Help with Speaker placement and possible accoustic treatment please

Hi all

So this is my set up and I have my monitors around 4ft from my head when mixing in a triangular shape as Ive been told before with both woofers pointing towards my ears :)

http://www.flickr.com/pho..9005534@N02/5281204867/
 
http://www.flickr.com/pho..9005534@N02/5281808908/

So as you can see I havent got much room going on there and the speekers are very close to the wall they are Tapco S5s and have rear fireing bass ports.

What is best to do in this situation ? Should I treat the back wall with accoustic pannels etc ?

What about the underneath of the shelf would I benifit any from puting accoustic treatment on the underside of that ?

I know very little about this type of thing so I am sorry about the questions

I am about to upgrade the monitors aswell to eather a set of Mackie MR8s that I love the sound of but am woried about puting them in there because of the rear fireing bass ports on them incase I dont get a good sound in my room ? KRK rocket 6 or 8 G2s I am going to demo them on thursday they are front fireing

So what do you guys think about accoustic treatment and the situation I am in what would be best to do ?

Thanks guys

Norrie

Can you post some more detailed pics of your room? A plan layout with windows, furniture and doors would help too.

Personally, I think KRK rockits SUCK! I hate the sound of them! I'll explain why in a further post when I have more time. I went with the yamaha HS80m which I think were better. MR8's were good too but it depends on the music you make. What do you make??? Are you willing to spend a little more on monitors than the MR8 and Rockit 8 price range? Or is that your limit?

bitflipper

the speekers are very close to the wall they are Tapco S5s and have rear fireing bass ports...Should I treat the back wall with accoustic pannels etc ?

You can't really address that with acoustical treatments. You'd need to stuff a couple of feet of insulation between the speakers and the wall. The only solution is to figure out a way to get the speakers away from the wall. In my case, I had to completely reconfigure the room and rotate everything 90 degrees, which was a major undertaking. But now my speakers are 3' from the walls (instead of 6") and I have a great deal more confidence in the bass representation.

At the momment I cant move the room about I am very limited for space but I will be moveing to a new place in a couple of months time to a bigger room and it will be purposely built with accoustic treatment etc.

Norrie

About the monitors

Ive heard a lot of god things about the KRK rockets and I am going to demo them tomorow I like the Mr8s but I am put off by the rear fireing.

I am interested in the Rocket 6 G2 as Ive heard the 8s are a bit bass heavy

I am doing all sorts but Rock Metal and a lot of Accoustic Tracks

Norrie

If you're looking to invest in new speakers, consider front-ported or sealed enclosures, which will help a little when the speakers must be close to the back wall.

So from my listening tests I found the Rokits to be not great. The bass sounded completely disjointed from the mids and highs. The mids were lacking. It was more low and high end heavy. Clarity wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. Turn the volume up a little and even on the 8's, you can hear the speakers compressing because they don't have enough power to accurately produce the transients of a dynamic piece of music. I found them to be VERY directional. By that I mean, move your head just a TEANY little bit and it changes drastically. Other monitors in the same price range did not have this problem. I needed to get my head in the perfect spot, directly in front of the tweaters line of action, otherwise I would lose most of the high end because they were so directional. It was actually really bad. The 5's were the worst. They are NOT monitors, but consumer speakers. The low end was hyped to make it sound like the bass was bigger. The 6 and 8's sounded pretty much the same except the 8's went louder and had a lower response. I think they could handle the peaks a little better too, but not great. The bass wasn't bad. Sounds HUGE, but maybe not the best for monitoring purposes. It was just weird how it sounded almost like the entire 300hz range was MISSING! I could just hear this hole in the spectrum that other monitors did not have. i was listening in a decent listening room as well. Room modes would not have caused this.

Soundwise, I think the Yamaha HS80m's (which I got) were fairly similar - in terms of detail and quality of sound. BUT they had a flatter response, and I thought much better mids. They didn't SOUND as good with the smaller bass, but sounded more accurate, rather than hyped. The bass connected with the mids and highs much better than the Rokits. The listening angles were MUCH better and I could move my head around a LOT more without the same cut in frequencies.

The MR8's are just a different monitor. I think they are better suited to dance music with lots of deep kick and bass sounds. They didn't suit the style of mixing I do so I didn't pay much attention.

Now, the Adam A7's were just a whole LEAGUE better than everything else, but double the price. The Rokits, MR8's and HS80m's sounded like they were just playing white noise in comparison. The high end clarity and detail here was just unbelievable.

Obviously take everything I say with a grain of salt. I am not an expert and these are just the experiences of one man. The best advice I would give is to not be swayed by the brand or the price. Use your ears and take your time. I wouldn't suggest purchasing on your first visit to the store. And TAKE IN A REFERENCE CD YOU KNOW WELL!! I went in to the store three times before I bought so I knew I was happy. See if you can hear the 'problems' in the rokits that I have heard. If you can't hear them, well maybe they will be fine for you. Just take your time. It's also a good idea to really get as good a monitor as you can afford. You don't want to be upgrading every year as you will just waste money. For this reason, I would suggest getting an 8" cone (or 7" in the Adams ) as your room may be small now, but in the future it might get bigger and you're going to wish you bought the bigger cone!!

Let us know how you go with your listening and selection. TAKE YOUR TIME!!!!

I would say this Norrie.

If you are, as you say, definitely moving in a couple of months then any money you spend now on your acoustics/treatments etc will be a total waste - you'd be better off giving it to me mate.
 
Stick with what you have for now in order to maximise your spend on your new room.

Just my £0.02