when fine-tuned thoroughly by yourself with adjusting the spikes to  
the surface of your floor), and for maximum safety in terms of stability.  
The 3-spike-point application provides the weight allocation automatically, but  
may only be used in safe circumstances, with no persons or animals possible  
to collide with the speaker however.  
 

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