Surround monitoring considerations

[Jez Corbett]

I'll mostly be doing stereo, hence thinking not relying too much on the sub, especially as the stuff i do in surround / 3D will also want to be stereo compatible, I'd think i might want to be able to get a complete picture from the L & R.

I might be barking up the wrong tree though.

Studio is fairly extensively treated, but needs more work. I'll post some photos.

[Jez Corbett]

[James Perrett]

Looking at the pictures, I'm wondering if the lack of bass is down to reflections from the desk. Have you tried them in free space or mounted higher? While the KH120s don't have real deep bass, it would only be something that I would notice if I had some much bigger speakers to compare them with.

[Jez Corbett]

I should get stands. The tb2s were a lot higher.

[Jez Corbett]

Meant to add, spl isn't too big a deal, i don't tend to monitor at high levels

[Jez Corbett]

Maybe the smaller sub would have been fine

[Drew Stephenson]

I think I'd have gone with the smaller one...

[Hugh Robjohns]

I've been caught out with that before too. The pictures make it look almost cubic, when its actually the size of a wardrobe!

Still, you won't run out of headroom, and will be able to keep the Seismology department amused at your local university....

[Jez Corbett]

Lets think of it of a good way to break the ice with the other residents of the studio complex.

[Jez Corbett]

Ok, got it set up, done some test sweeps.

Doing some sweeps, it all sounds, from an initial casual listen, reasonably flat. However I'm getting a weird phenomenon where, at my listening position, the bass seems to pan left then right briefly around 120-130Hz or so.

I've got more treatment to do, but does this suggest anything I should specifically look into?

Also a bit concerned Im even hearing those frequencies as I've set the sub to cut below 120Hz but I guess the rolloff is quite long. From testing I can still hear stuff up to about 500Hz.

[Drew Stephenson]

Doing some sweeps, it all sounds, from an initial casual listen, reasonably flat. However I'm getting a weird phenomenon where, at my listening position, the bass seems to pan left then right briefly around 120-130Hz or so.

I've got more treatment to do, but does this suggest anything I should specifically look into?

Check the same sweep on headphones set to a mono output. Our ears don't have the same frequency response on each side so it might be an artefact of your hearing rather than the sub or room.

[Hugh Robjohns]

However I'm getting a weird phenomenon where, at my listening position, the bass seems to pan left then right briefly around 120-130Hz or so.

Probably a nodal resonance issue in the room. More bass trapping, doctor!

Also a bit concerned Im even hearing those frequencies as I've set the sub to cut below 120Hz but I guess the rolloff is quite long. From testing I can still hear stuff up to about 500Hz.

The low-pass crossover slope is, I believe fourth order, so it should be 24dB down at 240Hz and 40dB or so down at 500Hz — quite audible in isolation, and perfectly normal.