Screen positioning / monitor / desk reflections & angles

[Dan B]

I’m trying to get more daylight (and less neck ache*), so am experimenting with moving my top 32” monitor screen on my sit/stand desk down to an angled position under the speaker. [Er, yes, opening the curtains would help! ]

Before:


After:





My initial impression is that it’s acoustically rather different: the right speaker sounds like it’s quieter (!) and perhaps less open and airy. Subjectively, I’m finding the left speaker more “fun” to listen to, but perhaps that’s just because it appears louder?

I’m not quite sure what’s going on/whether it’s desirable. Thoughts welcome! It may be that having the screen beneath the speaker is beneficial. Perhaps it sounds quieter/less bright because early reflections are no longer hitting the desk, and instead are being reflected past my ears and to the ceiling cloud. In which case you’d expect it to be more accurate … Conversely, it might be reflecting more into my ears! I've read that 6 degrees is the minimum (or required?) angle to minimise desk reflections, but this is more like 30-35 degrees. On the plus side, I can't see any of the right speaker reflected in the right screen, so perhaps it's ok?

I must confess I don’t really trust my ears (and my hearing is a bit different in my left and right ears), so thoughts on what would work best welcome – as are alternative ideas on how to mount the screens.

The other idea I’ve had is to raise the 40” screen perhaps c. 20cm, and then have the two 32” screens next to each other (or possible a single widescreen monitor) on the desk below it, at a similar or slightly shallower angle to how the right 32” is in the photos. Downside of this is it takes up a lot of the desk space, and means I can’t have my laptop in the centre (unless I leave a gap for it between the 2 screens) - so a bit like this:

Alternatively ...


* The top of the 40” screen is in the right place – i.e. level with my eyes, whether seated or standing. So the 2 x 32” screens above are too high, but get relatively limited use. By moving them to be angled under the speakers, they’re of course too low, and less central, and subject some glare from the ceiling lights; but there’s a fair bit more day light in the room, which is most welcome!

There's a bit more detail on the room/treatment here (photos/diagrams on page 3) https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/view ... 1&start=24

[Hugh Robjohns]

If you draw vector lines from your speaker off the screen (angle of incidence = angle of reflection) I think you'll find those reflections are hitting your waistline, whereas when it was bare table-top they would have been heading up to your ears.

Personally, I'd keep the desk as clear as possible, and mount those screens out to the sides... or get bigger screens and mount them on the walls above your floor-standing acoustic panels.

And either way, don't place the speakers such that they're flush with and touching the screens. That creates a lop-sided baffle effect and adds all kinds of spurious diffraction points that will change the quality of sound from the speakers.

[James Perrett]

Do you really need all 4 screens? When I was using 3 screens I found that I only needed that many screens because I was too lazy to close irrelevant windows. I couldn't actually make use of that many screens simultaneously. However, I do have my screens set to their highest resolution so that I can cram quite a bit into the two that I use.

I think your setup is physically larger than mine but I have my laptop sat under my large screen with the laptop screen at a bit of an angle. I also find that my speakers sound better at about 40cm above the desk so, if I didn't have so much other stuff on the desk, I could have monitors vertically under each speaker.

I would aim to keep all the screens (and any other objects) behind the front face of the monitors. As you have found, putting the screens in front of the monitor changes the sound. If you can, it may also be worth seeing if raising the monitors improves the sound - I only found that it did in my case by accident.

[RichardT]

Yes, moving the screens to the sides would be a good idea if you can live with it. it would be less achey than looking up all the time.

In your circumstances I'd be testing out whether the speakers sound better vertically oriented - but I'm guessing you've tried that already.

[BigRedX]

I would aim to keep all the screens (and any other objects) behind the front face of the monitors. As you have found, putting the screens in front of the monitor changes the sound. If you can, it may also be worth seeing if raising the monitors improves the sound - I only found that it did in my case by accident.

I have 3 screens arranged in the typical crescent formation and then my speakers above them angled very slightly down. However I don't do any critical mixing with this set up and my screens are arranged first and foremost for my day job which is graphic design and where 3 screens is only just enough.

In the days when I had a reasonably serious home studio, my computer and screens were in a different location to my speakers and mixing desk, as I had one area for composing where accurate sound wasn't as critical and one area for mixing where it was. Do you have room to do something similar, where you can have a single screen for mixing and a separate work area for actually creating the music where you can have multiple screens without affecting the sound balance?

[Hugh Robjohns]

In your circumstances I'd be testing out whether the speakers sound better vertically oriented - but I'm guessing you've tried that already.

They look like KH310s... tweeter above midrange dome on the inside with woofer on the outside of the baffles. They are in the correct orientation and standing then upright would make things much worse!

[jaminem]

Can you raise the big main screen up (and preferably push it back a bit) and have the angled one underneath it but centrally?

[RichardT]

In your circumstances I'd be testing out whether the speakers sound better vertically oriented - but I'm guessing you've tried that already.

They look like KH310s... tweeter above midrange dome on the inside with woofer on the outside of the baffles. They are in the correct orientation and standing then upright would make things much worse!

As you were...

[Dan B]

Thanks all.

Hugh - you're bang on regarding the reflections! I've done the "mirror test" when I'm in the sweet spot (essentially an equilateral triangle) and - whether standing or seated, the 32" right screen reflections are hitting my waistline (or a bit below), whereas when it was bare table-top they would hitting my ears. So I assume having the screens in front would seem (at least theoretically) advantageous / to be an improvement ... (?).

The big 40" screen isn't touching the speakers, and is about 1cm behind.

I've not tried the monitors vertically as I gather the KH310s are only meant to be used horizontally.

Tweeter height is currently good (ok, a little low by maybe 8cm when standing - bang on in-line with ears when seated).

Before I got the IsoAcoustics, I had mounted the speakers on breezeblocks. Very stable, and I think sounded better, but too much weight for the sit/stand desk (despite being within lifting tolerances/weight limits, the first one died!). So IsoAcoustics seemed the only option (even if there's a tad wobbly). Other ideas welcome!

The desk is in two stages - almost like a monitor bridge with a keyboard tray underneath. The Isoacoustics are c. 23cm off the monitor bridge section; the secondary pull out desk is another c 12cm lower, so the speakers are c. 35cm off the lower part of the desk (which pulls out up to 40cm into the room beyond the monitor bridge part of the desk).

I'm a bit of a screen real-estate junky (not least due to simultaneous use of multiple PCs), so I'm not sure I could loose a monitor (or more than one). I could swap out the two 32" a single 34" ultawide and not loose any screen real estate/resolution (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-LS34J5 ... B08WWWZTF4). But the positioning problem remains. It'd either have to go on top of the 40" (where the 2 x 32"s were - at least it'd be less wide than those two; and slightly less wid.
Alternatively, I could swap the 40" and the 2 x 32" for two of those (though the 40" also usefully works as TV when sitting further back on the sofa, so I'd rather not).

So yes, I could raise the main 40" screen up (and push it back a bit) and have either two 32" screens underneath, or a single ultrawide 34", angled underneath the 40". So like the last photo, but with the main screen about 23cm higher. Even mounting an ultrawide on top would take up a bit less space and let more light in. So might be ones to play around with ...

[Dan B]

I would aim to keep all the screens (and any other objects) behind the front face of the monitors. As you have found, putting the screens in front of the monitor changes the sound. If you can, it may also be worth seeing if raising the monitors improves the sound - I only found that it did in my case by accident.

I have 3 screens arranged in the typical crescent formation and then my speakers above them angled very slightly down. However I don't do any critical mixing with this set up and my screens are arranged first and foremost for my day job which is graphic design and where 3 screens is only just enough.

In the days when I had a reasonably serious home studio, my computer and screens were in a different location to my speakers and mixing desk, as I had one area for composing where accurate sound wasn't as critical and one area for mixing where it was. Do you have room to do something similar, where you can have a single screen for mixing and a separate work area for actually creating the music where you can have multiple screens without affecting the sound balance?

Nice idea! Alas, my day job isn't music and also benefits from multiple screens, and I listen on the monitors whilst working (with either music or other hats on). When I am working on music, I also find the multiple screens handy (though the laptop in the centre goes). Unfortunately, I can't really think of a sensible way of splitting the setup ... So I think some degree of compromise between monitoring accuracy / daylight / optimal screen positioning is required. I'm leaning towards prioritising the latter two, for workflow, enjoyment of the space and mental health! The upside of putting the 32" screens at and angle under each of the speakers is that it's easy to flatten them somewhat or completely (and pretty easy to remove them) if that's really needed for critical listening/mixing etc. (Each screen is just resting on a pair of foldable laptop stands). It also saves me having to shell out on an ultrawide screen.

At some point it might be instructive to do some REW testing with the 32" screen them there angled vs flattened/removed ...