Monitor Height (From floor)

[Fox Mulder]

Don't know if this is the right place to post. Anyway...

My room's height is around 10feet. Is there a particular percentage determining how high should the monitors should be in context of the height of the room?

So far I faintly recall reading somewhere that keeping it at less than 50% of the height produces good results.

 

[Ermz]

That's it, similar rule to how to position them length-ways in the room. Don't keep them at 50% and you'll be okay.

Can be difficult, depending on room dimensions. I mean we are only so tall, and our chairs only go so high or low while retaining comfort so it's not like we get a lot of flexibility.

 

[pitoga]

For most persons, 1.20 meters will do the trick. As this is kinda the heigh where our ears are while sitting on a chair. But be careful I'm not talking about the bottom of the speaker, I'm talking about the acoustical centre. Which should be specified by the speakers manufacturer. But in case you can't get that info it's most of the times between the woofer and the tweeter, more towards the tweeter. Keep this in mind and you'll be OK. And what Ermz said is true too, as we don't want the speaker to be standing in a null. If you have to put for any other reasons ( too much gear in front of the speakers) the speakers higher. don't forget to tilt them so that the "radiation" still points to your ear height. I hope I explained myself good enough, I'm not that good in English.

 

[tempe]

I'm going to say that I noticed a improvement in my mixes when I placed my monitors horizontally probably because the tweeters were closer to my ear level, beforehand I was over adding high end. Now things are way more balanced!

 

[ahjteam]

tweeter right above the hear height when sitting down

 

[AudioGeekZine]

I'm going to say that I noticed a improvement in my mixes when I placed my monitors horizontally probably because the tweeters were closer to my ear level, beforehand I was over adding high end. Now things are way more balanced!

tweeter right above the hear height when sitting down

looks like neither of you read the first post or any replies.


going just by acoustic theory, the exact center between two parallel surfaces would be the absolute worst place, that's where the standing wave null of the lowest note would be.
Sitting down its very unlikely your ears would be 5ft from the ground so if you have your speakers around ear height you should avoid that issue.

 

[ahjteam]

looks like neither of you read the first post or any replies.

...which didn't give the same answer as we did? If you want to go technical, go ahead, but there are other variables that can affect a lot more to the listening environment than just the height of the speakers. For example just from the op we don't know like where the listening spot is in the room, if the room is treated or if the guy is a midget or a basketball player, and even the height of an average person varies almost a foot, so the height should vary according to the height of the person sitting down. High frequency content of the tweeters is so directional that it doesn't null easily from the ceiling or walls, but if you have the listening spot in a corner or against a wall, you have already "destroyed" the low end just by positioning.

hugs and kisses,
Anssi

 

[Ermz]

His question was pretty specific. It can be answered satisfactorily without factoring in anything else. Given the nature of his question, he is obviously looking for a position within a 2 dimensional space (so no need to consider side or rear walls for this purpose) that avoids large nulls, and isn't the meeting point for large, excited room modes. So it deals mostly with low-end response.

My inclination here is that the 38% 'rule' would apply, however it can be nearly impossible to implement unless the room has a height that perfectly accounts for that being the seated, head-height sweet-spot.

For instance, I'm almost at 50%, height-ways, but can't really do anything about it, as my speaker stand heights are fixed and the monitors have particular dimensions that can't be worked around without rotating them horizontally and diminishing their overall accuracy.

 

[pitoga]

yeah, most of the times we have to deal with certain restrictions given by the place it self, (for example most of the setups are positioned in the perfect mittle from the side walls which is a bad place) but we have to work with what we got. And it's pretty important that Ermz put the word "rule" between apostrophes. As this doesn't have to be followed 100% keep in mind that by just moving our head a little we are getting out of this spot, and worse with small rooms. Just try to avoid to get near the 50% of the room length (heigh in this case) (in 25% is another "bad" point but sometimes there isn't much to do with it).

Good luck

 

[tempe]

Quick slightly retarded question. I've got my speakers sitting roughly at a third of the length of my room, but my listening position is about 40-50%, yeah my room is really small! Would I be better off sitting closer and putting the speakers closer to the wall or just dealing with it? Unfortunately I'm renting and have to do the best with what I've got.

 

[Ermz]

Closer to the wall is the compromise that I made. You may get some fake bass reinforcement from the back wall which can in some cases seem to compensate for any nulls (which are inevitable in small, cube-like rooms).

 

[John_C]

avoid 16.7% 25% 33.3% 50% 66.7% 75% 83.3%

anything that fits %age = 50a/n, n=1,2,3,4 ; a = 1,2.....n-1
is a bad place for the centre of a woofer to be.


also, look at this http://www.hunecke.de/en/calculators/room-eigenmodes.html

 

[pitoga]

Also keep in mind where your bass reflex ports are in your speaker, cause if they are in the back and you will put them pretty near the wall, this "fake bass reinforcement" will be even more notorious. Just as with the height, a good place to put your listening position (sweet spot) will be 38% from the front wall, once again it's not written in stone. I would part from that, choose the spot where i would be sitting (and therefore my ears) and then position the speakers to work accordingly to my position. But be careful the best would be if you are facing the smaller wall of the room and to your sides are the longer ones, you want the back wall to be pretty way back from your head, as this could create other issues. But ones again haha it's not written in stone. There have been cases when they had been facing the longer wall, just be prepared to compensate this with lots of bass trapping and absorption in the back wall. (assuming your in a small room) check out the John sayers forum, there's plenty of good information.

 

[Eduardo Apolonia]

tweeter right above the hear height when sitting down

This.

And avoid having the woofer at half the height of the room.
You can always try different heights and check which one sounds more balanced.