Monitor spacing

Hello everyone. After some brief emails with Andre about monitor spacing, it was suggested that a thread be started on this topic. This forum has a seemingly infinite amount of information on pretty much anything studio related that you can think of. However, if you're anything at all like me, it's easy to get overwhelmed with all the information that can be obtained here which can lead to overlooking a small but important aspect of a design. Or it may just be that certain things are more difficult to understand than others which is also certainly true for me as well. Anyway, as I've been learning more and more about monitor placement, stereo imaging, mix position, etc, etc, I had a few things I needed some clarification on so I emailed Andre and asked for his insight. I've copied the small email exchanges we had to get this thread going. Please feel free to post any other questions or information relating to this topic that you may have.

Andre, Been following a lot of your posts and was just wondering what your opinion on monitor spacing is? I've heard that a distance of 8 to 12 ft b/w monitors is the recommended ideal spacing. What are your thoughts? Thank you Chris Yeazel

cyeazel wrote: Been following a lot of your posts and was just wondering what your opinion on monitor spacing is? I've heard that a distance of 8 to 12 ft b/w monitors is the recommended ideal spacing. What are your thoughts? It depends on the room. The listening postion should be around 3/8 of the dimension of the room that the spekers are aimed along in an equilateral triangle. Andre

So the size of the equilateral triangle can vary according to allowable space as long as it stays equilateral and in the roughly 3/8 mix position?

cyeazel wrote: So the size of the equilateral triangle can vary according to allowable space as long as it stays equilateral and in the roughly 3/8 mix position? Yes. That is the listening position that is at the ~3/8 position. That is usually taken as being ~300 mm behind the listener's ears. Why email on this? It is a great thread for the design forum. Andre

Yeah, I guess it is. I'll start one up. Thanks for getting back to me.

here's a set of rough guidelines i tend to start out with:

• depending on the monitors, 5ft - 7ft or maximum of 70% of the room width. large monitors could go wider if the room has the space for it.
• 30 degrees on all sides of the listening triangle with A-B-C dimensions approximately the same.
• listening position 38% from the front of the isolation wall. secondary position (such as a producer or client desk) at 62%.
• vertically, 36-42% of room height unless i'm putting them over a window.

these are my general starting points but usually shift depending on analysis of the room model, layout options, equipment, workflows etc. if you like a lot of complex math: studio tips thread per Eric Desart http://forum.studiotips.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3378 ideas on this from Siegfried Linkwitz http://www.linkwitzlab.com/rooms.htm - in the middle section are some room positioning ideas related to his speaker products.

Thanks for sharing our communications with other people and thanks for adding to it Gulfo! Andre

Thanks to you guys as well for all the time you put into this forum.