Soffit mounting?

so if I understand you correctly would you say that I could benefit from soffit mounting my Alesis monitor ones as I have always felt that they lacked bass (yes I know that I will only get so much from a small speaker)

so if I understand you correctly would you say that I could benefit from soffit mounting my Alesis monitor ones as I have always felt that they lacked bass (yes I know that I will only get so much from a small speaker)

Firstly - sorry Oliver - I missed your question before - just use standard fibreglass insulation or Dacron. jc71 - yes I'd soffit mount those speakers, I like a bit more bass myself :):) cheers john

From a studio design perspective the advantages of soffit mounting are many and frankly obvious, but let me just also chime in from a loudspeaker design perspective. Mounting loudspeaker drivers in an effectively infinite baffle (soffit) eliminates a host of design difficulties and compromises. And with those compromises out of the way the designer can more easily achieve even higher performance. The reason I believe some recording engineers don't like soffit mounting is because it's often done improperly. The most critical aspect of soffit mounting is making sure the monitors are properly designed to work in such an application. Most nearfields and a good deal of midfields are not. Personally I feel there's a reasonably good sized market that isn't being serviced - those looking for medium sized, medium power monitors to soffit mount in smaller to medium sized control rooms - i.e. "Mini Mains™". Maybe it's time to crank my speaker business into high gear again. :) Thomas

I think it is Thomas :D cheers john

I have a set of Yorkville YS-1 monitors, would I benifit from soffit mounting them? Thanks Harper

Yup...

I think Soffit mounting can cause some problems if you do no treat the cavity below them properly. I think that "Flush" mounting is more effective. Especially if you have a chance to build a massive front wall. The true "Soffit" mount speaker that I have seen have been mounted over a tape/machine closet or the like. This was a '70's think to do. This caused the closet itself to resonate and the speakers where usually high up and at a bad angle leading to crappy hi freq. imaging and low end bleed into the closets or soffits below causing them to resonate. I think making the wall as solid and huge/heavy as possible, lotsa wood, lotsa heavy dense mineral fibre and sheetrock and then mounting the speakers flush in heavy boxes at the optimum angles is the way to go... in my experience anyways. The less cavities the better. cheers, ollie [SPAM SIGNATURE REMOVED BY MODERATOR.]

Which would be best for soffit mounting? Alesis M1 passive Behringer B2031 passive Event Alp 5 active IF you have any other suggestions please tell me!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks Joe

strange thing that just hit my brain about soffit mounting...... What do you keep in mind when you also have an external subwoofer??

Might seem like a dumb question, but what is flush mounting? I'm doing a project at the mo which involves acoustically treating a theoretical studio space for use as a control room. I'm just about to start proposing how and where to put the monitors. I'm not sure I understand the advantages and disadvantages of the 60 degree/90 degree mounting either, could someone explain that? The room is 7m long, by 4m wide by 3.5m high, if that helps.

Rosie wrote:

Might seem like a dumb question, but what is flush mounting? I'm doing a project at the mo which involves acoustically treating a theoretical studio space for use as a control room. I'm just about to start proposing how and where to put the monitors. I'm not sure I understand the advantages and disadvantages of the 60 degree/90 degree mounting either, could someone explain that? The room is 7m long, by 4m wide by 3.5m high, if that helps.

read this Rosie http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html cheers john

Ah thank you so much, that's excellent.

This thread is fascinating. John, maybe you can clarify that for me. Here in Montreal i've seen lots of studios design by a well know studio designer from Montreal. Most of his design involved soffit mounted monitors but the "box" or wall in wich they are soffited is only made of a simple wood frame filled with 703 with air space behind and cover with cloth, nothing is sealed, no hard surface. I've seen that numerous time around here, even in one prime Montreal Studio and even in CBC (Canadian broadcasting corp.). What's the deal ? I am not challenging your expertise, or testing you, i am just trying to understand. Also my monitors are KRK E8t. These irregular shaped monitor have rounded edges and only have an high freq roll-off, the bass response of those monitor is simply amazing for it's size, not boomy or boxy just tight well ballanced low end. I've design my room in a way so i can choose not to soffit them, and i still can't decide. Doing all the challenging soffit work only to find out that it may not work, seems like it may not the best way to use my time. I think i am going to not soffit for a start. What do think?

bump

Back in the early days to test a speaker they would bury it in the ground so the front face was level with the ground. They'd then hang a mike over it a measure the reponse. the idea was to stop the rest of the cabinet radiations from interacting with the original speaker signal. Soffit mounting does the same thing. It places a solid timber plane or baffle around the speaker so that any sound coming from the cabinet is absorbed behind the baffle and doesn't affect the direct sound. Your bloke in Canada apparently doesn't know what he's doing. Unfortunately many so called designers copy what they see. I remember seeing a studio where there was timber and cloth in the wall. I touched the cloth only to realise it was just straight cloth over plywood!! he'd seen studios with a cloth wall and had figured that was what it was when in fact the cloth is typically an openning to an absorption trap ;) see attached pic for soffit detail. cheers john

I think some people have a hard time with the whole soffit idea and why it is benefitial. For an exercise take a piece of paper and draw a strait line to represent a cutaway of the soffit baffle, then draw a speaker flush mounted. now take a ruler and see if you can draw a line reflecting of of the baffle from the speaker. Same principle for a boundary layer mic. You should be able now to visualize why the baffle is invisible to the speaker and therefore won't reflect any sound.

If you want to check the effect of soffiting just place some large pieces of cardboard at both sides of the speakers. Soffiting not only prevents reflections, but also gives the mid lows a boost as they normally bend around the speaker cabinet causing a dip of a couple of dB's.

I know this post is a little old, but this picture still alludes me a bit. In the diagram you show an air cycle, how is this possible if there is an mdf or plywood front on the top? as well as a plywood based under the speaker, that protrudes to the wall as far as I can tell from other threads, pictures, and else. How can an airflow keep the speaker cool if the speaker is enclosed in a sealed mdf box? Perhaps I'm just misinterpreting the construction of the soffit, is there a good walk through of the construction process anywhere?

Aloha, There is a vent indicated at the top of the bezel to allow the heat to escape. Aloha 8)

Aloha, Thanks, however I'm having a hard time visualizing it. The 2 dimensional pictures don't always work for me. I quickly just threw together this representation of what I think you were trying to show, is this what you were trying to pictate? Also, it doesn't matter how high they walls are, correct? or should you cap the top at a certain height? as in picture "topcap".

I've been searching meticulously for a decent example in the Completed/under construction pages off of johns site. The best example i found seems to be here. http://johnlsayers.com/Studio/Mainpage/MP-SProductions.htm Still can't quite get the best look inside, but it seems to me like i was right about the slot above the speaker (see front.jpg above) However, it seems that the slot doesn't go through the speaker box, but around it on the left. Does only one side of the plywood base touch the actual wall, (see base.jpg)? thank you

when you think about what is happening in this construct - you don't have a perfect seal betweem the upper and lower space because you have the vent port but you do want to put the dividing plate almost out to the walls to force any air movement through the insulation and yet construct the box to avoid flanking-vibration transfer. overall, you want to cause the sound pressure to have an easy time to get in, and work hard to get out of the box in order for it to effectively absorb bass.

Thanks for the reply, but perhaps you missed the question. The question was where do you put the vent port. through the box? or through the dividing plate as you called it.

Vent convection flow goes like this near floor under bottom of soffit (as per drawings) through hole in bottom plate through bottom rear hole in your external speaker housing through top rear hole in your external speaker housing (If you have a REALLY tall ceiling I would use a top plate but again have holes in it above rear of speaker housing) through vent at top of soffit - between ceiling and top /front ply. One would think that holes not directly above each other will stop or slow hot air convection - so maybe this drawing has a mistake? Hope this helps. 8)