Hello, all. Hope everyone is having an awesome day. I'm trying to make the best usage of my deskspace here and wondering how concerned I should be about having a reference monitor pressed up against my tower and having my interface sitting on one. They are Mackie's and they claim to be magnetically shielded but I am hesitant to put them so close to my rig for obvious reasons. Any thoughts and or links would be appreciated. Cheers.

Even if that would not be bad somehow that inherently sounds like a bad idea. JMO. 

Hearing loss is at epidemic proportions for today's musicians.. as everything is amped and electrified.  The big things to help are:

1. Always have a brickwall limiter on your master when you are sound designing, and composing!  Do not forget this.

2. Extreme high's and low's cause more damage than mid frequencies.  Near-field monitors are supposed to be close, but you should not need to have there volume anywhere near mid level...  Low, low volume is best.  Turning up to check a mix, or check a certain frequency is probably ok.

3.  Genetics are going to determine just how prone you may be to hearing loss.  Although certain loudness will kill anyone's hearing.

4. Advances have been, and are continually being made in the fight against NIHL, and a cure may appear within 15 to twenty years.

5. Get your hearing checked regularly..  I know several musicians, "my age, younger and older," they can not hear a bloody thing.  And many of them did not play in loud rock bands like myself for years, and years...  What's the difference?  I wore ear gear when we played out..  except for the odd practice, or when I was rocking out at home to my marshall...  I wore ear gear at practices and home as well.

I notice producing..  No ear gear needed.  Even my very inexpensive Alesis Monitors are so quiet and clear.. They only get loud if I go ahead and turn them way up..

Anyways..  One of the best mix engineer's I ever met..  He can not hear a thing.  Its going to be one loud session in his studio whenever you are there, trust me on that..  you can't even speak up to him, cause he will not hear you... he turns the volume up like a live rock concert..  and his mixes?  Banging..  He was doing major label stuff when I met him, I expect its the case now too.. unless he's retired.  (also wouldn't surprise me) but shucks..  if he could mix deaf back then, why not now?   

:p  go figure

All good thoughts I'm sure LP, but I don't think that's what he's talking about.  In the "good 'ol days" I used to have two CRT's side by side with the reference audio monitors right outside that.  They would bend the edges of each display a bit - not good.  Once I went to LED video monitors and moved the audio monitors out a bit (but still very much nearfield), I had no issues.

As for having anything with a large, moving magnetic field near my DAW, no way!

One thing I used to do was use those "terminal valets" that clamp on to your desk and are meant to hold a video monitor (so it's not on your desk and so you can move it around).  I found they worked great for getting the reference audio monitors out of the way as well.  Take a look at the picture below to see what I mean:

oops..  think I just learned something big time.  Thanks craigb :-)

LP,

I def having hearing loss. Mostly due to internal damage from chronic ear infections in my youth through my 30s. I, probably like your producer friend, have learned to "compensate". But the only time it's blaring is in headphones and buds.

How I compensate (especially for highs) is:

1. I use Ultimate Ears in ear Reference Monitor earphones (molded for my ear configuration). At the right volume I can hear highs that are masked by speakers and my MD50s and to a lesser degree my HD600s. And.... they a flat flat flat response.

2. I use my hearing aids when checking mixes in the car (they have the highs above 7K boosted) and on my Mackie HR824s at low-to-med volume. The only other time I use these are at movies and certain times at home watching TV (when the show/movie is poorly mixed for dialog).

3. Ask my close friends (musos whom I trust) to check my mixes, especially for the highs. And for the most part I do what they suggest when it comes to highs (hats, cymbals and the like).

Yeah... I'm not too worried about hearing loss. My Scarlett monitor knob seems to keep things... uh... a little too quiet even. I just don't want to bork out my gear. If there is even a chance I'm gonna hurt something in my rig I want to avoid it. I was just hoping to have the monitors sitting on my desk permanently so I don't have to tear down every time I do something. I guess I'll just keep doing what I've been doing until I have more room.

bapu,

I totally feel you man; I'm turning up volume to check those hats and cymbals as well.  Not much to do about it right now..   they will totally achieve medicine for hearing loss.  I've read two articles lately that talk about curing aids, and the coming generation without the aids pandemic.

:-)

I don't know what to stress on more, "hearing loss, or lung/mouth/throat cancer."  I suppose I could quit smoking, and stop playing music. Than again, life would be too short regardless...   so...  

I guess we are mortal...  Although, not according to Ray Kurzweil: http://www.fantastic-voyage.net/



Cheers 

Why play music loud anyway?

Beepster.  If I understand your question your monitors should ideally:-

1. Have no reflective areas near, in front, behind or to the the sides.

2. Isolated from whatever is holding them up.  Best placed on their own stands.

3. Placed away from any equipment that can either be influenced by or has any magnetic fields.

See my studio pictures as shown in the Composers Forum link in my signature.  The speakers are located on sand filled speaker stands, the stands have spikes on the base to ensure minimum, but stable floor contact.  The speakers themselves are then isolated from the top platform by three cones, per speaker.  This of course leads to no desk space being occupied by my monitors.

If I have misunderstood the question then just ignore everything written above.