Question for Carver ALS owners

skipf

Do any of you use the ECS-U speaker control module? Does it make a noticable improvement in the sound? I understand it is to balance the speaker output to the room, but I'm not sure. Any help would be appreciated.

amulford

The ECS-U is to trim or tailor the output of the speaker to suit room accoustics. Say you have a room with thin walls, a hard floor and ceiling; by nature of the room the lows are going to be lost to the wall flexibilty and the highs are going to be harsh and sibilant because of reflection. It will let you boost the output of the lows and trim back the high output.

Does it make a difference? I think so. I have one I used with my Platinums. It helps out. I use the sub base , but not the Sonic Holograpy or Grundy perspective, I feel they add too much colorization for my tastes.

skipf

Thanks Amulford, that's what I thought it was for. It will come in handy in my music room when I get it built. Will be all concrete until I can get the wall, floor and ceiling treatments in.

reeltrouble1

If I might add to my good friend. The basic normal Q is .7, now the damper should be connected between your pre and your amp. Due to their Di-pole the speakers have been designed to cancel reflections 90 degrees off axis, this allows the music to float in the air, making the holographic image and so on, you get true direct radiation from the ribbons.

Now the woofers are quite different and dependant on room size, the trapezoid design will prevent the formation of some egetones, however, the damper may be connected should the bass sound to boomy a Q of .5 is very damped, should this remove to much bass adjust accordingly, there is no right or wrong way, some folks need to use it some do not.

You need an amp of high current design to drive these speakers your silver 9t's will do the job if I remember correctly they are 44 ampres pk2pk. Your toe in should be around 1" with a tilt of 7" inches, you can play with the toe in a bit, you can place the ALS close to the wall, they are designed to be transparent to back reflections, they utilize the few milliseconds of back reflection to really generate that sonic image which is so impressive, a heavy drape against the back wall can be beneficial.

OK, hope that adds a bit, enjoy them they are truly something special in the land of audio specifically speakers.

RT1

skipf

Thanks RT1,
I always heard that the ALS had to be placed about 3 feet out from the wall. It's good to hear you have found differently. Gives much more flexability with the room if I can place them closer to the wall. I do plan on putting drapes or waffle type sound absorptive panels on the wall behind the speakers and some sound baffles on the ceiling. My listening room will be about 12'x20' with a 8-9' ceiling height. I plan to put the speakers on the 12' wall, or would placing them on the 20' wall at 1/4 points be better? That should put the sweet spot about 8'-8" from the speakers.

reeltrouble1

Well I dont see why you could not put them on the 12' wall, you will want to keep them at least 8" from any sidewalls. Placement points for me are just guidelines to begin with, if you want to move them out from the wall you can, you just do not have too with their design. This helps with setup as they are so large and heavy.

Remember you still want some back wall reflection. I have one pair of mine pulled out 15 inches right now, sounds nice.

RT1