THE BEST AMPLIFICATION FOR FIDELITY
These speakers are honest. They let you hear exactly what the limitations of all preced-
ing gear is. Bad recordings will sound bad. Good recordings will sound REAL. The fi-
delity of any system is restricted by the weakest link in the component chain. This is
usually the source, followed by amplification. High quality Tube gear is recommended.
Ideally ours.
HOOKING YOUR SPEAKERS UP
There are standard binding posts located fairly high up on the cabinet back. This was
done to keep the wire connecting the binding posts and the speaker as short as possi-
ble. These will accept bare wire up to 8 gauge, or spade connectors and are marked
RED (+) and BLACK (-). These connectors will also accept banana jacks. We recom-
mend decent quality speaker cables. Lamp cord or similar budget wire will hamper the
clarity and smoothness of the speaker.
ABSOLUTE PHASE
Just because your equipment is market with (+) and (-) doesn’t guarantee your bottom
line absolute phase will be correct. Absolute phase is a subtle thing that effect image
placement in the sound stage, and sometimes even frequency balance to a small de-
gree. Any piece of audio gear from your source to your amplifiers can and does change
absolute phase, usually several times. Lots of audio gear flips absolute phase without
flipping it back again. This can be a source, phono stage, preamp, crossover, power
amp etc. It is a good idea every so often to reverse the (+) and (-) wires on both
speakers to flip the absolute phase and then listen carefully to see which way sounds
better. This should be done every time a component in your system changes.
PLACEMENT and BASS RESPONSE
These speakers have wonderfully accurate bass response. However, in smaller un-
treated listening rooms bass frequencies can accumulate and create a bass peak fol-
lowed by the inability to hear very low bass. If you are in a small space and have to
place your speakers in close proximity to walls or corners you may find the bass is too
strong. In the back of the speaker cabinet at the bottom is a rectangle port that can
be plugged to reduce bass output.
PLACEMENT AND IMAGING
Provided you have a healthy and happy stereo set, you’ll probably notice right away
that these speakers image unusually well. They can disappear at distances of only 4
feet from your kneecaps. They are so good in this department that when compared to
other single driver full range speaker designs you may feel like it really doesn’t matter
where you put them. If this happens, please realize that just because the sound you’re
hearing is better then what you had doesn’t mean it’s right. Take the time to experi-
ment with placement during the first few weeks. In the smaller room shown on the
cover of this manual the speakers are ideally placed. The sound stage goes well beyond
HDT206EM OWNERS MANUAL
