Speakers on a Desk or on Stands - Page 3

If i recall correctly, the Audioengines's are rear ported so you may want to move them away from a wall to prevent bass buildup. Inherently, the audioengines may just be designed to have a  bass hump and there may be nothing you can do about that, although i've not heard of the audioengines myself. Alternatively, you may choose to move yourself off-axis such that the tweeter is facing below your ear.

If you are not certain that the woofer is bouncing lower frequencies off your desk and into your ear you can check this by putting some carpet/dampening material on your desk and see if the reflections still occur.

If you are simply wanted to decouple your speakers from your desk, I recommend Primacoustic Recoil Stabiliser (be sure to get the right size).

Lastly, your room and speaker placement may just be bad. Consider using bass traps to treat your room, if serious.

okay before i move on to modding my stands, i have a question about the positioning of your monitors. I have always wanted a larger soundstage in my setup, so at first i thought it was because of my DAC/amp (NFB-12 sounds narrow). So after a long conversation with Kingwa from Audiogd, he recommended me to position my speakers in different way before doing any upgrades.

The boxes in BLACK is my current setup, the typical triangular setup at ear level. Green Box is what Kingwa recommended me to do for a larger soundstage. Tested it, works, I could hear a larger soundstage but at a cost of dynamics and clarity.

So wondering how you guys position it, is there a certain ratio to maintain such as the distance between monitors should equal to the distance from the monitor to the person.

 My current setup right now. My monitors are WAY TO CLOSE to the wall but  the width of the desk is just too small. I stuffed my rear ports with socks already so it helps a bit.

The speakers should form an equilateral triangle with your head being the third point (60 degrees at each vertex). Do note that distance is also important, distance being dependent on your room accoustics. Your perceived soundstage may be too low, because your speakers are on your desk and thus you are off axis. Draw an imaginary line from the middle of your tweeter and woofer and make sure that points straight into your ear.

With the speakers raised, you should be getting a more accurate image.

Just out of curiosity, how do you define soundstage?

Yep, equilateral triangle, ears about tweeter height (or between woofer and tweeter) - and when you swivel in your chair to face each speaker, you should be looking down the barrel of the woofer.

okay thanks guys, looks like my positioning is somewhat correct, might just need to raise the monitors a bit more.

Raising also helps lessen desk reflections, although your speakers are pointed upward slightly so that helps too. The next step is putting bass traps in the corners of your room, and panels at first reflection points etc etc. Fun little game that. Here's a vid to demonstrate,

From what I've read acoustic foam is pretty rubbish for anything but treble though (and he didn't put anything under the speakers, tut!,  and you should use the proper fibreglass/rockwool panels:

it doesn't matter if the monitors are tilted or straight right as long its pointed at my ears then its all good? Because i'm thinking of getting individual stands for each monitor. Using wooden boards and sticking Ikea mini legs on it.

Thanks Somnambulist, wow I didn't even know bass will creep and store its energy in the corners but yeah i need those bass traps. I have to get going with my DIY recoil stabiliser.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Somnambulist 

Raising also helps lessen desk reflections, although your speakers are pointed upward slightly so that helps too. The next step is putting bass traps in the corners of your room, and panels at first reflection points etc etc. Fun little game that. Here's a vid to demonstrate,

 

 

From what I've read acoustic foam is pretty rubbish for anything but treble though (and he didn't put anything under the speakers, tut!,  and you should use the proper fibreglass/rockwool panels: