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speaker placement for computer workstation

lofiguy

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I have a normal 5' desk where I work. I have 3 monitors across. I face the wall currently.

I can turn the desk to face into the room, and use stand mounted speakers (KEF LS50 meta). Obviously all listening setups you see involve being seated and having full view of the speakers and a rack or TV. How bad is it to have the monitors right there in FOV? I can place the speakers maybe even 10' away and with a wide span between them, toed in (or not), but I'd prefer to have them about 6' away and 8' apart -- which means I don't have LoS to the speakers.

I ask rather than simply test because it's a lot of work to reorient the desk and what not, then to move it back as well.

My alternative is to use small surround speakers on the desk, or pole mounted near field monitors. I'd rather keep the KEF and reorient the desk.
 

anotherhobby

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What about mounting them above your displays, and then angling them down toward you?
 

Webninja

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I haven’t had a chance to measure my desktop setups, but I have speakers a little forward from the plane of the monitors.

I would think as close to ear height and as best to not have your monitors blocking or refracting.
 
D

Deleted member 23982

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try to play with placing your monitors try to put them "behind" the speakers i noticed a very bad impact on screen being to close to you but it depends on placements and distance of monitors to your listening position
it could be also beneficial to put the speakers "behind" your screens (this should avoid reflections but less open space as a more major impact in 3d spacing in my opinion)
also like said before putting them higher and angle down could help, it really depends (tho in theory it should give you more problems with desk reflections if angled down)
you have to test and see what you like more :)

a 3 monitor setup sounds (and certainly is) bad for SQ on listening position, specially if left and right monitors are also angled towards you

(i actually put my second monitor above my first one because of that, and even further in the back, so you have as much open space as possible)

a other thing i noticed, depeding on your desk material but it will be somewhat flat in any case (glass would be awful tho) that some of these deskmats really help reducing desk reflections.... no sponsoring but ltt store (https://www.lttstore.com/products/deskpad) has some of the biggest mats i ever saw, i still plan to get a really big one myself too but didnt yet, because my desk is quite large
you can test the impact of the desk by placing blankets (preferable thick ones) on it for testing :) (also on the screens if you wanna have a somewhat A/B comparision, it really does make a huge difference in my opinion)

if you ask me i would start with putting the screen like 10-30cm behind the front of your speakers and NOT angled in so a flat front, this should reduce reflection further towards listening position (tho you can try to angle them in a bit, it should just make a difference at a certain angle and beyond, certaintly dont put them at 45°, 10-20° should be ok)

if your desk/speakers are CLOSE to the wall its also really benefical to make sure the back of the speakers are like 50cm away from the wall
 
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lofiguy

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a 3 monitor setup sounds (and certainly is) bad for SQ on listening position, specially if left and right monitors are also angled towards you
They are angled. You just made me realize they form a reflector array of sorts. :(
(i actually put my second monitor above my first one because of that, and even further in the back, so you have as much open space as possible)
That definitely won't work for me. Even vertical orientation of a single monitor generates neck craning for me which I don't like.

I guess I'll have to consider the angled down mounting.
 

Freeway

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The speaker high angled down will work real well. The other day when changing amps I thought I had connected the lower speakers at the desktop level. I listened to a few tunes before I realized I didn't know which speaker was playing. Actually put finger on bottom speaker's woofer to find out. I have since gone back and forth between top or bottom and can not localize which is playing. Amazing. Same soundstage or what not.
IMG-0319.jpg
Desk 5' wide. Top speaker 3'8" to tweeter.
 
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