You have studio monitors, but you don’t know how they should be positioned?
No matter the model, there are very strict rules to follow. You can’t just install them randomly on your desk.
Otherwise, you lose all the benefits of having quality studio monitors for mixing because the frequency response will be unbalanced.
This is why some users prefer to use headphones instead of monitors…
Through this article, I will guide you so that you can set them up optimally and thus use them to their full potential. The goal will be to determine a sweet spot, that is to say, an ideal listening point.
Horizontal Position of the Monitors
The first thing to consider is that once connected, your monitors must absolutely be placed to form an equilateral triangle.
In other words, this means that:
- the distance between your seat and each speaker must be equal to the distance between the speakers;
- the whole setup must form an angle of 60 degrees.
To better understand the situation, here is a simple diagram:
If the monitors are not both at the same distance from your head, the sounds from the left and right will not reach your ears at the same time. As a result, there will be phase cancellation phenomena, which will prevent you from making a good mix.
If the angle is not 60 degrees, the problem will be related to the stereo image: you will not have a good distribution of sounds in space. Indeed, if it is less than 60°, you will feel like mixing in mono. If it is greater than 60°, the stereo image will be too wide.
Vertical Position of the Monitors
As for the vertical positioning, there is again a precise method to follow.
The Rule
In general, the tweeters (high-frequency speakers) should be oriented towards your head.
Indeed, high frequencies are more directional than low frequencies. So your position relative to the woofers (low-frequency speakers) is slightly less important.
In images:
However, be careful if you tilt your monitors not to point too much towards your desk. Otherwise, sound waves will reflect off the table and bounce towards your ears. As a result, your perception of frequencies will be uneven.
Additionally, as much as possible, ensure that your monitors and especially your ears are not halfway between the floor and the ceiling. Otherwise, you risk experiencing annoying resonances for certain frequencies.
Can You Lay Your Studio Monitors Down?
Let’s be very clear: it’s a bad idea, unless your monitor’s manual states that it’s possible.
The explanation is quite technical, so I will try to keep it simple:
The design of the waveguides located at the tweeters is often optimized for the sweet spot to be as wide as possible… when the monitors are in a vertical position. By laying them down, you simply reduce this ideal listening area.
In short: unless you have no choice, do not lay your monitors on their side.
Position in the Room
A Matter of Resonances
All rooms are naturally subject to resonances. We talk about room modes.
If your room is square, you will have a hard time avoiding them. However, if your room is rectangular, some tips will help you position your monitors to minimize these problems.
Ideally, your listening position should be located at 38% of the length of the room.
For example, if your room is 5 meters long, your head should be at:
5 x 38% = 5 x 38 / 100 = 1.9 meters from the width wall.
(don’t worry if this isn’t very clear, there’s a diagram just below)
I’m not going to go into details, but this figure doesn’t come out of nowhere. In fact, if you were to place yourself in the middle of the room, you would notice a significant loss of intensity at certain frequencies. The same goes for 25% of the room, and many other subdivisions.
Thus, the 38% corresponds to a theoretical position that minimizes these effects. In practice, you can possibly test other positions, but make sure to avoid sitting in the center of the length.
However, in terms of width, it’s better to be in the middle to optimize the stereo image.
Here is an explanatory diagram:
Note that depending on your room, you may need to face the longest wall instead of the width wall.
If that’s the case, it’s a bit less ideal, but you just need to apply the same method by swapping width and length. You will then be at 38% of the width of the room.
But at the same time
While this is an interesting starting point, you also need to take into account all the acoustic phenomena that can occur.
And in this case, the further you move your speakers away from the wall, the more potential problems you create in the low frequencies.
I explain all this in detail in the video below:
Stands and Foam
Finally, don’t forget that ideally monitoring speakers should be placed on dedicated stands. So, physically separated from the desk you work on.
You can for example use those from K&M, which although relatively expensive, will be very stable.
If you place your speakers on your desk, it will resonate and transmit vibrations. To avoid this problem, it is possible to use isolation foam blocks.
For a low-cost but very effective solution, I particularly recommend those made by Thomann:
- Iso-Pad 5 : 170 x 40 x 300 mm
- Iso-Pad 6 : 210 x 40 x 300 mm
- Iso-Pad 7 : 230 x 40 x 330 mm
- Iso-Pad 8 : 260 x 40 x 370 mm
Conclusion
As you may have noticed, positioning your monitoring speakers correctly is not always straightforward.
That said, if you apply these placement rules as best as possible, you can achieve good results. However, to do things properly, you will also need acoustic treatments that will limit reflections on the walls, for example behind your speakers or on the ceiling.