Nearfield distance from walls

tmix · Post by **tmix** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 7:10 am

I know I can't be the first to ask this, but I could not find in a search the answer.

I have some Alesis monitor ones that I will use for my control room speakers. I had thought about soffit mounting them, but know I think I will leave them on stands and prepare the front wall for some real soffit mount speakers down the road a bit.
In trying to draw my front wall I was trying to project how far I needed to keep my nearfieds from the surrounding walls.
Is there a specific distance?
I read somewhere the distance to the wall need to be the same distance as between the speakers, but that does not seem correct in my pea brain.

What say Ye?

Macross · Post by **Macross** » Thu Nov 27, 2003 7:07 pm

Most nearfields allow for adjustment according to position. You can plug a port if you need it closer to a wall, since the wall will boost lows by 3dB or more. Please don't take this as hard fact, but I'd say at least 1' from the wall and preferably 3' or so. Too many factors to give a factual answer.

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 12:53 am

Which Monitor Ones do you have? Original or Mk II's??

This is from the Mk II Manual

so there are minimum recommended setup distances from side and back walls: the speakers should be a minimum of 2.5 feet from the side walls and 3 feet from
the rear walls.

The low frequency response of the M1 Active Mk2s can be custom tailored by plugging the ports. If the speakers must be placed less than one foot from a front wall, or if they are too close to a corner, then the bass may become exaggerated and inaccurate. The rules of thumb for these situations are as follows:

a) less than 1 foot from a front wall but away from any corner:
plug one port
b) less than 1 foot from a front wall and a corner:
plug both ports

Be prepared to plug both ports when you soffit mount them.

matucha · Post by **matucha** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 2:04 am

I searched the web for an answer, because I don't want soffit mount (or can't do it properly, because I'll have to leave my place untouched in near future). And I found:

1) Place the speaker as close to a wall as it gets and adjust the speaker settings to compensate bas buildup
2) Place it at 1/4 of the lowest freq. (i. e. -3dB or so) can your speaker produce.

Well, I have to go with point 1), because 32Hz is too much, the sweet spot would be very near the rear wall... just impossible.

Barefoot did some excel calculator to show the effect of monitors&boundaries... look into his forum.

Another thing I'm considering when placing the speakers near the wall is it's treatment. I'm counting with 250mm of acoustic paneling (100mm rockwool and air behind). So I expect this will behave differently than placing it near concrete/brick wall. How? I don't know, must try...

I'd like to hear comments to my "findings". Thanks

Matous

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 1:26 am

The "Wall bounce calculator" is in the Acoustics forum, here -

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=630

Play with the absorption, etc, too - cool tool... Steve

tmix · Post by **tmix** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 9:46 pm

Thanks Guys!

I don't know why, but I am not getting notified when you answer my post. I have double checked my email address and it is right. Sorry for not responding sooner.

I have the original passive monitor ones (the black ones) and have lost the manual for them. I can't see any switches for making any adjustments on them but I'll get them down from their mounts and give them a close scrutiny this evening.

Thanks again!