Soffit mounting heat concerns

[IxtabStudios]

Hello all –

I'm in the process of building quite a large studio and would like to soffit mount my mains.

My question is whether some powered monitors heat a bit too much to basically be wrapped in MDF. I know many, many studios do it so I'm not too concerned, but I still want to make sure I'm not going to harm the system.

For speaker size info –
Control room is ~32m2 (345 sq. ft) and the mix position is 3m from the mains. The clients will most likely listen from the outboard bar about 5m from the mains.

A sketch of the room is at Ixtab Studios

Lucas M.

[Weasel9992]

Are they soffit-mount mains or just regular monitors that you want to install in a soffit? Either way, it may not be a job you want to take on yourself. There's a lot to it...lots of things have to be done right to avoid turning the wall into a big resonance chamber or overheating the monitors...also issues with providing power to the monitors, not destroying monitor dispersion, etc.

Frank

[IxtabStudios]

I'll be doing the physical construction myself, but will have the design done by someone who knows what they are doing.

I've worked with the French acoustic design firm CAT Concept and have never been let down.

Originally Posted by Weasel9992

Are they soffit-mount mains or just regular monitors that you want to install in a soffit?

Frank

The soffit mounts are just for the big mains. I'll be mixing on 5" near-fields I'm used to and very happy with.

[Weasel9992]

Okay, cool. So long as you have good plans and specs to work from and some experience and skill in the construction area, you'll be just fine.

If they're actual soffit mount speakers that'll be great.

Frank

[jwl]

What does the designer who knows what he's doing say about overheating?

[IxtabStudios]

Originally Posted by jwl

What does the designer who knows what he's doing say about overheating?

Haven't got to that yet – At the moment we're floating the floors. This could interest other people though, so I'll post the soffit design when it's finalized.

We have selected ADAM S4VAs. I know these are not flattering mains like 1037s or somthing, but there will be quite a lot of post done in the studio and S4VAs beat out the 1037s for that. It took myself and the post engineer several weeks just to decide what to demo!