Niles Audio DS6300AT, DS6500AT User Manual
B LENDING H IGH F IDELITY
AND
A R CHITECTURE
®
INSTALLATION & OPERATION GUIDE
®
MODELS
DIRECTED SOUNDFIELD
DS6300AT
DIRECTED SOUNDFIELD
DS6500AT
Congratulations!
Thank you for choosing a Directed Soundfield Ceiling Mount Loudspeaker from Niles.
With proper installation and operation, you'll enjoy years of trouble-free use.
Niles manufactures the industry's most complete line of custom installation
components and accessories for audio/video systems. For a free full line catalog
write:
Niles, Catalog Request, P.O. Box 160818, Miami, Florida 33116-0818
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 2
FEATURES AND BENEFITS 2
INSTALLATION CONSIDERATIONS 4
SPEAKER PLACEMENT 6
INSTALLATION FUNDAMENTALS 9
INSTALLATION IN NEW CONSTRUCTION 13
INSTALLATION IN EXISTING CONSTRUCTION 14
FINAL INSTALLATION IN NEW OR EXISTING CONSTRUCTION 15
OPERATION 17
SPECIFICATIONS 18
WAR RA NTY REGISTRATION CARD 21
LIMITED WARRANTY 22
2
Features and Benefits
Introduction
Features and Benefits
Fully pivoting woofer and tweeter
A pivoting woofer assembly can adjust up
to 15° focusing bass and midrange tones
directly at the listening area for superb
imaging and unparalleled clarity. Within
the woofer assembly, the tweeter is housed
in its own low-diffraction pivoting assembly
that can adjust up to 17° in any direction to
create direct or diffused sound fields.
No-Strip Speaker Terminal
Niles patented No-Strip terminal enables
speakers to be connected without stripping the speaker wire. No-Strip terminals
eliminate fumbling with wire strippers and
input terminals. They are color coded and
plug into the crossover circuit boards on
the back of Niles speakers, resulting in
positive in-phase connections every time.
Moisture and UV Resistant
Construction
The DS6300AT and DS6500AT loudspeakers are suitable for use in high moisture environments. The drivers are resistant to moisture and UV exposure; the
grille is made of powder-coated aluminum. However, the speakers are not
waterproof and direct contact with water
should be avoided.
Engineered for Ceiling Placement
The increased popularity of cathedral and
vaulted ceilings pose a distinct sonic challenge for conventional ceiling loudspeakers. That is because conventional ceiling
speakers radiate sound perpendicular to
their mounting surface, which usually is
not where the listening area is. DS
Directed Soundfield Loudspeakers overcome this challenge and allow sound to
be directed into the listening area regardless of ceiling angle.
Installer Selectable Acoustic
Fine Tuning
Installers can select to fine tune the bass or
treble to accommodate reflective surfaces
and corner loading. This selection is
accomplished via the baffle-mounted treble control (-1.5dB, flat and +1.5dB) and
PC board mounted bass jumper (flat, -1dB,
and -2dB).
4 or 8 ohm Selectable Impedance
The DS6300AT and DS6500AT give the
installer flexibility to select the speaker’s
impedance — 4 ohms for systems where
maximum current transfer and output
level is desired; 8 ohms for systems utilizing multiple speaker pairs where amplifier
loading is a consideration.
MicroPerf™Grilles
The DS6300AT and DS6500AT employ
Niles exclusive MicroPerf grille construction. The exceptionally tight hole pattern
provides acoustic transparency at all audio
frequencies and enables the speaker elements to remain invisible. MicroPerf
grilles can also be painted to blend seemlessly with the surrounding decor.
Niles new DS Directed Soundfield loudspeakers feature a fully adjustable, independently pivoting, woofer and tweeter
that enables the loudspeakers to accurately recreate high fidelity sound
regardless of where they are located in
the ceiling — preserving interior design
integrity and delivering life-like sonic
quality that is not available from conventional ceiling speakers.
Easy Installation
The DS6300AT and DS6500AT employ a
bracketless mounting system in existing
ceilings. Simply cut a hole in the mounting surface, install the frame by tighten the
four mounting “dogs” via the front panel
screws. The dogs first swivel 90°, then
clamp the speaker frame to the drywall as
you tighten the screws.
Twist & Lock Baffle
Patent-pending two-piece twist and lock
baffle and frame mechanism facilitates
quick installations. Moreover, it allows
trouble-free upgrades or repairs.
Hole Saving Bracket
Available as an optional accessory, DS6
Series New Construction Brackets can be
installed as a “hole-saver” before the drywall goes up. The drywall contractor cuts
the holes as the drywall is installed, reducing installation time and minimizing the
chance for lost wires.
Features and Benefits
3
Recommended Amplifier Power
For satisfactory performance, we recommend an amplifier with a power rating of
10 to 150 watts for the DS6300AT and 10
to 200 watts for the DS6500AT. Curiously,
most speakers are not damaged by large
amplifiers but by small amplifiers. If your
system is playing loudly, a small amplifier
will run out of power very quickly. When
an amplifier runs out of power it creates
damaging “clipping” distortion. A large
amplifier will play at the same volume
without distorting. See the section on
operating the speakers for more information about clipping distortion.
Installation Considerations
4
Figure 1
The illustration shows how a
typical DS loudspeaker mounts
into a ceiling.
Installation Considerations
New Construction Bracket serves as a
“hole saver” when drywall has not
been applied. It is not necessary when
retrofitting to existing ceilings.
Knockout wire tie allows the wire to be
secured to the bracket throughout the
new construction process. It knocks
out cleanly when the speaker is
installed.
New construction wings
instantly snap into the
bracket without screws.
Wings are scored for
easy size trimming.
Brackets and wings
attach to the ceiling joists
with nails or screws.
Dogs swivel 90°, then
clamp the speaker
frame to the drywall.
Frames are molded with a
slight texture to assure
good paint adhesion.
Mounting screws tighten the
“dogs”, clamping the speaker
to the drywall.
Rust-proof aluminum grilles make the DS
series perfect for moist environments.
Figure 2 Connect the wires and place the speaker in the frame, twist and lock.
Incorporating a Local Volume Control
In a multiroom system there is one indispensible device for true convenience—a
local volume control. It enables you to
adjust the volume of the speakers without
leaving the room.
Plan to wire the system so that each pair
of speakers has its own volume control
built into the wall (think of a volume control as a dimmer switch for sound).
Niles makes a wide range of high performance indoor and outdoor volume controls. They are available in Standard or
Decora
®
style cover plates (just like your
light switches and dimmers). Volume controls are connected in line with the speaker, so you must connect the wire from the
amplifier to the volume control and then
from the volume control to the speaker.
Speaker Wire
Use 2-conductor speaker wire when connecting DS6300AT and DS6500AT
speakers to your receiver or amplifier. For
most applications, we recommend you
use 16 or 18 gauge stranded wire. For
wiring runs longer than 80 feet we recommend 14 gauge stranded wire. The nostrip terminals of the DS speakers will
accommodate 12 to 18 gauge wire.
When you run wire inside walls, special
jacketing (CL-2 or CL-3) is required to
both protect the wire and for fire prevention. In some areas conduit is required.
For a trouble-free installation, low voltage
wire such as speaker wire must be run in
accordance with the National Electrical
Code and any applicable provisions of the
local building code. If you are unsure of
the correct installation techniques, wire
jacket or type of conduit to use, consult a
professional audio/video installer, your
building contractor, or the local building
and inspection department.
Incorporating Remote Control
If your stereo system operates with a wireless Infrared (IR) remote control, consider
the advantages of installing a Niles Infrared
Extender System. Niles manufactures a
number of concealable IR sensors and wall
mounted keypads which send a copy of
your hand-held remote command via a
wire to your main equipment location,
where it is repeated to your stereo system.
The wire is typically installed with the
speaker wire, since the speaker signal and
the IR signal will not interfere with each
other. This makes almost no difference to
the installation time, and the cost of the
recommended IR control cable (West Penn
D291 or equivalent) is reasonable.
The correct routing for IR control cable is
to home run an IR control cable from the
main equipment location beside the
speaker wire to the planned volume control location; and then on to the proposed
sensor location. The combination of IR
control cable and speaker wire enables a
programmable Niles IntelliPad
®
to be
installed at a later date (the IntelliPad has a
convenient speaker mute feature in addition to automating and controlling your
stereo system). An IR sensor is best placed
where it is convenient for you to point the
hand-held remote. Both an IntelliPad and
an IR sensor can be connected in one
room with one home run IR control cable.
Insulation Behind The Speaker
For best performance from your speakers
lay a batten of fiberglass insulation (example: R-19 un-batted insulation) on top of
the speaker. Try to keep the same amount
of insulation for each speaker, particularly
in the same room, for consistent bass
response.
5
Installation Considerations
TECH TIP
Wire size is expressed by
its AWG (American Wire
Gauge) number. The lower
the number, the larger the
wire, i.e. 12 AWG is physically larger than 14 AWG.
6
Introduction
Although the DS6300AT and DS6500AT
have extensive ability to compensate for
unusual placements with their unique pivoting woofers, tweeters and acoustic finetuning switches, placement is still the primary tool for satisfying your particular listening needs. In this section, we discuss
how speakers should be placed and how
woofers and tweeters should be directed
and how the acoustic fine-tuning switches
should be set for different purposes.
Placement for Critical Listening
If you like to imagine that the band or
orchestra is playing in front of you as you
listen to music, or you are very conscious
of clarity, detail and the textures of the
individual instruments, or you listen critically to movie soundtracks or music
videos in your home theater, you will
need your speakers placed so that they are
optimized for critical listening. Here are
some guidelines to make the process of
placement quick and easy.
Make sure the sound will not be blocked
or reflected off of furniture or other
objects. You should have a direct line of
sight with the front of the speaker. To
determine the best position, measure the
“listening” distance between the ideal listening position (your favorite chair or
couch) and the location in which you plan
to install the speakers. Try to place the
speakers so that they are equally distant
from your listening spot and at least one
half of the listening distance apart (this
maintains a large pleasant stereo “image”).
In home theater applications where there
is a center channel you may choose to
space the left and right main speakers farther apart for a “bigger than life” sound
with Dolby
®
encoded movies and TV
shows. However, for combined music and
movie usage stay within the
good place-
ment zone
for music. For example; if you
are ten feet back from the speakers, the
speakers should be between five and ten
feet apart
(See Figure 4).
Woofers and tweeters should be directed
at the listening position.
Speaker Placement
10 '
5' 10 '
Figure 4
In this example,
the speakers
could be
placed from
five to 10 feet
apart, since the
listener is 10
feet back from
the speakers
Direct woofer and
tweeter towards
listener
Direct woofer and
tweeter towards
listener
Critical
Listening
Position
Speaker Placement
Placement for Varying
Listening Positions
If you want the freedom to sit anywhere in
a room facing any direction, and/or find
that you prefer the “all around you” sound
of some car stereos to a conventional
“sound stage” facing you, consider the
speaker placement techniques professional installers use in restaurants and bars.
They place speakers in an array around
the listening area, so that the music is
always surrounding you, regardless of the
direction you face.
The rule of thumb is to add one pair of
speakers for every 100 to 200 square feet
of listening area. Curiously, this is not so
that you can play the music louder, but so
that you can play it softer! When you
have only one pair of speakers in a large
room you will notice that when the sound
is perfect in one part of the room, it is too
loud near the speakers. By placing more
than one pair in the room you will avoid
these “hot spots” of loud sound and you
will create more sonic ambiance while
maintaining clarity and a rich sound
everywhere
(See Figure 5).
You can make listener position still less
critical by using mono rather than stereo.
This can be difficult to achieve with normal stereo amplifiers. However, Niles
manufactures Systems Integration
Amplifiers
®
which enable one room to be
wired in stereo while other rooms are
wired in mono! Consult your local Niles
dealer for more information.
In smaller rooms or rooms that are infrequently used, you typically can’t justify the
expense of more than two speakers. Try to
bracket the room with the two speakers.
Diagonal placement is a very effective way
to stretch the coverage pattern of two
speakers. You can also compromise
between direct sound (for detail and clarity) and reflected sound (the ambient or “all
around you” effect). The speakers can be
placed near corners to create more reflected sound. By directing the tweeters to
point away from the listener, so they create
as much reflected sound as possible, you
emphasize the ambient effect. The more
reflected sound there is in the room the
stronger the ambient effect at low volumes.
You should use moderation, however, otherwise the compromise becomes too one
sided and at high volumes, the sound will
be blurred and less distinct.
Placement for Home Theater
Rear Applications
In a home theater, the goal is to reproduce
the experience of a great movie theater in
our homes. The biggest difference between
the two is the rear or surround speaker
array in a commercial theater. Here, it is
not uncommon to see twenty or thirty
speakers around the audience. This huge
array of speakers assures that you will feel
completely surrounded by the ambient
soundtrack of the movie. Film makers try
to use the “surround” soundtrack to envelope you in the environment on screen.
They will place background music, rain
sounds, traffic noise, etc. on the “surround”
soundtrack. In a home with a single pair of
speakers it is easy for the jungle sounds to
sound like they are “in the middle of your
head” just like headphones!
A single pair of DS6300AT and DS6500AT
Loudspeakers, properly placed, can create
a very convincing simulation of an array
of speakers. If you place them near a hard
reflecting surface you can make one pair
of speakers sound like several. Create as
many reflections as possible by placing
the speakers near a corner so that the
adjoining walls will act as a powerful
reflector. Direct the tweeters so that sound
is pointed away form the listener creating
still more reflections and thus more “surround sound” effect. However, as you
7
Speaker Placement
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