What height do you prefer to have the tweeters on your speakers when in listening position? At ear level, above the ear level, or below the ear level?

[richard12511]

which feels much more live-like

This is the exact reason I went from having tweeters directly on axis, to slightly above. "More live like" was really the only effect it had(which is a good thing). I don't really notice a tonality difference.

 

[richard12511]

This has to do with the speaker's directional lobe, and that for the average TM design with tweeter atop the woofer, that the blending of the 2 drivers is better below the tweeter and suffers above it. It is also possible that on axis is optimized flat response and closer to the mid creates a small peak or emphasis the gives the focus you are hearing.

I don't think this is the case in my specific example. My speaker is a coaxial point source(Genelec 8351b), and on-axis is flat.

That said, your point may be true in the average case. I do have more normal TW and TMW speakers I can test with.

 

[Maxicut]

In a studio, the top of the tweeter is inline with the top of your ear. The (front) two tweeters are aimed to meet at a point of 1x headwidth behind your head.

 

[richard12511]

I thought that the horn players are low in my room with the tweeters at ear height, as if Miles Davis and John Coltrane are playing while they were sitting down on a chair.

Yeah this is almost the exact thought that I had, and what made me experiment with a higher tweeter location. Just didn't feel with right voices(or horns) coming from ear height. Maybe if it was Yoda singing/playing for me .

 

[redshift]

Wall mounted cabinets with the drivers tilted 40 degrees towards the ceiling. Why not make use of the room modes and reflections instead of fighting them?

 

[Frank Dernie]

The speaker stands that came with my speakers position them with ear height near to half way between tweeter and mid drivers.

 

[puppet]

I'd think that you'd want to respect the acoustic axis. If any time alignment was done in the design, that's where you should be listening.

 

[Head_Unit]

wife decided on the furniture so am sitting with 2 degrees above the tweeter axis

...hence giving you perfect justification to buy TALLER BIGGER towers and she can't complain. (Ha ha, if only things really worked like that!)

I do not like listening to sound coming from below my ears, tweeter or otherwise. I like it higher, like at the front of a concert. (Maybe I feel listening "down" is like being up in the cheap seats or something?)

 

[Wolf]

Make the stands taller, or the top panel thicker. A book in a pinch would do it.

 

[CauliflowerEars]

As many have said, the answer probably depends on the speakers / tweeters.
I am choosing between 2 sets of speaker stands for my 2-way Elac DBR-62 bookshelf speakers and:
a) I find the tweeters on ear height a bit annoying. Seems about 2/3 of information is from below the tweeter. It feels as if everything is coming more from below and my head wants to dive down lower or lay down on the sofa more.
b) When the tweeters are slightly above, I feel more inside the sound. It encompasses me more. Although, I guess I feel the woofer a bit more (and in this case, the woofer is higher than the exact 1/3 of the room height).

Another benefits of option b: if needed, I can sit more upright to have the tweeters on ear level. I also walk around and sit on higher chairs in the room, so option b covers more scenarios. DBR-62s apparently don't have great vertical directivity (about 60*, if I understand the graphs correctly?), so maybe that's why option b might work better ... https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...c-debut-reference-dbr-62-speaker-review.12232

I used Yello - The Race (Remastered) for testing, as it's famous for its stereo effects: https://tidal.com/browse/track/64627076

With Stereo there is the effect of elevation of the center image. Therefore slightly below the ear level is a good placement. On a desk a greater distance to the desktop is better so above the ear level is often the best compromise.

I like tweeters way up high, because despite others' opinions here, I find stereo to depress the image and put it low. Also, I have worked in studios where a big thing was to center the woofers 1/3 up the room height. Worked for me.

I find the answer to this question depends on the tweeter used. With my BMR monitors I like the RAAL tweeter at 45" which is exactly ear height while I'm at work in my chair.

With the Revel F328Be I have the Be Tweeter at 49" which is 10" above ear level while seated at the couch 11' away from the speaker. The Be tweeter is less sensitive to being right at ear level than the RAAL. I have tried several ear heights with the Be tweeter and I don't notice much difference. With the RAAL it's pretty obvious that being right at ear level adds definition.

Based on my experience, I think this is a trick question.

For many years I designed with the intention that the center of the tweeter be at approximately seated ear height, largely because that made the most obvious sense to me.

Then a couple of years ago I asked my beta-testers to elevate a pair of speakers such that the center of the tweeter was about six inches above seated ear height. I was working on something which would not allow a lower tweeter height, and wanted experienced opinions on how badly the presentation would be degraded. (The tweeter had good vertical dispersion so that wasn't an issue, like it might be with a ribbon.)

Well to my surprise my beta-testers all preferred the presentation with the tweeter elevated, which was unexpectedly good news for what I wanted to try.

...hence giving you perfect justification to buy TALLER BIGGER towers and she can't complain. (Ha ha, if only things really worked like that!)

I do not like listening to sound coming from below my ears, tweeter or otherwise. I like it higher, like at the front of a concert. (Maybe I feel listening "down" is like being up in the cheap seats or something?)

 

[fpitas]

What height do you prefer to have the tweeters or your speakers? At ear level, above the ear level, or below the ear level?

I'd been led to believe that the speakers should be at a height where your ears should be between the tweeter and the mid/low frequency driver. So that would imply the tweeter should be slightly above the ear level. (However, looking at the majority of speaker stands being sold in shops like Richer Sounds, the majority of speaker stands would seem to be place the tweeters below ear levels when seated).

To a good extent the optimum will depend on how the crossover was designed.

 

[valerianf]

There is a speaker topology for tower speaker that place the mid-range on top and the tweeter just below.
Here is an example with a Magnat Quantum 757.

The advantage is that for multichannel listening, the sound of the high and mid frequencies are better blended with center speaker.
In my user case, the tweeter is at 32 Inch from the floor, witch is perfect when I am sitting in the sofa.

It is sad that less and less speaker manufacturers are using this topology.
Some models from Focal and Canton are similar.

 

[teashea]

Monitors have different vertical dispersion patterns. Some monitors have a very narrow vertical dispersion pattern. Others are broader. Broader vertical dispersion patterns can cause problems with reflections from the desk etc. All of my monitors are Neumann's - KH310's, KH150's, KH120's/KH750 and KH120's). Neumann monitors are designed with fairly narrow vertical dispersion. As a result I have to be careful to ensure that my listening position is within the acceptable zone of vertical dispersion.

 

[CauliflowerEars]

Monitors have different vertical dispersion patterns. Some monitors have a very narrow vertical dispersion pattern. Others are broader. Broader vertical dispersion patterns can cause problems with reflections from the desk etc. All of my monitors are Neumann's - KH310's, KH150's, KH120's/KH750 and KH120's). Neumann monitors are designed with fairly narrow vertical dispersion. As a result I have to be careful to ensure that my listening position is within the acceptable zone of vertical dispersion.

How much vertical dispersion do they have and what’s the acceptable zone? I guess narrow vertical dispersion is good for monitors …

 

[MattHooper]

I'm resonating (heh) with what a number of folks on this thread have reported: I'm liking my speakers placed higher than I originally thought.

My Joseph Perspective speakers, just using the supplied spikes, require a slight (recommended) tilt upward to put the listeners ears where the tweeter/woofer sums correctly.

As I've played with stands and materials beneath the speaker it keeps rising higher. The speakers now have 3 3/4" material raising them beyond the height of the spikes, putting the speaker bottom about 5 1/2" from the floor, still with a tilt up of the speaker. The Joseph speakers are relatively short and always imaged a little shorter than my taller Thiel speakers. But now I'm finding the soundstage height feels more "real" and natural and enveloping, without an apparent cost in substantial tonal shift.

 

[FrankW]

https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=18468
This should be viewable free https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308962229_Phantom_Image_Elevation_Explained

 

[teashea]

How much vertical dispersion do they have and what’s the acceptable zone? I guess narrow vertical dispersion is good for monitors …

The vertical dispersion depends on the particular Neumann monitor. All of them are rather narrow, which (I agree with you) is a very good thing for monitors. In all cases the vertical dispersion pattern is much less than the horizontal dispersion pattern. You can get more information on the Neumann web pages.

For the horizontal dispersion pattern of Neumann monitors - see the reviews and measurements here on ASR.

 

[krabapple]

Several have said the correct height is 'the acoustic axis'. But can we assume the acoustic axis is between the tweeter and woofer, in a 2-way passive speaker? This puts the center of the tweeter some degrees above the ear canal on-axis.

 

[teashea]

Several have said the correct height is 'the acoustic axis'. But can we assume the acoustic axis is between the tweeter and woofer, in a 2-way passive speaker? This puts the center of the tweeter some degrees above the ear canal on-axis.

For me, this relates to the nine pairs of monitors in my studio. It depends on the monitor and its dispersion pattern and off axis measurements. All of my monitors are Neumann's. The dispersion pattern and off axis measurements of each model have been tested by Amir here o ASR. All of my monitors are in very nearfield position .... 1 to 1.2 meters. My ears are within 15 degrees of the acoustic axis.

 

[krabapple]

Well, what we're talking about is the vertical: how elevated the tweeter should be wrt your ears.

So, your ears are within 15 vertical degrees of the acoustic axis? Is that above, or below it?