Monitor position and speaker angles

[gubu]

Is there anything wrong with placing your monitors on a flat plane, and not angled towards the listening position, as common wisdom would have it?

 

I know from experience that stereo imaging is better focussed when the monitors are angled to 'throw' just past your ears at the listening position, in an equilateral triangle setup. But it seems that having them on a flat plane is closer to the way most consumers listen to music, thru docks, carspeakers, home systems etc.

 

Both work for me and I switch back and forth, checking how it's coming along.

 

What way do you have your monitors set up?

[Rimmer]

Interesting viewpoint that I haven't previously thought through before..

The stereo image may be better focused if the monitors are pointed towards you but it's maybe merely just another factor we need to consider when it comes to judging stereo imaging whilst using domestic audio appliances. The distance between the monitors is more so I suspect. 

I think the main reason I always direct the monitors to my listening position (ideally as close to a triangle) is that it gives a better chance of the sound hitting me earlier rather than later.. Maybe we have better things to be thinking about.. I don't know...

 

Regards, Rimmer

 

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

I prefer having them toed in at an angle.

[peanutroad]

My nearfields on my desk are angled in the generally recommended fashion, but I have a second pair of larger hi-fi speakers back another three foot or so, pointed straight ahead and I switch between them. Having the second pair also is nice if I want to go sit on the sofa at the back of the room and listen.

[gubu]

 

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peanutroad wrote:

 

 

My nearfields on my desk are angled in the generally recommended fashion, but I have a second pair of larger hi-fi speakers back another three foot or so, pointed straight ahead and I switch between them. Having the second pair also is nice if I want to go sit on the sofa at the back of the room and listen.

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A second pair of monitors. Now there's an idea!

[blue2blue]

Since one of my goals is to minimize early (side) reflections that tend to 'confuse' the auditory system and blur imaging, I follow the generally accepted best practice of sitting at one corner of a roughly equilateral triangle with the speakers at the others, angled to my ears. 

There's no question that changing the angle of aspect of the speakers will change the sound -- and speakers designed for monitoring use tend to be designed with somewhat narrow HF dispersion (to minimize those peripheral,  early reflections) -- so I use them as they were intended to be used.

[Lee Knight]

Though I haven't tried it yet, this, a 99 cent app from Genelec looks very interesting...

 

http://www.genelec.com/news/latest-news/919-genelec-unveils-speakerangle-app-for-ios-devices/

 

[veracohr]

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gubu wrote:

 

 

But it seems that having them on a flat plane is closer to the way most consumers listen to music, thru docks, carspeakers, home systems etc.

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Yeah, but music listeners are also often completely off-center from the speakers; would you want to mix like that too? If I'm sitting on my couch my speakers are about 30-35 degrees to the right and firing across me. In a car you're always much closer to one speaker than any other. Neither would be a good way to try mixing. I understand the intuition that makes you consider trying to hear things "as the listener does", but in practice I'm not sure it will really do you much good. Remember that all those great-sounding albums out there, which sound great regardless of what system you're hearing them on and where the speakers are pointed, were very likely mixed in the conventional monitoring manner. There's something to be said for that.

[gubu]

 

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veracohr wrote:

 

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gubu wrote:

 

 

But it seems that having them on a flat plane is closer to the way most consumers listen to music, thru docks, carspeakers, home systems etc.

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Yeah, but music listeners are also often completely off-center from the speakers; would you want to mix like that too? If I'm sitting on my couch my speakers are about 30-35 degrees to the right and firing across me. In a car you're always much closer to one speaker than any other. Neither would be a good way to try mixing. I understand the intuition that makes you consider trying to hear things "as the listener does", but in practice I'm not sure it will really do you much good. Remember that all those great-sounding albums out there, which sound great regardless of what system you're hearing them on and where the speakers are pointed, were very likely mixed in the conventional monitoring manner. There's something to be said for that.

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Very true.

 

I guess what I failed to mention in the OP is that my room is far from ideal, and I like to take a walk around the room for a listen when I'm getting close to finishing a mix. I've got some rudimentary corner trapping, a few soft wall hangings at reflection points, and a strategically placed bookcase behind the listening position, but I've heard superb mixing rooms, and my one ain't.

So, for me, being able to splay the monitors flat and have a walk around probably saves me burning a couple of different mixes to try in the car and the kitchen and whatnot. If the mix is cooking with the monitors in the standard 'toed in' array, and splayed flat as I have a walk around, it usually doesn't need too much more work, if any.