Speaker Placement: Should you FLUSH MOUNT your monitors?

[@patrolduty8715]

I flush-mounted a lot of studio monitors in small control rooms (of course, they are a part of a complete design). Some of the rooms are as small as 10-12 m2. They all delivered very consistent results with very flat low frequency from 20-100 Hz. If I cant flush-mount a studio monitor, I will do Half-Flush Mount technique which is put monitors into an "acoustics wall" - a "wall" filled with absorbtion materials. And the result is also very good. If I design a room with monitors sitting on a pair of stands, the LF response will be less realiable in terms of LF performance prediction. Don't worry about flushmounted monitors for small rooms, my clients reported very positive results in terms of mixes translation.

[@jgnoachian]

This completely makes sense for most use cases, but I'll be building a stand-alone studio from the ground up and think I'll go for flush-mounted. Maybe. Ha!

[@christopherbrown8460]

HI JESCO! I love your videos. I have a QUICK QUESTION: My room is 15 feet by 45 feet. It is an open floor plan including the living room at one end where I have speakers and a listening chair. The speakers are 3 feet away from the wall and face the full living space. The kitchen is in the middle and the dining room is on the far end. Each section takes up 1/3 of the space equally. I have treated the living room listening area walls and ceiling with twelve large 6" thick acoustic panels filled with fiberglass insulation. This has improved the sound. QUESTION: How much better would the sound be if I added more panels down the rest of the space throughout the kitchen and dining room? is it worth the time and effort?

[@Dav7Music]

ok... so .. how can I put the speakers in the walls? Thomas Northward how does it? How does it work? As you say, it seems almost impossible. But still, if I wanted to, how is that done? Simulation? Calculation? .. Can u be specific?

[@digidope]

Tomas explains how he does it in many posts in GS. One note what he says: While it might look that the speakers touch the front wall they don't. The speakers are fully de-coupled from the front wall even if there is just 1mm of gap. That is not something that one can easily DIY. But it's not rocket science if you have right speakers and ability to build properly.

[@digidope]

To add: Calculation and simulation. Professional designer can calculate where the speakers will have the best sound in your room. Or say it's not doable.

[@Malc180s]

I think you'll also find that a lot of flush mounted speakers (whisper) sound shit. Because people DON'T know what they're doing, because it's not an exact science. You'll find a lot of them using speaker correction software too! It's all a bit snake oil really, like the guys who compare converters and say "ooo, that one sounds so much richer", when it's actually completely identical, because they all are.

[@digidope]

@@Malc180s I wouldnt say "a lot of". At least what i have heard, 98% have been designed by professionals. The 2% is done by copying a photo seen on internet = the most common style of acoustic treatment.

[@spazzychalk]

For 7.2.2 on a Denon x3800h should I have the heights at front left & right or center front & rear of the seat?

[@joost3783]

I find it really funny that everybody is always talking only about the f***** frequency response (except u ofc). When I first got a great soundstage (I wasn't aware of your channel at that time but I still achieved it through testing and measuring and actually listening so not too far off from your technique on that) It was such a huge difference. People who come to my studio often compare the sound to really expensive rooms they have been in. It really makes such a huge difference I just wanted to emphasise that from personal experience.

[@venkydc6874]

Hi....my bass sweet spot is above the speakers 2-3 feet in front of the sitting spot (equilateral triangle). How to address this ... please help

[@hoth2112]

Tbh, most speakers aren't designed to be flush mounted, especially passives. So unless a speaker is designed, has a setting for, or using EQ to compensate, with no plans to upgrade, it's not worth the effort for most people.

[@CraddyMusic]

The closer my speakers are to the front wall the less low end I hear. Does anyone know why? I’m confused because everyone is talking about bass boost when getting close to the front walls. My speakers also have a rear port.

[@Pattarns_Music]

Your rear port is getting blocked by the proximity of the wall, which makes your woofers unable to move freely. This cramped motion reduces bass power. If your speaker cone wants to move forward toward you, an equal amount of air needs to get sucked in by the rear port, and the other way around. Some rear ported monitors' manuals (like Genelec) say you need only like 15cm of space, while for example Yamaha HS8 describe at least 1,5 meters of space...I'm not sure what to think of this huge difference in recommended distance for a similar design. Best to keep them a large distance from a wall I suppose, or switch to a front ported design if you are unable to.

[@Pattarns_Music]

@@mclovinfuddpucker Not all good studio monitors are rear ported. Focal for example (Adam audio as well) makes some fantastic front ported speakers, they should ideally be placed against the front wall. I wouldn't trashtalk Jesco too much man, he might dumb some things down for a general audience but he definitely knows what he's doing.

[@jentaro]

I get the advantages but you need a dedicated room that is NOT your living space and it's not worth it risking heat ventilation problems and you are making speaker repair/upgrade hard for yourself.

[@davidfuller581]

So... flush mounting is great, if you have speakers that are capable of doing so. But it's a gigantic pain to do properly. Getting your speakers up against the wall does a close enough job that it doesn't matter much.

[@andynonimuss6298]

A very fringe topic, but useful to know most should not try to attempt it.

[@AmazonasBiotop]

Flush mount is totally WRONG terminology. And you confusing the professionals. 😅 Flush mount is that the driver itself is mounted so that it is RECESSED usually approx 5 mm so the front of the driver is FLUSH mounted with the baffle.. (and that we SHOULD actually always do to minimize edge diffraction.) What you actually are describing is to mount speaker driver/s in a wall then the WHOLE wall act as the baffle and it is called INFINITE BAFFLE design (no chance of edge diffraction when the baffle is "infinite" as one benefit. As traditional boxes has always edges..😂)