John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi,

in an other forum, I had a discussion about placing monitors.
My opinion was to place the monitors as near as possible to the front wall. (not flush mounted)
My thoughts were:
- the ideal is flush mounted, the nearer to the wall, the nearer to this ideal
- you get reflections from the back wall, the nearer to the wall, the higher the first null (around 200 Hz)
- due to directional radiated higher frequencies, this would be a big problem and when you can easely correct it with relatively thin absorbers.
- of course you'll get an increased bass response by 3dB, but in my opinion esspecially for small monitors this is an advantage. And if not: many monitors have a bass cut for this

According to http://www.genelec.com/learning-center/ ... estanding/ I'm right. They the exaktly what I say: a distance of 1m is critical. Genelec recommends a 5cm minimum space only for cooling and bass reflex hole.

But many people say, It not a good idea to place the speakers too near to the frontwall and they place them 1m away.

Of couse using a greater distance would work too, the monitors are standing more or less in a free field then. But in most small rooms this is impractical.

What do you think?

Thomas

There are not only nulls who fooling you, there are also peaks, and other comb filtering problems.
Another problem is, that as more you get close to a wall or corner, as more you energize the modes of the room, since your speaker is in a preasure point of this mode

cheers
Mika

mika wrote:There are not only nulls who fooling you, there are also peaks, and other comb filtering problems.

Of course, but they have the same causes and need no different treatment or attention.

mika wrote: Another problem is, that as more you get close to a wall or corner, as more you energize the modes of the room, since your speaker is in a preasure point of this mode

Thats true. But did aswer the original question. Seems that there are compromises to made.

We discussed it in an german forum, too:
http://www.tonthemen.de/viewtopic.php?t=1596

I agree with you. Either put your monitors right up against the wall, or put them far enough away from all walls that the nulls, comb-filtering and other artifacts are not too objectionable. (Of course, in a small room you cannot possibly GET far enough away!)

Or just mount them in soffits, and totally eliminate all of the above!

- Stuart -

What should the wall behind monitors be like? In case I place them close.

thanks!

What should the wall behind monitors be like? In case I place them close.

I think I'd still make that absorptive. Maybe 4" of 703, fiberglass, or mineral wool.

- Stuart -

Here is a link to a program that shows how your speaker will interact with the surfaces around it.

http://audio.claub.net/software/jbabgy/BDBS.html