Are monitors alright on their sides?

[Kevin Deschwazi]

Are monitors alright on their sides?

I know some are but from what I gather some aren't?

I'm guessing that no harm is done to the monitor itself if it lives on it's side but the sound may be compromised if the monitor is not designed to be positioned this way?

I'd just like to know if there is a consensus or if it's another of the many subjective issues in recording.

Unfortunately my space is very restricted and the way shelving is positioned and such like it would be a lot easier if I could lay my monitors on their sides.

I'm looking at the following:

Fostex PM0.5
Event 20/20
Tannoy reveal active

Thanks

 

[lpdeluxe]

Some monitors' manuals tell you to NOT lay them on their sides...but I can't imagine what physical damage would result. What happens, though, is that your imaging goes away. If you can't avoid sideways, place the tweeters on the outside.

 

[Riccardo]

Probably it is matter of heat dissipation

 

[lpdeluxe]

I really think it's the imaging, because tweeters tend to be very directional. But you may be right.

 

[Kevin Deschwazi]

Probably it is matter of heat dissipation

Thanks, can you (or anyone) expand on this?

 

[ds21]

Could be heat, but also speakers have radiation patterns, something like your common 2-way will not have a symmetrical one and will only measure flatest when "aimed" a certain way, plus some are "time-aligned" so moving the tweeter will also affect it.

 

[Riccardo]

I agree with the imaging issue, but I don't think that is because of this that the manuals tell you to keep the monitors upright, after all sound waves are not affected by gravity field; on the other hand heat always travel upwards and by rotating the monitor you can put it in a position where some sensible component (plastic or similiar) will be just over the amp heatsink and be deformed or damaged; I think also that the sub-frequency hole is used for air circulation too, if you place it lower than the heat generating components you can have heat build up on the upper section of the monitor enclosure...

This is just my theory, I may be wrong....

 

[SPINSTERWUN]

I know that you are not supposed to lay Eveent 20/20's on their sides.

spin

 

[lpdeluxe]

That's true for active monitors with amplifiers inside, but I have seen passive boxes where upright mounting is recommended. The layout of the woofer & tweeter are designed to form a sweet spot at the apex of a triangle (size depending on the model of speaker) and when the speakers are horizontal they can't radiate in the pattern they were designed to. As I noted above, the tweeters are especially directional, or "beamy". I recently switched from a pair of passive to active monitors for my mixing, and demoted the old passives to room speakers...from 10' away, there's a small area where you can clearly hear the highs. Speaker designers take considerable care to "aim" the tweeters and to match their performance speaker-to-speaker as left-right imaging depends on it. If you lay your monitors down with the tweeters on the "inside", you are reducing the stereo image, which leads to the recommendation that you place them so the tweeters are on the "outside" (away from the center). An interesting test of this directionality is to play the upper frequencies from a test CD (not too loudly, please!) and move your head around and from side to side in front of the speakers.

 

[Riccardo]

Well! So we have TWO good reason to keep our monitor upright!!

 

[lpdeluxe]

...except that I had my passive monitors horizontal before I got some Mo-Pads that allowed me to tilt them down!




Just don't mount 'em upside down. All the bass notes will leak into the tweeter.

 

[Riccardo]

...except that I had my passive monitors horizontal before I got some Mo-Pads that allowed me to tilt them down!




Just don't mount 'em upside down. All the bass notes will leak into the tweeter.

Hahahaha I'll follow your advice!!!

 

[pM of impk21.co]

Hmnmmm

I just kinda glanced threw some posts, I dont think I will be repeating, if I do, my bad.

First of all, if you have a manual, check and see what it says about laying your monitors on the side. What brand are you using? Some brands encourage you to do either or, place them on their sides or just have them stand straight up! Are they passive or powered? When you are setting in front of your monitors, how high up are the tweaters compared to your ear level?

My deal is my ears are level with the woofer part of the monitor when I am sitting in front of them, then I usually dont hear the highs come threw as well. I usually have to kinda stand and squat in front of them, LOL, to get a good level. If I had room Id do different things. But if you lay your monitors on the sides with the tweaters facing the farthest away from you I believe, that "can" give you a more level sound cuz then you are hearing the monitor's woofer and tweaters at the same level. By putting the tweaters toward the inner side could result in making your mixes off due to the fact the woofers could drownd them out. Just a suggestion. Take it how you want. peace, pm

 

[vestast]

I was lying my monitors on their sides for a while until I started to notice that my mixes were not translating as well as I thought they were. What I mean is, when I was mixing I though I had a nice wide stereo image and everything was cool. Then I would take the mix and play it in my car or on the home stereo, and it sounded more narrow.

I guess because the tweters were out wide maybe it was giving me a false image of the mix.

Anyway I guess the bottom line is to set them the way your manual suggests..

 

[Teacher]

general rule of thumb is you set your monitors up so the writing is right side up...not side ways

 

[lpdeluxe]

Or backwards.

 

[vestast]

Is upside down O.K ?

 

[lpdeluxe]

That issue has already been addressed. The bass notes leak into the tweeter, causing distortion.

 

[vestast]

That issue has already been addressed. The bass notes leak into the tweeter, causing distortion.

Guess I should have read the whole post ...

BTW I did the same as you lp...I bought a pair of mopads to angle them down also..

It's been a shitty week

 

[pM of impk21.co]

general rule of thumb is you set your monitors up so the writing is right side up...not side ways

LOL, seriously, on my alesis the name, if that is what you are referring to, is at an angle, so if you where to lay them on their sides, the alesis name would still be up right. Coo....pm