Monitor height?

[toothpastefordinner]

A quick answer is all this probably needs, but if you want to elucidate, please feel free.

I'm average height and have a regular office chair in my studio. I'm almost always sitting down when listening or recording. My monitors are now sitting on wooden stools (one is sitting on a wooden stool and a box of 100 7" singles, actually, because the stools are different heights.)

The stools were fine for the little speakers I had, but I got some new monitors that are about a foot square, and they dwarf the stools.

So now, I'm getting monitor stands, and I don't know whether to get 36" or 45", or if it will matter. I have those "monitor isolation pads" from Auralex, too - should I bother balancing my monitors on 'em? I hate messing with them and I can't really A/B them so I'm not sure they even make a difference.

[roscoenyc]

Tweeters/high end drivers should be at ear level.

[micyourbrain]

I've heard that your speakers should have the point between the tweeter and woofer pointing at your ear.

Also make sure to put your head and your monitors into a 6' equalateral triangle. You can use the auralex pads to adjust the angle correctly once you have everything in place. In fact that's the only thing they're good for. I think they don't do anything or possibly make my monitors sound ever so slightly worse.

[audionaut]

I've heard that your speakers should have the point between the tweeter and woofer pointing at your ear

...Dual concentric monitors would take all of the guesswork out of that equation.
"Ear level" is a rule of thumb, but you need to take into account reflections from a desk or console or other furniture & room restrictions (ie:sometimes your meterbridge height determines this for you). I designed my new control room with all of the console and outboard furniture under 33" so there would be nothing between my ears and my near, midfield and main monitors. I started with the tweeters at exactly ear level, but listening determined that my nearfields faired better 2" lower and converging at my head ( ala equilateral triangle) while the mains were better off aiming 8" over my head and converging at the back wall couch.

As for the auralex pads, while I'm sure it's better to decouple speakers from your desk, angling them down rather than keeping them level can cause you more trouble than it's worth... I read something to that extent in one of Ethan's posts the other day.
If you're in a smaller room with a workstation desk, sometimes we just need to make due with the restrictions of our surroundings.
Use your ears.

[TapeOpLarry]

If you're pointing them angled down across the surface of a console expect more reflections that fuck shit up. I always shoot for the mid point between tweeter/woofer if they are vertical. If not, the answer should be obvious. In the past I bought a drafting chair so I could sit higher....

[toothpastefordinner]

Thanks for the info dudes. I do have a fairly small room, but my laundry room actually erupted with sewage again today, so I am probably going to move house as soon as possible.

The angling/reflection deal makes sense to me. I'm planning on treating the next studio space I have (this one's too small to make any difference) and I'd imagine it would be easier to tell what sounds best if you're in a larger room.

[JGriffin]

* just lets Toothpaste keep that bag of laundry *

[stevedood]

...and if for some reason your monitors are "way" above ear height and you can't bring them down to eye level, you can rotate them 90 degrees (lay them on their sides with the tweeters inside) and this will reduce some of the phasing problems that typically occur when you get too far below the sweet spot.

[themagicmanmdt]

i think the monitor isolation pads would be a big help, especially since they're sitting on stools, or something sorta wooden that can absorb or take some bass response and decrease/increase/make it weird in some hypothetical way.

grab a tape measure and have a ball.

sewage eruption? wow. hardcore.

[gullfo]

expect more reflections that fuck shit up.

i love tech talk!

yeah, as Larry points out, angling the monitors can cause reflections off the console - one reason why you put monitors on stands behind the console so you can position them correctly so your ear sits between the woofer and the tweeter (although some manufacturers are nice enough to give you drawings and data on what the right position is...) if you do have to angle them, try to reposition the monitors and desk to get shallower angles (you often see this in large control rooms where the monitors are above the glass and the mix desk is back from the monitors 10-12' or more).

turning the monitors on the side is an option but may throw off the symmetry if they're not meant for that position...

[scott anthony]

I've got pretty tall speakers (Lipinski 707s), am 6'5" tall and just cut my stands down to 37 1/2", I use a standard office chair. I don't use a console, the speakers are open to the whole room.

I also put Dynamat (adhesive on one side) on the bottom of the stands and under the speakers and it did help solidify the image.

[Lukey]

Hypothetically, if you had a very small working area, like without some sort of big console to keep you from doing this... could you possibly have the monitors below ear level and aiming up? might this alleviate any sort of front-wall to back-wall beaming?

[ashcat_lt]

...but my laundry room actually erupted with sewage again today...

What a Craptastrophe! The #1 rule of plumbing, military chain of command, and corporate bureaucracy are the same: "Shit rolls downhill!"