I have a set of Atacama SE1000 speaker stands, but at 1metre, they're just a tad too high. I've 'blu-tack'ed' my current speakers to the tops of the stands, but would very much like to tilt them so that they fire downwards a little bit.

Thicker blobs of blu-tack at the back? Is there some simple and ingenious method to use? Or should I go out and buy 90cm high stands?

Also - just to be sure, my ears need to be level with the tweeters right? I read somewhere that they should be level with a point midway between woofer and tweeter - in which case, I won't need to do any tilting...!

Expert opinions most appreciated...

Edited by JM-1 (15/04/12 08:35 PM)

Could you invert your speakers & lower your chair a fraction? Failing that you could try sitting on someones knee...

DM

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Not much in life worth running for. Or from.

Quote JM-1:

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I have a set of Atacama SE1000 speaker stands, but at 1metre, they're just a tad too high. I've 'blu-tack'ed' my current speakers to the tops of the stands, but would very much like to tilt them so that they fire downwards a little bit.

Thicker blobs of blu-tack at the back? Is there some simple and ingenious method to use? Or should I go out and buy 90cm high stands?

Also - just to be sure, my ears need to be level with the tweeters right? I read somewhere that they should be level with a point midway between woofer and tweeter - in which case, I won't need to do any tilting...!

Expert opinions most appreciated...

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Sit on a couple of 'phone books. Do the speakers sound noticeably different/better? Help! You're going to have to put your head in a clamp while mixing, aren't you, if there's such a tiny "sweet spot"! What about the stereo image? Feed a live Radio 3 orchestral broadcast through them and play around with speaker placement and angling until the sound-stage becmes 3-dimensional (you won't get this with a pseudo-stereo multitracked pop recording) How far can you move your head before loosing the effect?

Now you know just how critical you have to be with placement and listening position. Hopefully there will be quite a large "sweet spot" and you can stop fussing. If not, optimise as best you can. Yes, speakers can be tilted. And they don't HAVE to go "that" way up.

The "triangle with you at the apex" is a good starting point. But then adjust so it SOUNDS right.

Quote JM-1:

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Also - just to be sure, my ears need to be level with the tweeters right? I read somewhere that they should be level with a point midway between woofer and tweeter - in which case, I won't need to do any tilting...!

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They do need to sound right, so let your ears decide.

On several occasions, I thought various monitors sounded better at 12-20 degrees below the high frequency drive unit. Then I discovered a couple of monitors that included diagrams which showed the acoustic axis to be "downward" (from the high frequency drive unit).

Whatever the acoustic axis is, it has implications for inverting, tilting, or placing monitors on their sides.

This would vary by model, but it's something to keep in mind.

My monitors are way above my head height on a shelf, but there is nowhere else I can put them. When I want to listen critically I stand up
I have thought about standing them on their side which might help a little, but there isn't quite room for that. We all have to make compromises .....

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Sam

The stock answer is that the tweeters need to be roughly at ear height and aimed towards the ears... but while that's usually a good starting point, it's not fixed in stone and situations vary a lot.

There's nothing wrong with tilting a speaker down to aim the tweeters more towards the ears if it ends being mounted high for some reason. Auralex Mo-Pads (and several other similar isoaltion mounts) are supplied with wedge pieces to arrange a modest tilt up/down. If necessary, cut a piece of wood and blutack that under the rear of the speaker.

It is worth noting that many speakers are designed deliberately to 'beam' the most balanced sound slightly up or down. This is because of the way to the two drive units interact through the crossover region, and the phase alignment of the crossover, so some experimentation is necessary.

It looks silly, but if you mount the speaker on something temporarily so that the tweeter is around chest height, then stand a metre or two in front and listen initially with the tweeter well below your ears. When you are familiar with the tonality, bend you knees to dip down, moving your ears level with the tweeter and then below the tweeter. You will hear any comb-filtering problems and also if the sound is more balanced above, below, or on the level with the tweeters. You will then know how to mount them for your preferred listening position.

hugh

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Technical Editor, Sound On Sound

Quote Hugh Robjohns:

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You will then know how to mount them for your preferred listening position.

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And then, having agonised over speaker position, move your head just a few inches in any direction. For a more dramatic demonstration, agonise over headphone choice then, with ANY set, push the cups just a tiny bit tighter to your ears. I can almost guarantee you'll hear a difference as great as that from all the "fine tuning" - with headphones it will be an order of magnitude greater. And, after a surprisingly short time, your perception will adjust and, unless there's something TERRIBLY wrong, the music will sound fine.

Hence the standard advice to get out of your speakers' "sweet spot" and check tonal balance from the next room, burn a CD to play in the car and on a crap Hi-Fi... Makes you wonder why we bother with quality speakers and all that setup at all, doesn't it? :-)

Quote Exalted Wombat:

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And then, having agonised over speaker position, move your head just a few inches in any direction. For a more dramatic demonstration, agonise over headphone choice then, with ANY set, push the cups just a tiny bit tighter to your ears. I can almost guarantee you'll hear a difference as great as that from all the "fine tuning" - with headphones it will be an order of magnitude greater.

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That's so true! Similarly, cup your hands behind your ear & listen to any mix for a minute. When you take your hands away it will instantly sound crap. Apparently the original design brief for ears favoured listening for predators, above listening to speakers.

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Not much in life worth running for. Or from.

Quote Exalted Wombat:

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And then, having agonised over speaker position, move your head just a few inches in any direction.

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If the sound quality changes significantly when moving over such a small region then it's a pretty good indication that your monitoring position is suffering very badly from uncontrolled early reflections. The size of the 'sweet spot' varies with different speaker designs to an extent -- the toe-in angle can make a big difference too -- but the local acoustic conditions are the main factor.

The first things to address is making sure there aren't any obstructions between between or near the speakers (computer screens are the usual) as these cause strong secondary reflections that completely mess up the stereo imaging and consistency of tonality across the 'sweet spot' region. Ideally, the screens should be well behind a line drawn between the two speaker front baffles.

The desktop is usually the next strongest reflection source, and it's obviosuly harder to deal with that! It can be quite instructive to lie a thickly folded bath towel or similar over the desk to see what difference killing those reflections can make. Careful speaker positioning and angle/tilt are the only tools at your disposal, usually. Placing the speakers lower and tilting up, or higher and tilting down can help -- the aim being to minimise the amount of sound from the speakers that reaches the table surface. A lot of speakers these days have 'waveguides' in the front baffle to try to minimise vertical dispersion while maximising horizontal dispersion and this can often be a useful advantage.

Lastly, broadband absorbers (foam or rockwool panels, for example) on the side wall mirror points and possibly a 'ceiling cloud' usually help enormously too.

hugh

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Technical Editor, Sound On Sound

Thanks everyone for your most informative and helpful replies...most appreciated.

I also found out that for my speakers the 'sweet spot' is actually midway between tweeter and woofer, so I think I'll be okay with my 1 metre stand after all...!

Quote Dynamic Mike:

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Quote Exalted Wombat:

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And then, having agonised over speaker position, move your head just a few inches in any direction. For a more dramatic demonstration, agonise over headphone choice then, with ANY set, push the cups just a tiny bit tighter to your ears. I can almost guarantee you'll hear a difference as great as that from all the "fine tuning" - with headphones it will be an order of magnitude greater.

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That's so true! Similarly, cup your hands behind your ear & listen to any mix for a minute. When you take your hands away it will instantly sound crap. Apparently the original design brief for ears favoured listening for predators, above listening to speakers.

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Aah. How the mind does conspire to fox us The sound inside your head

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Andi, www.thedustbowl.net Mixing, Mastering, Audio Editing at The Dustbowl Audio