Advice On Speaker Placement?

D

Doctor Varney

Cave dwelling Luddite
Could I get a little advice on speaker placement, for my new room, please?

First off, the good news - my partner and I bought ourselves a beautiful house and I have a new room to work in. Dimensions are precisely 10ft x 7ft, which would of course make a perfect studio for someone solely into musical recording - but it's not as simple as that. It's actually going to become an actor's study (not a musical studio) and has to support a variety of projects related to my work, so it's likely I'm going to be pushed for space if I'm not very careful about planning this room. It's important to me that it stays as uncluttered and relaxing a space as possible.

Acoustics are not the be-all, end-all of my aims - but along the lines of the most common advice, I've chosen to put my humble audio recording set up at the end wall, so that my speakers are firing into the longest part of the room (with a view to treating the back wall somewhat). Now the bottom line is that placing my speakers in the corners, on specially made wall brackets is looking increasingly attractive, space wise. It's not how I'd normally do things - before, preferring to have them forward-facing, with the tweeters at ear height (they are JPW M10 hi-fi speakers). I'm basically wondering if I could get them into the corners, a little higher than normal and by angling them downwards, towards the listening position, this trade off might be alright? I guess there's no way of really knowing for sure, until I've tried it - but it's going to take some work to build the brackets, so I thought I'd just ask here, first for second opinion's sake before I embark. What do you think?

Hope everyone here is keeping well. Cheers.
 
Last edited:
Hi,

One quick note to consider, if you have the manual with the monitor speakers, make sure you read through that while deciding where to put them.
A lot of speakers are designed with specific orientations to be used, and some have the flexibility to be adjusted to different situations.

For example, my Yamaha HS80M's can be bass adjusted so they can be close to a rear wall, or out from it.
Some speakers are made to point at your ears, some to point straight ahead.

Just thought I would mention this, as I have had a couple of people I have helped out in the past and found that they just had their speakers in a "good listening position" but were not set up properly for the room because of the way they were made/designed.

Hope this makes sense.
 
Yes - perfect sense, thank you. But no, no instructions at all. They are not what I understand to be 'monitors'. They are passive hi-fi speakers, which I've used for years with a domestic hi-fi amp. This has always been quite sufficient for my needs, listening to music and reviewing my voice recordings. I really wouldn't have a clue about how they were designed, other than that they are what I think amounts to 'bookshelf' speakers or maybe for use on stands.

Quick update: After jiggling some of stuff around, I have managed to work out a way to have them over the desktop, in a forward facing position by placing a shelf over the desk with the computer monitor between them, instead of in the corner, as I first planned - but this does place them very close to the back wall. I'm afraid this isn't your typical studio thread because I really only have very basic gear and not of 'studio quality'. I'm just trying to squeeze the best out of what I have, to suit my purposes. I do have a mixer with which I can attenuate the bass if needs be.

Thanks for the reply.
 
You don't want to place them in a corner....regardless of how big or small the room.
That's the worst place.

AFA where/what is the best placement....well, with only a 10x7' space and all that other stuff you plan on having/doing in there....I think your "best" placement may just end up being wherever you can fit them.
 
Hey Doc - you're back! Computer working? ;) Read this excellent thread about small room acoustics.
Did you mistype your room dimensions? 10 ft x 7 ft is pretty small. Speakers should be set up on the narow wall, facing the long way into the room, as you already know, and kept away from the corners. Corners should have broadband aborbant panels (bass traps) in them.
 
Sorry for the delay in answering. I've taken your advice and thank you for that. No corners then. Well, I found a free-floating 'magic shelf' (with the invisible mounting) which is strong enough to hold the speakers and monitor. I'm now dead centre of the short wall. Yes, 7ft x 10ft is exactly what the room measures. Yes, it's small, but with treatment, I believe it will work for my occasional use.

I managed to de-clutter during the move. This is a functional room with a very pleasant atmosphere and view. It will benefit from some acoustic treatment.

mjbphotos said:
Computer working?
Click to expand...
Well enough for what I need, thanks. :thumbs up:
 
Panels in the corner like MJB said. Won't hurt to put one directly behind you. The thicker, the better.

Welcome back.
 
A couple more thoughts on the speakers...

Many hi-fi speakers can be as good as or even better than cheap monitors. My 30+ year old monitors were also marketed with a domestic model for hi-fi use--the only difference was the connectors used for the inputs.

Usually (and there are obviously exceptions) besides being away from the corners you also want to be somewhat out from the wall--say at least a foot. You'll want to adjust the height so the mid/upper drivers are roughly at your ear level.

In a small room it generally doesn't hurt to angle them inwards towards where you sit in your mix position.

Of course generalisations like the above can be dangerous, but they USUALLY work
 
Brilliant, thanks again!

No possibility of bringing them out from the wall, I'm afraid. I understand what you're saying and I'd normally have agreed wholeheartedly but that said, I have come across one or two articles which were extolling the benefits of placing the speakers very close to the wall. I believe it's a 'suck it and see' situation - but yes, I agree with you there.

Yes, I have the speakers togged in towards each other, as this, in the past, has always put me in the 'sweet spot' of the triangle. The distance from me to them looks to be about right (as I had it before).

I just wish I had more time to record. I will be able to focus on it more after September.

Thanks for the welcome and the bits of helpful advice.
 
Last edited:
sheggs said:
This short article form our site gives some indicators as well. Often putting the speakers close to the wall will move the frequency problems created by SBIR into a more manageable frequency range

Monitor Positioning in Room Setup - GIK Acoustics
Speaker Boundary Interference Response SBIR GIK Acoustics
Click to expand...

Oh, heck... I think they might have an open port at the back.

Reason for saying "I think" is because they're currently still in storage and the ones I've used for placement are the same size & make but a different model. With no rear port.

So - if it turns out they have rear firing ports - I suppose that changes the game, doesn't it?
 
Ten by seven feet! Wow! And I thought we had problems with 12x12.5!

Mind you, my room is VERY cluttered. Mostly with guitar speaker cabs and amps.

You can try stuffing the port with foam, plenty of people do, or blank it off altogether, Yes it will change the LF performance of the speakers but many say only for the better! What amplifier are you driving them with? Any decent DC coupled amp will have a vice-like grip on those cones. The proximity to the wall will help somewhat to offset the loss of efficiency afforded by porting. Unless you want to run very loud with "Subaru, Bluetooth Man" thumping bass, I don't see a problem?

Play some good examples of the genre you are trying to emulate and use those to "learn" how the monitors behave. You will have ALL sorts of issues and compromises in such a small room. The bottom octave or so will not be a serious one IMHO.

Dave.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top