Distance between Studio Monitors (Speakers)

Hello,
 
I was hoping to see what others are doing out there.  I want to have at least 2, maybe 3 monitors (LCD's) to work in Sonar.   I was thinking, is about 60 inches too far apart for studio monitors and then face them in?  Or should they be in alignment with our ears?
 
Any thoughts?
 
Thank You,
Adam

Why not have your main screen in between your monitors, and put the second screen either to the left or right of one of the monitors, maybe angled toward you? It'll mean turning your head to look at it, but then again the whole point of a 2nd monitor is to display the stuff that you don't need to view as often as on your main monitor. 

I use small (20") display monitors because larger ones would intrude into the line-of-sight for the speakers. I've got them pushed back as far as they'll go before falling off the back of the desk. Someday I'd like to build a custom desk with a low shelf below where the screens could be set, angled upward and glass-covered like you'd see on a television news desk.
 
But even with the small displays and far positioning, I still have to set the speakers further apart than the usual recommendation of 3 feet. Mine are a little under 4 feet apart. This results in a practical problem, which is that I can only achieve the equilateral triangle by pushing my chair back about 1' from the desk. I deal with this by making a point of periodically listening (with eyes closed!) to the mix in that pushed-back position.
 
One problem with setting your speakers wide and toeing them in is that they don't blend acoustically in the manner you'd want them to. The further apart they get, the more like headphones they become. But without the benefits of headphones, e.g. eliminating room acoustics. As the speakers get closer to pointing directly at each other, you'll start getting phase cancellations between them that can skew your spectral perception.
 
You'll also have a less-than-ideal angle of incidence to your ears, which are physically designed to capture high frequencies from the front rather than from the sides. (That was once important in our evolutionary past, because it's crucial to location perception - a good thing when you're hunting for food in the jungle while avoiding being something else's lunch.)

+1 to Daniel re the 30 degree angle. My speakers are 1.1 meters or 43 inches apart in your speak. I am also sitting that distance from each monitor. I have also read you can temporarily gaffa a circular mirror over each tweeter. (or one at a time) From where you sit you should be able to see yourself in both speakers by just turning your head slightly. That happens to me when they are 1.1 meters apart and I just checked the angle and it is right on 30 degrees as well so satisfies both requirements perfectly.
 
I like the 30 deg angle titled in towards you. I hear the highs clearly and the stereo imaging is very good and detailed. I have tried having the speakers facing straight out and I did not like it at all. Sounded more distant and like you were out of the sweet spot rather than in the middle of it.
 
A good thing to do is to set your speakers up on a long plank for the correct orientation. You need two friends to do this but while feeding a mono signal to both speakers you close your eyes and listen for the phantom image in the centre. The two friends gently slide your monitors apart while you listen with your eyes closed. At some point the centre image will break up and fade away. That is the point when they are too far apart. The idea is to slide them back again so the phantom image re appears strongly. And maybe touch more in for extra measure. I have done this and this all happens at 1.1 meters for me and my room.
 
They can be too close together too and you get a bulging of the centre image ie it becomes too loud and you start holding centered pan things down only to find they are not loud enough on other systems.

Hey Jeff, 
 
I was reading your thread about the 43 inch distance and measured my little D5's and they were about 51" apart.  So I moved them in an measured the distance from center cone to center cone to get to 43" and now I need to learn a whole new sound field.  Thanks for the thread.  I am going to live with this and see how my new mixes turn out.  
 
Jimmy
 

Bristol that sounds like a fair distance apart. As long as you are sitting 5 feet from each speaker too. That would be the only way it would work better and both facing in at 30 degrees. You would have to be monitoring a little louder to hear them better and when the size of the triangle gets bigger the room has to be more involved to a certain extent.
 
I have just kept my setup down to the 1.1 meters for me. It all seems to work rather well at that sort of distance. My speakers are also on concrete stands and it makes quite a difference. The stands seem to focus the sound out a little more directly at you thereby reinforcing that centre phantom image even more. When the distance is good, panning movemets sound even and smoother as well.

I know what the "experts" say about monitor distances and triangles with the listening position......but I fall into the large category which requires me to place my monitors where I can, regardless of the "rules" I break in the process.
 

 
While this photo is an older photo of my studio, the monitors are still in the same place... and yeah the right side monitor is inside an enclosed box for all intents and purposes. I gotta do what I gotta do. The current studio has the viewing monitor setting where the laptop is, and the CPU is under the desk beside the Cerwin Vega stereo speaker.
 
Listen to the mixes I do and you will hear that the un-approved set up I use is not a major handicap to me.
 
By all means, if you have the space to set up a studio properly, do so..... but don't let a lack of space put a kink in your plans.
 
These speakers are approx 50" (4.1') apart. I too, very often in the mixing stages, push back, and listen with eyes closed as Bitflipper mentioned.

How far apart would you say these were?
 
About 50"? Maybe slightly less?
 

Duplicated stupid forum software!!

I'm guessing 49.68".
 
19" + 3/4" + 19" + 3/4" + 19" - 8.82" = 49.68"
 
 
Following the convention of defining the sweet spot at the apogee of a equilateral triangle:
 
 
Pythagorean Theorem:
X² + 24.84"² = 49.68"²
 
X² = 2468.1024" - 617.0256" = 1851.0768"
 
X = 43.02414"
 
 
Trigonometry:
cos 30* x 49.48" = 43.02414"
 
The *sweet spot* is 43.02414" from a point located halfway between the two speakers and measured perpendicular to the line formed by the placement of the two speakers.
 
 
 
 
A more compelling issue with that setup is the placement of the speakers against the rear wall.
 
That sort of placement guarantees that the end result will sound more like a bad setup and less like any particular speaker model.
 
 
best regards,
mike