The placement of the monitors will affect the sound as much as the environment. Acoustics can easily deteriorate if we make positioning mistakes, especially in everything related to balance and panning (stereo field).
Distances
We must give the sound space between left and right. If we have two monitors too close together (for example, 50 centimeters apart), the stereo field will be lost, i.e., we will have trouble differentiating between right, left and center. If we have the monitors too far apart (more than five meters for example), we will lose the sweet spot, which is a point that forms an equilateral triangle with both monitors. The trick is the following: if you place the monitors, for example, two meters apart, you must be at the same distance from each of them. The following image shows the technique:
Since you should generally be close to the console or computer, the ideal distance would be approximately 1.5 meters from each monitor, as can be seen in the image above.
As for the position of the monitor in relation to you, the monitors should be pointed directly towards your ears (not towards the center of your face). The tweeters should be aligned at the height of your ears, if this is not possible, you can also align the intermediate point between the tweeters and the woofer with your ears.
Acoustic stands for monitors
Monitors transmit sound vibrations to the furniture where they are placed. These vibrations will resonate in the furniture (or console), and will cause interference, and phase cancellations with the direct sound of the monitors, other times, frequencies and phases can add up, causing exaggerated resonances. You will notice this especially in the low end, the bass will sound less defined, which will create problems with equalization. For this reason avoid resting the monitors directly on the table or console surface. To solve this there are several products, such as acoustic stands, that will isolate the vibrations of the monitors from the surface of the furniture.
Become an expert in monitoring with the recommended book “Acoustings and monitoring in Music Production” (click on the image to go to the link):
