DO's and DON'TS of MONITOR PLACEMENT

[fatalforce]

Okay, I got a huge answer from Mr. Sengpiel.. I'll try to sum it up and translate it:
The stereo-triangle with its 60° angles as we know it, is basically an empiric result.
Lots of practical experience and experiments just lead to it, it is a median or starting point for placing two speakers in a stereo listening situation.
An angle too wide creates a hole in the stereo image, and placing the boxes too close to each other (and yourself) narrows the stereo image too much. Plus, if you are too near to the speakers, the phantom centre (you know, the one you get when sitting in the sweet spot) tends to elevate. That's because your brain realizes that it has been tricked into the phantom centre. The effect is called "elevation", can't seem to find it in english but I guess it's the same. As a result, the brain locates the phantom centre higher than the monitors actually are.

A dutch guy named "De Boer" made experiments with two speakers in 1940: He placed them 5 meters from each other and himself 5 meters from the line connecting the speakers.. That resultet in a triangle with two 53° angles. Alan Blumlein hat similar thoughts even earlier.

So 60° (30° angled monitor from the listeners point of view) is only a practical, empiric number that has become an unwritten standard. According to him there's no scientific or divine logic behind it.

Wow, great info. Currently suffering from elevation!

I've also make sure I adhere to the rule of thirds. Like the distance from your side wall and your backwall cannot be less 33% when you divide and such forth.

 

[Loki Laufeyiarson]

I've read somewhere (I believe an old article in music tech magazine) that when placing monitors, you should start out with them in a 90° angle with the backwall and than just slowly start toeing them in until the hole in the center of your stereo image has dissapeared when you're sitting in your listeningposition.

 

[KBMoser]

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

uh yeah because 30 degrees is pointed right at your ear. turn your monitors the other way and you defeat the purpose of listening to reference monitors.

a parallel wall is 0 degrees off axis which is perpendicular to a wall that is 90 degrees apart from it.

90-30 = 60, 3 walls and a listener place the point of most accurate sound within a specific point in an equilateral triangle.

i have mine level with my ears about 40 -50 inches apart and a foot from my wall, but this is fitting because of the size of my setup, i too am 40-50 inches from each speaker. have my sub place between my feet, it should be placed directly between your monitors. get a bigger desk and youll be further away and your speakers will need to be further away from eachother and a couple db louder. i like to lean in on my desk and listen at 30-50 db so this is an appropriate setup for myself.

 

[Emdprodukt]

what about vertical/horicontal setups? Just a preference thing?

 

[John_C]

uh yeah because 30 degrees is pointed right at your ear. turn your monitors the other way and you defeat the purpose of listening to reference monitors.

a parallel wall is 0 degrees off axis which is perpendicular to a wall that is 90 degrees apart from it.

90-30 = 60, 3 walls and a listener place the point of most accurate sound within a specific point in an equilateral triangle.

the first bit i'm just either you completely misunderstood me or I'm completely misunderstanding you. At least i hope it's one of those

second: yes 90 degrees is a right angle and rectangles tend to have those

3rd: might be genuinely on to something, care to link/reference to a reliable source on the subject?