John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi Thomas and everybody else.
I just wanted to ask a question about the monitors' position in the front baffles (soffits).
OK...I'll try to ask this without any drawings..
Let's say you have a monitor soffit mounted. Now looking at it from the mix position (let's say it's the left speaker) we have the window on the right side of the speaker and splayed wall on the left side of it (window is between the two speakers). Now, should the speaker be placed in the centre of the baffle, so that it's the same distance from the splayed wall as well as the window or does it not matter. My theory would be that it's better of being in the middle of the baffle so you can get the same amount of "baflling" on both sides of the woofer. However I have a situation where i would like to pull the speaker closer to the window (to reduce the distance b'ween speakers) but am hesitant about this "centering" thing.
I hope you understand my question
Thanks heaps!!

As with most things it's a compromise. You'd like to mount the speaker in the center so it maximizes the distance to the intersecting wall, yielding the largest reflection free zone. On the other hand, centering the speaker will generate more response errors due to diffraction from the wall intersections. Whenever sound waves pass an intersection, be it an edge or an inside corner, the change in acoustic loading causes some sound to reradiate from the intersection. The reradiated sound interferes with the direct sound from the speaker, causing response anomalies. In this regard, you want to mount the speaker such that the distances to the four wall/ceiling/floor intersections are all dissimilar so the response errors don't reinforce one another. But, like I said, this is not optimal with respect to reflections.

So, it all boils down to.... the placement isn't terribly critical because there are compromises whatever you do. If mounting them closer to the window works better for you, then go for it!

Thomas

Thank you Thomas,
Your explanation does give me a bit of room to move ...The thing I had in mind when i asked the question was the minimum baffle size around the speaker in relation to the woofer diameter that I've read about somewhere (can't remember where), but as you say, there's compromises where ever you go, sooo...
thank you kindly Thomas

cheers