John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I'm in a bit of a dilemma. I have a very small room I'll be turning into a control room and I don't know what's the best approach to speaker placement given some constrains. I'll be installing cable ducts on the floor, and I need to know the final position of the speakers before treating the whole room.

I can make some tests, sure. But I'm not prepared to build a soffit wall and then tear it apart if I don't like the results.

So here are a two different approaches to speaker placement and listenning position:

The main speakers are:

Event 20/20 bas

The surround system is:

M-Audio Lx4 5.1

Not exactly hi end stuff, I know. I'll stick to what I own and possibly upgrade in the future. But at this point, achieving a proper listening environment is the goal. Notice I didn't include the subwoofer on any of the two diagrams. Given the space limit, it will probably go on either corner.

Ok, now to the two aproaches:

Layout #1
Pros:
- Listening position is at 38% from the front wall (Ethan/Wes Lachot approved)
- Every speaker is soffit mounted, early reflections are controlled
- There's still some space left to walk through the room

Cons:
- Every speaker is VERY CLOSE to a boundary/wall
- Bass build up may be too much even with bass trap hangers and corner traps
- Center speaker would have to be above door height
- Events don't have a -6dB LF trim. They have -3dB attenuation only


Layout #2
Pros:
- Front Speakers are not close to walls, they are placed 1/3 of the way on both X and Y axis. (Barry Diament approved)
- No need to engage a -6dB filter
- Center speaker not in awkard place

Cons:
- This configuration eats a lot of room
- I could not figure out a 1/3 XY placement for rear speakers and still have 5.1 speakers equidistant, so I had to open the angle a bit, thus rear speakers remain a bit close to walls
- Listening position is more like a 30ish% from the back wall

In your experience which of these approaches would yield better results??

Thanks,

Rodrigo

you might do a combination - put the events in the walls and put the much smaller lx4's on stands. the lx4's are smaller and i believe less power so they may have to be closer to be effective.

I think from a practical standpoint you can put them all on stands, and then as you think about upgrades, build up the soffits etc.

Thanks for your reply gullfo!



I just got a pair of Adam A7s. I'm going to use these instead of the Events. I think these monitors will be there for good and I won't be needing an upgrade as long as I'm in a similarly sized room.

So, going back to the layouts question, do you think soffit mounting the Adams AND the M-audios is a good idea. You have a point about speaker power and their distance. But it's a very small control room to begin with, so I don't think this could be a problem.

Anyway, if I put them closer than the Adams, I could skew the stereo imaging, don't you think? Any ideas? Thanks!

Best regards,

Rodrigo