Where ear should line with monitor

[Jens Eklund]

Help me please

The acoustic axis of a normal 2-way speaker is normally right in-between the centers of the drivers.

[Fred.Kevorkian]

Tweeters are directional ... so they should point directly to the horizontal plane where your ears are situated

[Jens Eklund]

Originally Posted by Fred.Kevorkian

Tweeters are directional ... so they should point directly to the horizontal plane where your ears are situated

Originally Posted by Jens Eklund

Monitor placement/bass trap questions.

My Monitor setup?

Can the Adam A7x Monitors, be placed Horizontally?

[gullfo]

go to the manufacturer and obtain the acoustic center detail information (most reputable ones post online). aim that to be between 1-6" above your ears in your typical listening position. this is because many times with the acoustic center dead on, some speakers can be pretty harsh in the HF and the larger the speaker (and the power) the more this seems to be true. however the reason you want the acoustic center (and not simply the position between the drivers) is because the manufacturer should have designed their enclosure, speaker arrangement, and cross-over to make the acoustic center the least skewed response @ a given distance and in their test environment.

[Jens Eklund]

Originally Posted by gullfo

go to the manufacturer and obtain the acoustic center detail information (most reputable ones post online). aim that to be between 1-6" above your ears in your typically listening position.

"All loudspeakers are designed to provide the highest performance along the acoustic axis":

Genelec Oy - Acoustic Axis

I o w; aim the acoustic axis directly towards the ears. If you don´t appreciate the perfect (well; as close to perfect as possible in the given situation that is …) reproduction this results in, by all means, feel free to experiment with different setups.

[DanDan]

It really depends on the speaker design. The bigger PMC speakers are designed to be hear off axis. Their install instructions have the tweeters high up (10 feet) in the air and toed in only 10-15 degrees.
The aim appears to be to create a wider sweet spot.
On axis they have a rising HF which I have found impossible to work with.

DD

[gullfo]

in cases its interesting AudioRoundTable.com: Measurement => The Acoustic Center: How it applies to Loudspeaker Measurements

nearfield - you should be able to align on the tweeter or the manufacturer specific acoustic center - outside that, you're likely to find the acoustic center not as helpful for precise placement given (as DD noted) the wider sweetspot, plus "hot" effect of the HF driver etc.

might be helpful: http://www.rjbaudio.com/Audiofiles/d...alculator.html

[Tashez]

My manufacturer suggests that the ear is level with the tweeters. Makes sense as stated above they are directional.

[Jens Eklund]

Busy week so far, so I haven’t had the time to clarify what I mean here.


When I say that you need to align on the acoustic axis, usually in-between the midrange (or woofer if 2-way design) and tweeter; I´m referring to the vertical plane. Unless the drivers are signal aligned in such a way that the directivity in the X-over range is “aimed” in another angle, you want to make sure to align the ear so it sits right in-between the mid/woofer and tweeter (or tilt the speaker so that the acoustic axis aims towards the ear. Again, I´m referring to the vertical alignment. In the horizontal plane (assuming correct speaker orientation = mid and tweeter vertically aligned), you can naturally “toe out” (well; not pointing away from the sweet spot but just not straight at it) your speakers and by how much depends on personal preference and the polar response of the drivers (especially the tweeter but also the midrange driver).

I personally try to angle the speakers so the apex of the close to equilateral (the head and the speakers form a perfect equilateral triangle) triangle ends up about 0,2 – 0,5 m behind the head. How much depends on the speaker and the size of the setup.