Comments on: Room Setup & Speaker Placement 101

By: RazorXcom

RazorXcom — Sun, 16 Jan 2022 10:08:00 +0000

The “38% Rule” should no longer be used as a suggestion. It’s close but not accurate. 38% is too close to the 4th harmonic null at 37.5%. The real listening position is at 39.6%. Why? Because it’s exactly between the 4th (37.5%) and 6th (41.7%) harmonic null. We have 37.5% + 41.7% / 2 = 39.6%. So if you are keeping your head in-between the harmonic nulls, then your possible Listen Positions will always be the same in any room: 32.8%, 39.6%, or 45.8%.

Room length makes a big difference is where the Listening Position will be located. There’s no way a Listening Position of 37.5% will work in a small length room. Small rooms will have a Listening Position of 45.8%, medium length rooms will be 39.6%, and rooms with larger lengths will be 32.8%.

Overall the 38% Rule is inaccurate, is outdated, and doesn’t work for every room length.

By: Noharm

Noharm — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 09:43:00 +0000

It doesen’t matter if tweeters are dead center with the room, they are tweeters…

By: Dave Falk

Dave Falk — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 02:21:00 +0000

Hello, is this topic still open? Can you treat a room with 2 walls glass and 2 walls brick?

I am in a 10 x 11 room.
South/East walls are glass (French doors – cloth shades)
North/West walls (with 2/3 glass doorway) into home are brick.
Floor – wood with carpet (2/3 of floor covered
Ceiling – wood planked
Furniture – Large fabric sofa and fabric chair

I am thinking that perhaps I can start with acoustic bass traps in corners…….but what about all this glass on the South/East walls..

By: Matthew Brown

Matthew Brown — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 14:58:00 +0000

Hello big issue presently i am useing a 16×12 ft space both for tracking and mixing.
As of late my space has been used also for live play by 5 member bands (very tight)lol.
I retrack vocals after and some how it comes out good the room at piont is 50% delusion and cross pattern with 12×12 2″ blocks .
And I sit in i rear corner nin of it should work .
I am expanding the room (with fear ).
At piont cement floors 2 walls brick 2 walls and cieling sheet rock with 1 ft gap to upper floor no insulation. Cieling is only 7 ‘6” high
The expansion will only give 3 ft more working room in the live area and move the mixing area to a small area 6ft x6ft sepreate with a open front to the room .
End result in play space 15x16x7 1/2
The pa system would essentially end up just below existing duck work running in the full length of the control or front wall 5 ft high i am worried about exesive vibrations even if covered and treated it makes the control wall 6 ft 10 inch high compared and protrudes 3 ft into the room .
I plan on bass trap all the way across the duck work on a 45 degree angle to cieling and same for back cieling and corners treating most of the back wall about 50% of all walls and cieling as before .
Bad idea .
The room is 3 sided and opened to a finished basment now and I have a flat clean response only took a year to get it that way lol .
Great artical thanks for any thought .

By: Outatime

Outatime — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 19:21:00 +0000

Hi Tim – don’t know if you are still replying to these comments but here goes. I understand all your advice about centering head as part of triangle etc etc for one person but how would building a cinema room 10 foot wide x 22 foot long and 9 foot high ceiling with two rows of seats affect this advice? Regards.

By: Citizen

Citizen — Wed, 08 May 2019 07:05:00 +0000

I have recently move to a new apartment and I’m trying to set up my home recording studio.
The room is a rectangle 2.90metres x 3.40metres. Due to windows and doors i can only place my studio desk in the side of 3.40m. . I have place my desk and monitor speakers right in the middle. There is the same distance between them and my ears. The speakers height is also at the same level as my hearing area.
There is zero bass sound where i’m siting and right behind me. Everywhere else in the room, especially corners there is full of low frequency response.
Any ideas how to fix this?

By: jonas nymose

jonas nymose — Sun, 28 Apr 2019 21:36:00 +0000

My problem is that if I place my monitors 120 cm from the floor, then the tweeters will be more or less dead in the center vertically. If I place them higher, then the tweeters wont point diricetly at my ears, the subs will though, or they will go above my ears if placed even higher while sitting down. Don’t make sense for me standing up while mixing, if I do it all on the computer and don’t have a standing desk. Can’t make this to add up at all.

By: Sam Roney

Sam Roney — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 19:32:00 +0000

I’m looking for guidance on setting up a room for a 3-4 pc band that is recording & rehearsing in a 15’Lx15’Wx8′-10’H(ceiling pitched up from the two 8′ sides to a 10′ center line). We are monitoring with 4 speakers: a pair of 2 way 15″ mains, mounted on sub poles attached to a pair of 18″subs from our PA gear. I have carpeted floor and the walls are 85% covered with flat Aurelex 2″ thick foam absorption panels. the only parts not covered are the ceiling, 2 doors, and one window. There’s also a double door sized opening to an adjacent room. Bass has odd resonance and microphone feedback is an issue due to room size. We’d like to find a way to adjust the acoustics such that we can run the PA vocals loud enough over a full drum kit, bass, keys, and electric guitar, but with significantly less of these problems.

By: Andre Rahming

Andre Rahming — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 19:49:00 +0000

I have a room 12’x10′ with a closet and about a 2’x5′ niche facing the back was wondering about speaker placement with the closet was wondering if with this closet if I should consider the room to still be 12′ or cut out the 2 inch and consider the room 10 x 10

By: Tony El Tigre

Tony El Tigre — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 02:58:00 +0000

Your tutorials have been a godsend mate as I’m just about to rebuild my studio. My only issue is that unlike many of the designs here that are purely listening/mixing rooms my studio is a fully working studio within one room using near field monitors. My studio has to house my collections of analogue synthesisers, drum machines, tape delays, organs, etc. A lot of my analogue gear like my compressers, distressors and modular synths are also rack mounted, which by its very nature creates a lot of reflective surfaces . What would your advice be to maximise the sound quality given the restricted space I have.