This post is for anyone like me who has neglected proper monitor placement in their setup.
I only just recently tried this after knowing the general advice - “put monitors so that the tweeters are roughly at ear level” , but casually ignoring it as not too important.
Well Ive just discovered its very important. I had my Tannoy Reveals both placed at desk level until the other week I just tried piling some books under them to get the tweeters at ear level; wow what a difference! Since then I`ve invested in some Isoacoustic stands to take the place of the books, but those monitors will be staying raised now either way.
The difference in sound has not been subtle, as if a low pass and notch filters have been removed from my listening chain, enough to make me want to kick myself for not heeding the advice before />
The trouble now is that Im lusting after some new monitors (maybe some eve sc205s />) but in the meantime Im getting a lot more out of the Tannoys and posting so that others can hopefully avoid my mistake.
I had raised mine on top of stacks of old socks, but they’re still not high enough. But even the little bit I did raise them definitely made a difference.
The only other similar thing I found were these Atacama stands on amazon which suit the height but I believe they are designed as floor stands anyway. More expensive and are spiked.
Hmm that’s a little out of my price range for now. I have a bit of a space issue, and I can’t even raise my monitors more than maybe 5 more inches before I hit a shelf, which honestly means I might even have bigger fish to fry than the height with reflections and whatnot. This desk isn’t wide enough either… one day I need to get rid of it and just get a normal cheap ass folding table.
Not even got into that world yet, though maybe with some new monitors may come a new sub…
The isoacoustics do have a lower setting about 3/4 inches with adjusters so that you can point the speakers up at you. If budgets not permitting, Im sure something decent and bespoke could be achieved with some MDF and maybe some rubber pads to provide a bit of insulation/ traction. With the shelves, yeah that sounds like a bit of a pain, but all this stuff can be done in stages when its convenient I guess.
I have a pair of Rokit powered 6’s (RP-6), but after feeling the subs at a friend’s house, I knew I had try and mix with subs.
I mixed the following two youtube demo’s with Logitech Z313 computer speakers that came with a subwoofer. I don’t remember the price, maybe 20 to 40 dollars.
The “Electronic” demo was mixed with the speakers while the “Acoustic Electronic” was mixed with headphones, later checked with the speakers.
Both with very different monitor positions.
I’m fairly proud with the outcome, considering the shitty room conditions.
For the most part, I had the sub placed about 1 to 2 feet away from the wall where my feet could touch it from the rest of the setup.
If you have it placed in the middle of the room, the subs will disappear.
A few months later, I went to a somewhat local music shop to test the demos as well as Diego Stocco - Experibass with “iLoud”,
to see if the sub feel was there (yes), and if the window of opportunity is there, I’ll be upgrading to that more for its portability and less stress on placement and room acoustics.
I can`t comment on the sub mixing on those tracks as I am limited to about 60Hz here, but I can say nice job with the panning and use of stereo field.
That Acoustic bass looks pretty cool in the other vid!
Also recently seen that Dynaudio have come up with a novel speaker design for desktop use to get the listener in the sweetspot; think I`m happier with the traditional boxes on stands now though:
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