bapu

Rain

That being said, even if I placed the desk as far as I could from the wall, I wouldn't trust that room. 

Rule of thumb is that the monitors should be 1/3 into the room. Ex: If your room is 12' deep your monitors should be 4' away from the wall.

When I moved my HS-80's in to my basement a month ago, I tried them up against the wall and out 5 feet. Out 5 feet made a huge difference.

Another thing that made a difference is the angle of the speaker. Because of outlet locations, I had to put my setup in a corner where the left speaker was out in the open, and the right was up against the wall. I got much better response when I had them pointing straight forward when placed in the corner.

Most monitors come with placement recommendations. My Yamaha HS-80's say they should be in a room big enough to have 5 feet on all sides away from walls to avoid any coloration. It does make a huge difference. I remixed a bunch of songs down there and am very happy with the results.

I moved them out 5 feet, pointed them straight forward and got in real close and mixed/mastered at low volume. World of difference.

Edited for clarity
Edited a second time for more clarity

The only rule of thumb I have is don't hit it with a hammer.  But I'm a Rebel, Dotty, a loner.

The Mackies have a switch to actually BOOST the bass if they're placed further away from the walls and the bass response seems weaker (and a second switch to boost the high frequencies).

I don't know who would want to do that - as far as I'm concerned, they should have the opposite, a switch to cut the bass by a few db's. Seems like a way to exaggerate what's essentially a misrepresentation of the low frequencies.

Personally I have a tendency to work at fairly low volume most of the time, so the issue isn't as pronounced as it could be, even though I know I can't rely on what I'm hearing.

In NY, by the end, I was keeping the desk a full 4 or 5 feet away from the wall. I remember the sound getting substantially cleaner and clearer as I pulled  the desk further away from the wall while music was playing, even at relatively low volume.

That being said, today's my first chance to listen to a few reference albums I know like the back of my hand so that I can start to learn both the new monitors and the room. Should be fun. :)

Bub

bapu

Rain

That being said, even if I placed the desk as far as I could from the wall, I wouldn't trust that room. 

Rule of thumb is that the monitors should be 1/3 into the room. Ex: If your room is 12' deep your monitors should be 4' away from the wall.

When I moved my HS-80's in to my basement a month ago, I tried them up against the wall and out 5 feet. Out 5 feet made a huge difference.

Another thing that made a difference is the angle of the speaker. Because of outlet locations, I had to put my setup in a corner where the left speaker was out in the open, and the right was up against the wall. I got much better response when I had them pointing straight forward when placed in the corner.

Most monitors come with placement recommendations. My Yamaha HS-80's say they should be in a room big enough to have 5 feet on all sides away from walls to avoid any coloration. It does make a huge difference. I remixed a bunch of songs down there and am very happy with the results.

I moved them out 5 feet, pointed them straight forward and got in real close and mixed/mastered at low volume. World of difference.

Edited for clarity
Edited a second time for more clarity

Makes sense. It's one of the reasons why I stuck w/ 5" instead of 8". Not only is the space limited now, but I have no absolutely idea what the room I will have to dedicate to the studio will look like when we finally buy the house next year. Odds are that I'll still be better off w/ smaller monitors.


So you dig the HS-80s? - I considered the HS-50s for a while but ended up buying the Mackies instead. But should the next room be bigger, the HS-80s are still on the list.