Monitor settings

"Turn it a little bit
 turn it down flatter"

E. Costello

Depends of course.  I would guess mid, but the manual or online could tell you where 0 is with no extra boosted frequencies, which is what you want.  I assume it is to balance a room sound, but that is not a good way to do it.  My old yama monitors don't have knobs on front, but a dial on the back for more brighter or not and it is a filter.

My monitors (Edirol -MA-15D) have bass and treble knobs as I guess many do. I am curious if in playing back a final mix it really matters to start out by setting these all the way down.../counterclockwise, or leave them in the middle setting - which way would really give a :"truer" indication of my mix?

The problem is that you don't know exactly what effect those tone controls have. They could improve the flatness of the monitors, or they might make it worse. Objective measurement is the solution.

Check out this thread on measuring room response.

Use the same method, except instead of placing the microphone at the mix position, position it close to one of the speakers, about 6-10 inches away, and use a cardiod rather than omnidirectional pattern. Do this at the same volume level you normally use for mixing. Repeat the procedure for each speaker separately, with the other speaker turned off. Adjust the tone controls for the flattest obtainable response and mark their positions on the dial so you can put them back there if you later decide to tweak them for some other purpose such as video games or Skype video calls.

silvercn


My monitors (Edirol -MA-15D) have bass and treble knobs as I guess many do. I am curious if in playing back a final mix it really matters to start out by setting these all the way down.../counterclockwise, or leave them in the middle setting - which way would really give a :"truer" indication of my mix? 

your question is vague. however,
as your speakers are active, its good idea to leave the knobs at middle postion.
or at bottom postion depends on your speakers' spec.
generally speaking, this is flat response.
then choose a familiar music or tones.playback, adjust the knobs to get the satisfaction.
 
this knobs serves as a eq function to compensate the room response. if you have a multi band eq. extrally. you can find a pink noise generator and a mic (omin) to measure the whole room response( audible enviroment) and adjust the eq to get a satisfactory respose.
 if you want to test the speaker, that will be rather trouble, need a specially room and keep a mic away from 1m to test.....
 
your mic (avatar( is not bad and canb e used for this measurement.