A few simple questions about bookshelf speaker height and placement on desk.

[viivo]

Recently put together a small, cheap 2.0 setup for my PC - Denon 591 and BIC DV62si. I don't know if it's the speakers but I cannot find a placement that sounds acceptable.

The strange thing is they sound better when I'm standing in the other room than when I'm sitting at the desk. I played with the distance setting on the receiver, and while I could detect subtle changes, the best sounding to me was close to their actual distance, which of course makes sense.

As they are now the tweeter is about 5 inches below ear height, with very little toe-in on the enclosures, 2 feet away, 4.5 feet apart.

I've been thinking about building two small stands to lift them up some, but I wanted to make sure it would be worth it. Do I want the tweeters exactly at or above my ears?

 

[Tiamat]

I'm not familiar with those speakers, but what about the sound do you find unacceptable? Is it the bass, the mids, the highs, do they not provide a strong stereo image, etc?

Generally, front speakers are designed for the tweeters to be at ear height unless the design states otherwise.

Nevertheless, there are many variables that could be causing you to not be completely satisfied. Some of them are:

1. You just don't like the speakers.
2. The speakers are too close to the wall behind it (howling/muddy bass)
3. The speakers' response is being skewed by the early reflection off of the desk (mid-highs sound off)
4. You are too close to the speakers (highs too bright, many consumer grade speakers are designed for mid-far field where the tweeters are outputting based on the amount of highs that gets absorbed by the room furnishings before the sound wave reaches your seating position. Sitting near-field these types of speakers, the tweeter will sound a little too "hot").
5. Play around with toe-in to see if that makes any differences.


As reference, I sit about 3feet away from my speakers which are 3.5 feet apart (give or take). If i move back and forth in my chair even 1 foot, the sound character changes substantially. In my setup, when too close to the speaker, I get a weird "music inside head, unclear soundstage" feeling. When I am too far from the speaker, the soundstage is too narrow and I can hear exactly where the speakers are. When I am sitting at the correct spot, the music and soundstage blends with the speakers and it doesn't sound like the sounds are coming only from the speakers. I can better locate virtually where the singer is, where the guitars are, etc.

Also, check settings in the receiver/speakers/soundcard to make sure everything is neutral. Sometimes, the settings get messed up which causes bad sound quality (Graphic Equalizer sliders sometimes get messed up, "night mode" starves your sound of dynamics, etc.)

Lastly, make sure everything is hooked up correctly.

 

[goobernoodles]

Lifting them to ear height would probably help. You could also use say... two of those block (Pink Perl) erasers under the front to aim them up. They provide some cheap vibration isolation as well.

How is the room size and surfaces like compared to the other listening position?

 

[viivo]

The desk is fairly big, 7ft wide by 4 1/2, and it's against a wall and two feet from a corner on the right. The top is veneered 3" HDF, which I would think plays into reflections and such. The left side is basically open which I know also affects the characteristics, especially since the speakers are rear ported.

I have been testing positions. Some of the boominess is removed when raised, but also some of the real low frequency response. In songs where I once clearly heard a bass guitar or kick drum, only the upper ranges of those instruments are audible when the speakers are at ear level.

Thanks for the responses, they have been helpful. I'll probably just move the desk so there's equal space on both sides.

 

[Modelworks]

That is why when I bought speakers for my pc I bought near field monitors. I have a very similar desk, old metal base office desk,with the same HDF top and near field monitors are the way to go. The ones I used are from Behringer, the MS20, they have a 192/96 optical and coax input on the back so really easy to use with a pc. Just plug in the ac power and the optical and your set. They also make the MS40 which is the 40 watt version. Might seem like low wattage, but realize these are meant to listen to close up and even 20 watts is a lot when 2 feet away. The amps are class A designs which are excellent sound quality but they do use quite a bit of power so not a good choice if electric usage is a concern. My 20 watts use 86 watts but that is just part of any class A design.

http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-MS20-Digital-20-Watt-Monitors/dp/B00181YT9S
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=10383MJPT7DB5VP6KZG6

 

[viivo]

Thanks. I know very little about audio, else I certainly would have looked into the near field stuff. My current setup sounds hundreds of times better than my old Klipsch Promedia 2.1, but I think I'll have a go at the Behringers since the price is good and they're a lot smaller than my current receiver and speakers.

I recall reading something in the past about these or some other 2-channel self powered set. Is one channel lower in volume when listening at low levels since the amp isn't discrete, or is that even a problem?

 

[Modelworks]

I recall reading something in the past about these or some other 2-channel self powered set. Is one channel lower in volume when listening at low levels since the amp isn't discrete, or is that even a problem?

Each channel has independent amps. The amps are class A meaning that they consume power all the time whether they are playing loud or soft they use the same amount of power. The benefit of this is near perfect reproduction of the input sound with very low distortion since the amp isn't switching in and out in phases. The downside is power consumption, since the amp never turns off while in use it consumes power constantly. Volume levels are even at low or high levels between the two channels.

I have taken apart the behringer speakers to see what it was when I got the speakers. Inside is a huge heatsink with transistors attached, large power transformer, and a cirrus logic 192khz/24bit DAC. The tone controls for bass and treble are done with their own op amps and the headphone jack has an independent op amp for its output. They are not light weight in construction like something from logitech or the typical pc speaker manufacturer. Each speaker is in a heavy wood enclosure.