DO's and DON'TS of MONITOR PLACEMENT

[AudioGeekZine]

I didn't write this, I saw it in Tape Op and made a difference for me.
I moved my monitors from 4ft to 5ft apart and the image really cleared up.
JeffTD said his were 3ft apart so I'm sure others have similar monitoring situations.

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DO's and DON'TS of MONITOR PLACEMENT - An article by CARL TATZ:

DO'S

1. Do toe in your near field monitors to a 30 degree angle
2. Do space your near-field monitors far enough apart so that the apex of your equilateral triangle is 18 inches behind your head. (recommend 67.5 inches from tweeter to tweeter)
3. Do use speaker stands and implement a decoupling element between the stands and the monitors
4. Do adjust the height of the acoustic center of the speaker (usually midway between the tweeter and midrange) to match the height of the listeners ears.
5. Do experiment by moving the engineer/monitor position back and forth along the length of the room to avoid axial mode nulls.
6. Do attenuate first reflections once you have chosen your positioning by sitting in the listening position and having someone
walk along the right side wall with a mirror until you see the left speaker. Repeat for the left wall and the ceiling as well. Place sound-absorptive panes at the wall and ceiling positions identified
7. Place absorption material on the rear wall

DON'TS

1. Don't assume that your speakers are going to be truly accurate in your room, no matter how much you paid for them or how well your room is acoustically designed
2. Don't use any other angle other than 30 degrees for stereophonic monitoring. The laws of physics determined this for stereophonic listening 50 years ago.
3. Don't mount your monitors on the console. Unless your console has a lot of mass, the console resonance will greatly affect frequency response.
4. Don't use consoles with high backs that prevent proper speaker height positioning.

 

[abt]

I find the equilateral triangle and 30 degree angle confusing. In an equilateral triangle all angles are sixty degrees. I've also heard recently that unless you've got room to keep your monitors a few meters away form the walls behind them you should push them as close to the wall as possible. The theory being this causes things like comb filtering and early reflections to be higher up in the spectrum where they are less of a problem. Again, not from my experience, just some things I read recently and are on my list of things to try.

 

[AudioGeekZine]

30 degree - Shit didn't notice that, I wonder what he means exactly then. Thanks for pointing that out.

speakers up against a wall tend to sound pretty shitty, front or rear ported may also be a factor in how close you place them but I'd still keep them away from the wall whenever possible.

The theory is sound though. but the thing is the speakers need to be actually in the wall for it to work well.

The writer can be found here - http://www.carltatzdesign.com/

edit - sent Carl an email.

 

[006]

I'm pretty sure they mean that the distance of you and the two speakers should be equidistant from each other, making an equilateral triangle. Then the speakers need to be at a 30 degree angle to you, so however wide apart + the distance away from you needs to be for that to happen.

 

[AD Chaos]

My monitors (small MR5s) are only 1,7ft (52cm) apart from each other, and I am just 2ft (60cm) away from the LCD screen that's placed right between them.

I'm not mixing at the moment just working on my tunes.. Should I space them more anyway?
(I'm that close to the screen, because it seems much more comfortable for my eyes)

 

[Wolfeman]

Wow when I built my desk, I made the wings that the speakers sit on 30 deg. Glad I did lol. It's like it was meant to be.

Had no idea about the 18 inches behind thing either. I'm going to have to redo my setup slightly and see how it works out.

 

[jimwilbourne]

My monitors (small MR5s) are only 1,7ft (52cm) apart from each other, and I am just 2ft (60cm) away from the LCD screen that's placed right between them.

I'm not mixing at the moment just working on my tunes.. Should I space them more anyway?
(I'm that close to the screen, because it seems much more comfortable for my eyes)

I have a simular setup. mainly cuz my desk is too small to make them and further apart.

my monitors are about 1.5 feet from the wall as well

but that's my home setup. unfortunately, I do 90% of my mixing at home and maybe 10% at the studio.

 

[AD Chaos]

Mine is a home setup as well. Seems more practical for me that way (not annoying others in the household, not forcing my eyes). I've been thinking about some stands to place them farther apart, but I have no idea if it'd be worth it -specially because I won't move away from the screen..

I can't understand why so many people (on the pictures I've seen) place their computer screens so far back on the desk... unless you use ''only your ears''

 

[Wisheraser]

I've also heard recently that unless you've got room to keep your monitors a few meters away form the walls behind them you should push them as close to the wall as possible. The theory being this causes things like comb filtering and early reflections to be higher up in the spectrum where they are less of a problem.

Not the right terminology (it's actually SBIR related), but yes this is the case. It's not that pushing your monitors up against a wall will make SBIR less of an issue, but that it becomes possible to treat the issue with relative thin absorbers behind your monitors.


http://www.genelec.com/learning-center/presentations-tutorials/placingloudspeakers/freestanding/

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=15591

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/studio-building-acoustics/584207-sbir.html

 

[AudioGeekZine]

I'm pretty sure they mean that the distance of you and the two speakers should be equidistant from each other, making an equilateral triangle. Then the speakers need to be at a 30 degree angle to you, so however wide apart + the distance away from you needs to be for that to happen.

so starting with them parallel to the walls, toe them in 30*. Yeah I think that works.
Where to measure is not stated, but i go from the tweeter

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

So the distance from tweeter to tweeter should be 1.70meters? what? Isn't that a bit too far wide? I've actually had them set up that way before and the stereo image just seemed much more LARGER than I've ever heard before in my life, but I thought that the phantom image got a bit weak, probably was just the fact that I wasn't used to it

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

So the distance from tweeter to tweeter should be 1.70meters? what? Isn't that a bit too far wide? I've actually had them set up that way before and the stereo image just seemed much more LARGER than I've ever heard before in my life, but I thought that the phantom image got a bit weak, probably was just the fact that I wasn't used to it

Keep in mind these are just one man's opinions on the subject. While he has really valid points, not all of them (like the 18 inch rule) are widely agreed upon by his colleagues. What comes to spacing the monitors, it's much more about your room, no magical number there. My monitors are currently about 130cm apart (tweeter to tweeter), because otherwise they would either end up too close to the front wall, or my listening position would have to move backwards near the center of the room.

 

[El_Gato]

Thanks for the info, it worths trying. For those who measure in centimetres, the conversion is already done:

18 inches = 45.7 cm

67.5 in = 171,5 cm

4 ft = 121.92 cm

 

[Williamn]

Interesting.. I actual thought the tweeters should be pointed directly at your ears.

Guess im gonna mess around a bit with the placement later.

 

[John_C]

can anyone link me to something that explains why 30 degrees is important. It's always seemed arbitrary to me and i'd like to find out more

 

[006]

can anyone link me to something that explains why 30 degrees is important. It's always seemed arbitrary to me and i'd like to find out more

2. Don't use any other angle other than 30 degrees for stereophonic monitoring. The laws of physics determined this for stereophonic listening 50 years ago.

^

 

[John_C]

i was actually looking for a little more detail than "coz physics says so"

 

[Wolfeman]

I looked it up too. Can't find any decent documentation, but there are plenty of articles that simply state 'Because the experts say so'. Hmmm.

 

[jipchen]

It's because of the physiology of the human head..
I don't know why but in Germany the term "Stereodreieck" (stereo-triangle) is well-known but I couldn't find an appropriate expression in english.

http://buschmeier.org/bh/study/soundperception/
All angles of the stereo triangle are 60° and so the speakers are angled 30°, from the listeners point of view.

 

[Erik Monsonis]

When they say 30º they mean 30º against the perpendicular axis of the table against the wall, so the lateral border, meaning the actual triangle between the 2 speakers and the imaginary point behind your head is equilateral (30º + 60º = 90º).