Studio Monitor height and distance from ears

[ptgtr]

I have recently (read: Christmas gift, wooohooo!) gotten a pair of Genelec 8010a monitors, and was interested in setting them up "properly". What is the idea distance from my sitting position for both height (tilt upwards/tilt down/mount them level to my head, etc) and distance away from me (3ft/10ft/etc).

Thanks for any guidance and happy holidays!

 

[ecc83]

Whoo!Hoo indeed! Height is easy, when seated the tweeters should be at the same level as your ears and as these are small 'nearfield' monitors you don't want to be much further than 1.5mtrs from them and that dictates that they will be about 1.5mtrs apart.

IDEALLY they will be mounted on dedicated stands and these should be 'skeletal'. Think 80's Speedframe metal shelving. If you have to put them on a desk use a lump of furniture foam 50 mm or so thick. Again the ideal is to have them fire down the long axis of the room and be about one third of the room length from the rear wall.

The next step is some treatment of the room but that is best left until you have had a play and maybe have more questions. Dimms of the room, H W L are vital if you are to be helped. Photos likewise.

Last thing. You have been saved a sizeable chunk of dosh, use about $30 of that to buy a C weighted Sound Level Meter.

Dave.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

The geometry of the speakers to listening position should be close to an equilateral triangle. If the triangle is too small or if you're too close compared to the width, your imaging might be off in a way that causes you to mix centered things (e.g. vocals) too loud relative to panned things. Aim the tweeters at your ears. A slight up angle might be okay if you want to be able to walk the room for an alternate perspective.

Placement in the room and the characteristics of the walls etc. will have a big effect on how things sound, especially in lower frequencies.

 

[Tomeh]

Congratulations Genelec make some of the most respected monitors and for good reason.

Genelec have a couple of excellent explanations of how/where to set them up.

See https://www.genelec.com/monitor-placement
and https://www.genelec.com/monitor-setup

They recommend their 7040 to pair with these since they are down 6 db at 67 hz, but you can start with just about any serious (don't use something out a small kit of "computer sub) sub.

Have fun

Cheers

Tom eh

 

[mjbphotos]

It would help to know the details of your room! Dimensions, acoustic treatment, etc.

Those Gens have a rear bassport, so if you can't place your desk out into the room (at least 3 feet from the front wall), then you will benefit from having some traps (at least 4" thick rockwool or compressed fiberglass) on the front wall behind them. Subs are generally not recommended for small home studio rooms, as you need a lot of bass traps to make them effective for mixing.