Is there such thing as sitting too close to speakers?

[Ml2316]

When Speakers Become Headphones

 

[luft262]

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First of all, I would like to thank everyone in this website. I'm definitely learning a lot from all of your advice and posts.

Sorry for bothering you with more newbie question but can you sit TOO CLOSE to your monitor speakers (Polk R200 to be specific)?

I've been watching videos on YouTube and it seems like there are some general "rules" that I should follow:
1) You should keep at least about 1ft (30cm approx.) distance from your speaker to the front wall.
2) You want to keep equal distance between your speakers and the side walls.

The maximum distance from the front wall to my ears is 120cm. (The bed cannot be moved)
So, while following the 2 rules above, 120 - 30 (1ft) - 35 (approx depth of Polk R200) = 55cm.

My speakers would be only 55cm away from my ears and the distance between the speakers would be 55cm too.

If I follow the general recommendation of keeping the equilateral triangle between me and the speakers like the Diagram 1, I have no other choice but to keep both monitors super close to each other, thus sacrificing stereo imaging effect (if I'm correct).

However, if I separate two speakers apart more from each other, I might be able to enjoy stereo effect more than the Diagram 1, but now the triangle has changed into an isosceles triangle, not equilateral. Moreover, I don't know what kind of negative effect this will bring.

TLDR: What speaker placement is better for mixing music? Diagram 1 or Diagram 2?

From how I understand it the reason most speaker manufacturers tell you to make an equilateral triangle and place the speakers a certain distance from the listening position is to make the most out of the stereo effect, phantom center, sound stage, etc. In real life when you listen to someone playing music you're mostly hearing the soundwaves of their voice and the instruments reflecting off the room/environment and then to your ears. If you place the speakers too close together you won't get the most out of the stereo effect and will shrink the sound stage. For example, if you placed the speakers right next to each other and right in front of you, you'd still get two channel, stereo sound, but you wouldn't be realizing all of the benefits of stereo sound because all of the sound would be coming from a single point and will arguably be less realistic. If you place the speakers too far apart they will lose the phantom center effect and instead of sounding like a single sound field will sound like sound coming from two seperate speakers, one on your right and one on your left.

If you listen to a band, even a large one, you will generally be looking in their direction and most of the sound waves will wash over the environment and then hit the front of your face then your ears then your ear canals and then your ear drums. The idea behind an equilateral triangle is that the speakers are as far apart as they can be to widen the sound stage and envelope you with music without making it sound like you're sort of listening to two seperate bands, one on each side, but instead one large band that is in front of you and enveloping you with sound.

Another example would be surround sound. You could put all of the speakers of a surround sound system in one pile in the front under the TV and you would be getting 5 separate channels plus of audio (plus an LFE channel), but you wouldn't be optimizing the experience, because it's all coming from one point, like a sound bar. Instead you have to spread the channels out and place them correctly to get the proper effect.

If you sit too close to the speakers you won't be getting as much sound from reflections off the room and will be getting more sound directly from the speaker drivers. This may make the sound more accurate, but will sound less realistic because in real life we mostly hear reflections of sound. Each speaker will be closer to each side of your head and you'll lose the phantom center effect and it will sound more like two speakers, each doing their own thing on either side of your head instead of one wide soundstage in front of you.

In reality everything is a compromise. You should experiment with your room and your system and move the speakers around and find what works for you. The recommended listening distance (probably 5 to 10 feet for standmount speakers) and the equilateral triangle positioning is just a good logical place to start because of the above reasoning, but depending on your room and preferences there may be better arrangements or compromises that have to be made.

If a person when out to Best Buy and got some Klipsch towers and a cheap AVR with all of the features they needed and just plugged it all in they'd already have better audio than 95% of all the other people on the planet, but on this forum people are going to be taking it to the max so things like proper placement, equipment, setup, measurements, etc. are going to be a big deal here. Your speakers probably already sound great, but if you play with the placement and use the general rules surrounding that subject you'll probably get better audio.

 

[denzel200219]

not with bookshelves or speakers with few drivers. but the closer to your ears the more the experience will sound like really good headphones (ratio of direct to reflected sound would be very high) and many might argue that's a very good thing to have.

Hello, could you elaborate on this? Does sitting really close to studio monitors improve acoustics and the sound?

 

[Bleib]

I bought a bigger table for the PC to have a bit of a distance. Not many speakers sound good if they play at a too low volume

 

[abdo123]

Hello, could you elaborate on this? Does sitting really close to studio monitors improve acoustics and the sound?

Yes. Increasing the ratio of direct sound to early reflections that your ear hears is always beneficial.

You want reflections to be delayed as much as possible (this is even more beneficial than eliminating them) while still being the far field of the speaker (the threshold where you’re considered at the far field of a speaker is 3 times the longest dimension of the speaker).

 

[dasdoing]

there is an aspect of close-field distance that is rarely mentioned: the closer you get the further the opposite ear is away from on axis.