Angling monitors

[Ericlingus]

Any other you guys angle your monitors downwards at a slight angle? Right now the tweeters are a little too high to be ear level (the subs are ear level). I have them on the auralex Mopads. Also how far do you guys have them away from each other? I can't really position them any further than about 3 1/2 feet.

 

[Random3]

I did a bit of research on this a few weeks back. I am by no means an expert but here's a couple of things I found:

Put the speakers on the narrowest wall of the room facing down the length of the room.

Have the speakers positioned so that they form an equilateral triangle with the listening position. So basically make sure the speakers are as far from each other as they are from you, or the stereo image will be skewed.

Don't angle them down, keep them flat. High frequencies are more directional than bass frequencies, so you need to make sure the tweeters, not the subs, are both level with and pointing at your ears.

If possible, don't position them at exactly half of the height of the room. Unless you are really tall or you have a low ceiling, this shouldn't be an issue anyway.

Most of this is just regurgitated information from elsewhere but hopefully it's as useful for you as it was for me!

 

[AudioGeekZine]

My Focal's have little thumb screws at the bottom to tilt. I'm using that feature because the tweeters are higher than ear level (they sit on top of another set).

How far is about 68". Far enough that left, center and right are 3 distinct positions. most home studios have them half as far apart as they should be.

 

[MrBongo]

Don't angle them down, keep them flat. High frequencies are more directional than bass frequencies, so you need to make sure the tweeters, not the subs, are both level with and pointing at your ears.

it depends. My monitors are made for listening at an angle of 15°. If i turn them to fire directly at me, the top end is distorted like mad (not just pronounced, outright distorted due to the tweeter dome´s characteristics).
Of course you may angle them vertically, if necessary

 

[RoTo]

You should try Isoacoustics stands, they have many different configurations, including the tweeters alignment.

I have the medium size pack (Samson A6) and I couldn't be more happy.

http://www.isoacoustics.com/

About the monitors placement there is a bunch of good advices in http://ehomerecordingstudio.com/

 

[SocialNumb]

My Focal's have little thumb screws at the bottom to tilt. I'm using that feature because the tweeters are higher than ear level (they sit on top of another set).

How far is about 68". Far enough that left, center and right are 3 distinct positions. most home studios have them half as far apart as they should be.

I'm just curious. Where do you get this number? I've never read that before. I've always read that they should be as far apart as you are away from them, "as a starting point", they like to throw in. All vague like answering "use your ears". :Smokedev:

 

[AudioGeekZine]

Got out my measuring tape, they are actually 58" apart from the center of each woofer. Bad guess, sorry.


The far corner of each monitor is 24" from the front wall and 48" from the side.

There was a thread here a year or two ago with some advice, can't be bothered to search for it at this hour.

A lot of people get the equilateral triangle concept wrong. is it the center of your head? the tip of your nose?

Try putting the 3rd point 12-18" behind you so you have some room to move around. The "sweet spot" shouldn't be a small point.

 

[AudioGeekZine]

fuck it, wasn't that hard to find

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/backline/668731-dos-donts-monitor-placement.html

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.

 

[SocialNumb]

Interesting stuff. Thanks for the thread.

I think I've sen it before but it was worth the refresher in any case.