What is the recommended distance from the monitors to the wall?
- Thread starter ronporat
- Start date
bandcoach
Zukatoku - Mod Scientist
your listening position should be 1/3 into the long dimension of your room
Your monitors should be positioned as two of the three points of an equi-lateral triangle (all sides the same length - 60[sup]o[/sup] angle at each corner), the third being your listening position
it is harder to give any better advice than this at this point without knowing room dimensions
Your monitors should be positioned as two of the three points of an equi-lateral triangle (all sides the same length - 60[sup]o[/sup] angle at each corner), the third being your listening position
it is harder to give any better advice than this at this point without knowing room dimensions
All speakers suffer (if that is the right way of putting it) SBIR - Speaker Boundary Interference Response. basically this is the way that the speakers react with the wall behind them. Moving the speakers just a little bit will move this interference through the frequencies so the best way is to experiment and test. In a small room it is normally advisable to start close to the wall
Here's a little bit more about it -
IR (Speaker Boundary Interference Response) – This is a term to describe how the proximity of a speaker to a hard boundary (wall/ceiling/floor) will change the response, especially in the low end. This is something that not a lot of people understand nor consider when planning a room.
Sound radiates from a driver in different ways. Higher frequencies act like a ray and move in straight lines from a point. As you get lower in the spectrum, they begin to radiate more like a sphere. By the time you get below 500 Hz or so, you’re getting pretty spherical radiation. By the time you get to 125, it’s purely spherical.
That said, imagine sound coming from a driver at say 100 Hz that is coming directly at you. There are other waves that are wrapping around the cabinet and bouncing off the front wall and then back at you. When 2 waves of the same frequency meet in this way (one direct, one having bounced off the front wall) there is an interface of the 2 waves (some describe this as interference).
Constructive interference occurs when the 2 waves happen to be in phase with each other. This yields a reinforcement of that frequency or a peak in response. Destructive interferenceoccurs when the 2 waves are 180 degrees out of phase. This yields a partial cancellation of that frequency (the bounced wave has less amplitude) resulting in a dip or null at that frequency.
This can cause WILD variations in frequency response. However, one can sometimes use this to your advantage. If you play with speaker positioning in relation to the front wall (behind the speakers) and the side wall, you can ‘tune’ the response changes. This can be beneficial when attempting to smooth overall response. See our video Positioning the Listening Spot.
Let’s say that you have peak at your listening position at a given frequency. If you can find a place that images well and works with the video positioning that will create a slight dip due to SBIR, the net effect is a smoother response at your seat. It’s kind of like using an EQ without having to put one in your system.
Generally, your best off if the distance from speaker face to front wall, driver centers to side wall, and driver center to floor are 3 different dimensions in order to not reinforce any specific set of harmonics by having all the boundaries generate the same SBIR effect.
Here's a little bit more about it -
IR (Speaker Boundary Interference Response) – This is a term to describe how the proximity of a speaker to a hard boundary (wall/ceiling/floor) will change the response, especially in the low end. This is something that not a lot of people understand nor consider when planning a room.
Sound radiates from a driver in different ways. Higher frequencies act like a ray and move in straight lines from a point. As you get lower in the spectrum, they begin to radiate more like a sphere. By the time you get below 500 Hz or so, you’re getting pretty spherical radiation. By the time you get to 125, it’s purely spherical.
That said, imagine sound coming from a driver at say 100 Hz that is coming directly at you. There are other waves that are wrapping around the cabinet and bouncing off the front wall and then back at you. When 2 waves of the same frequency meet in this way (one direct, one having bounced off the front wall) there is an interface of the 2 waves (some describe this as interference).
Constructive interference occurs when the 2 waves happen to be in phase with each other. This yields a reinforcement of that frequency or a peak in response. Destructive interferenceoccurs when the 2 waves are 180 degrees out of phase. This yields a partial cancellation of that frequency (the bounced wave has less amplitude) resulting in a dip or null at that frequency.
This can cause WILD variations in frequency response. However, one can sometimes use this to your advantage. If you play with speaker positioning in relation to the front wall (behind the speakers) and the side wall, you can ‘tune’ the response changes. This can be beneficial when attempting to smooth overall response. See our video Positioning the Listening Spot.
Let’s say that you have peak at your listening position at a given frequency. If you can find a place that images well and works with the video positioning that will create a slight dip due to SBIR, the net effect is a smoother response at your seat. It’s kind of like using an EQ without having to put one in your system.
Generally, your best off if the distance from speaker face to front wall, driver centers to side wall, and driver center to floor are 3 different dimensions in order to not reinforce any specific set of harmonics by having all the boundaries generate the same SBIR effect.
Last edited:
bandcoach
Zukatoku - Mod Scientist
more simply the distances it is important that the distance your speakers are away from each of the surfaces in your room is different - height above floor ≠ distance from the roof ≠ distance from rear wall ≠ distance from side walls ≠ distance from front wall
SBIR is interesting I first read about this at the start of the 80's and it was about using corner loading to improve bottom end response in PA systems or more correctly to control bottom end response
@sheggs: as for "suffer" it is as good as "impacted by" and far more telling because in, most instances, it is the downside rather than the upside that affects any particular room
SBIR is interesting I first read about this at the start of the 80's and it was about using corner loading to improve bottom end response in PA systems or more correctly to control bottom end response
@sheggs: as for "suffer" it is as good as "impacted by" and far more telling because in, most instances, it is the downside rather than the upside that affects any particular room