John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I am currently in the process of building a new control room that will be roughly 15 ft x 17 ft with a ceiling of 9 ft average. Hopefully the acoustics will turn out well early in the build. I am working to make them as good as I can for what I know will be a tuning process.

Right now I am using a pair of DynAudio BM15's with a Bryston amp for monitors. The space I am currently in is roughly 13 x 19 with sparse acoustic treatment. The BM15's are about 1 ft from the wall, 6ft from me and about 6ft apart and sound okay considering the space. If I move them closer (and farther from the wall), they sound mid heavy and a little out of phase. Pretty strange if you ask me.

My concern is that this is a property of the speaker and not the room and that when I move, I will not be able to use these any longer. I am hoping to move the speakers a little closer in order to concerve space in the new room.

Is this normal for these speakers, that they need to be about 6 ft away?

Opinions please?

Thanks,
Scott

Your speakers don't change when you move them; it's the interaction of their output with the room that changes. I have BM15s and they sound great in a properly-treated room. In my last studio they were about 3 feet off the front wall in a 17x20x10.5 control room with lots of trapping and absorption, about 5 feet wide on the meter bridge. I also used them in another professionally-designed CR last month (smaller space) and they were tight. I'd think you should do your room treatments first, then play with the position to get the best imaging and accuracy.

That's what I thought, but I was hoping for a confirmation which you provided. I couldn't imagine a speaker design that would cause what I was hearing.

Thanks for posting the picture as well. I'm curious, your ceiling looks interesting. Is that some sort of cloth covered grid or just the appearance of the ceiling tile?


Thanks
scott

I've been going over the thread of your building project. It looks great! Maybe if I'm ever out that far I'll drop in for a look. I'm in the DFW area myself.

Thanks for all of the pictures. I didn't preruse this forum nearly enough before I started my studio. If I had I would have posted pics and asked more questions. Most of which were answered in other threads anywhay, but everyone here seems so patient and willing to help. I'll be posting more soon I hope, certainly next year when I start on the tracking room.

Thanks for the great thread! The pics are really helpful!

scott