I need to mount a pair of bookshelf active monitors on a wall for my PC and because the entire front/left/right is covered with a two high stack of 32" computer monitor screens, in a 3 wide x 2 high configuration. I will be forced to use brackets to hold the speakers to walls, about two-three feet above my head, while seated. Roughly, the tweeters will be some 8-12" above ear height while standing, just as another reference point, but I will be listening to them seated, so the two-three feet higher height difference of the speakers is the topic of main concern here.
I do have the ability to angle the speakers down to make up for the fact that they are above ear level, at least up to a point, but am wondering if high speaker placement, but with enough distance from the ceiling (i.e., some 3+ feet) for ceiling reflections not to be of concern, as well as the angling of the speakers down will make any difference vs common ear level high tweeter placement for a simple stereo bookshelf speaker setup (with subwoofer).
Given the use of a subwoofer, frequencies below about 85 Hz will not arrive at the monitors with a pretty steep cut-off slope (don't remember if it's 12 or 18 dB, but it's adjustable on the sub). Frequencies above that point will be handled exclusively by the monitors. Since the lows <85 Hz are non-directional anyways, the fact that a subwoofer is being used doesn't really add much to the discussion/considerations, but I thought I would mention this fact just in case.
Please post your thoughts on any disadvantages of having front speakers mounted 2-3 feet above ear level but angled down vs plain ear level tweeter height positioning for a pair of stereo bookshelf speakers.
My main concern is any effect on stereo imaging or other spatial perception, with any possible changes in frequency response being secondary, because I can correct for frequency issues both on the back of the monitors via high/bass knobs as well as using an equalizer for finer grained adjustment to equalize measurements with them being placed straight in front. I would imagine that correcting for any spatial issues that get introduced by this configuration would probably be far more difficult, if not impossible, assuming these exist in the first place.
What I don't know is the impact on human hearing/perception of this high placement, its effects due to the shapes of our ears/ear lobes with respect to front sound source height judgement, and how noticeable such effects would be. I guess it ultimately boils down to how sensitive our ears/brain are to determining the height of front sound sources, between say zero degrees (ear level) and maybe 45-60 degrees (vertical angle with respect to ear level towards tweeter of speaker), all else being equal. Is this sort of change in height something we can easily discern, with our eyes closed, or is our sense of height in front of us pretty poor, at least within the confines of the 0-60 degree vertical angle range previously mentioned?
I do have the ability to angle the speakers down to make up for the fact that they are above ear level, at least up to a point, but am wondering if high speaker placement, but with enough distance from the ceiling (i.e., some 3+ feet) for ceiling reflections not to be of concern, as well as the angling of the speakers down will make any difference vs common ear level high tweeter placement for a simple stereo bookshelf speaker setup (with subwoofer).
Given the use of a subwoofer, frequencies below about 85 Hz will not arrive at the monitors with a pretty steep cut-off slope (don't remember if it's 12 or 18 dB, but it's adjustable on the sub). Frequencies above that point will be handled exclusively by the monitors. Since the lows <85 Hz are non-directional anyways, the fact that a subwoofer is being used doesn't really add much to the discussion/considerations, but I thought I would mention this fact just in case.
Please post your thoughts on any disadvantages of having front speakers mounted 2-3 feet above ear level but angled down vs plain ear level tweeter height positioning for a pair of stereo bookshelf speakers.
My main concern is any effect on stereo imaging or other spatial perception, with any possible changes in frequency response being secondary, because I can correct for frequency issues both on the back of the monitors via high/bass knobs as well as using an equalizer for finer grained adjustment to equalize measurements with them being placed straight in front. I would imagine that correcting for any spatial issues that get introduced by this configuration would probably be far more difficult, if not impossible, assuming these exist in the first place.
What I don't know is the impact on human hearing/perception of this high placement, its effects due to the shapes of our ears/ear lobes with respect to front sound source height judgement, and how noticeable such effects would be. I guess it ultimately boils down to how sensitive our ears/brain are to determining the height of front sound sources, between say zero degrees (ear level) and maybe 45-60 degrees (vertical angle with respect to ear level towards tweeter of speaker), all else being equal. Is this sort of change in height something we can easily discern, with our eyes closed, or is our sense of height in front of us pretty poor, at least within the confines of the 0-60 degree vertical angle range previously mentioned?
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