John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

A question about the best way to mount Adam A7 speakers, which have some strange angle faces at the top.

Which of the following three is the best way to mount them?


Mounting "A": bottom front surface of speaker mounted flush with soffit, leaving top recessed.


Mounting "B": Top front surface of speaker flush with soffit, leaving bottom protruding.


Mounting "C": Carving out the back of the soffit panel to get a perfect fit.


Mounting "D": None of the above!

Good question, great graphics, and no satisfactory answer. Definitely not A. Why not as Adam directly?

Andre

why not A? the tweeter section and the bass are on the same plane, and that would be flush with the soffit in example A.

wow to the graphics!!!!

Iain

padded cell wrote:why not A?

The indents and sharp corners would act as secondary sources at high frequencies. Hence C is definitely better. BUT, I don't know how much of the tweeter response is affected by working into a solid 2π, B might be better.

Andre

as soffit mounting means "flush with the wall" I'd say go with option 3.
The bevels are made for "better" low-end frq folding. By mounting them flush, you'd cancel that (by "removing" the body of the speakers)

If you haven't already see this http://johnlsayers.com/Studio/Pages/Somewhere.htm
Its the larger monitor but same model I believe. Would agree with your option ´c´.

Matt

Thanks for the replies, everyone! Great stuff. That link to the "somewhere" studio is what convinced me. Thanks, Matt.

So, option "C" it is then! That's what I feared... Now I just need to figure out the best way to slice out those angles from the back of the soffit panel...

Soundman2020 wrote:Thanks for the replies, everyone! Great stuff. That link to the "somewhere" studio is what convinced me. Thanks, Matt.

So, option "C" it is then! That's what I feared... Now I just need to figure out the best way to slice out those angles from the back of the soffit panel...

I'm doing mine the same way as we speak. Actually, I hired people to do it because I'm not a handy kind o guy haha.

Basically it's a trial and error process where you have to use the speaker to measure how your angles have to be sliced out. They are using a chisel and sand paper to make it as close to the speaker as possible so it can be flush with the wall. Hope that helps!

I'll be posting B&A pics and room test results for you guys later.

Cool! I'd love to see those pics!

Now I have a real off-the-wall question for the experts: Would it make any sense at all to cast the soffit panel in concrete? Say about an inch thick?

I remember reading that you want mass in your soffit panel, and it seems to me that concrete fits that bill! It would also be much easier to get a perfect shape for the speaker cutout inside the back, since I could create a plaster mold first directly from the speaker, to get the exact shape...

Does that make any sense, or would it be silly? Yeah, I know it would be REALLY heavy, but I figure I can build a frame tough enough to hold it. Maybe use steel instead of wood.

I'd be willing to give it a try, but only if the experts think it makes sense.

Yes - it has been done.

Thanks John! Excellent! Wooohooo!!

Any suggestions on how thick to make the concrete? What kind of mass / density / size should I be aiming for? I guess that reinforcing mesh would not really be necessary, but might still be worthwhile?

Doing more research here, and I just discovered that the idea of mounting monitors in concrete was first implemented by Tom Hidley back in 1984! If it was good enough for him, then I reckon it's good enough for me.

Now all I need to do is figure out how to build a frame tough enough to support two large concrete slabs angled forwards at 7 degrees, without the whole thing falling over on top of me!

Hmmmm... what on earth am I getting myself into here?

John, does it make any sense to build that frame from steel, and bolt it to the floor? Do I really want to couple my speakers to my floor?

- Stuart -

>Skai_Penalva, any pictures of the A7 soffit mounted ?

Thanks !
-fx

here you go.



http://www.johnlsayers.com/Studio/Pages/Somewhere.htm

Ah, ok, I saw that design before too, didn't know they were the same

Thanks !
-fx