Nearfield Monitors placement too close to wall?

[Fingers mcginty]

Hi, Could you please have a look at the attached photo of my meagre setup. It's setup in a spare room so space is very tight. I'm just wondering if it's ok to have the monitors so close to the wall? They are a perfect height and are sitting on wooden shelves. Is there anything i could do to improve the setup? Moving the desk away from the wall is not an option unfortunately.

[heda]

It is not ok. There should be room behind the monitors. But for small monitors like these maybe it is even good. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
As I understand, low frequencies are boosted more than normal if monitors are close to the wall. Good monitors usually have some switches to calibrate and compensate for the wall distance.

[Fingers mcginty]

OK maybe if i mounted the monitors on stands such as these

https://www.thomann.de/ie/millenium_..._stand_dm2.htm

I'd be able to get some space behind them?

[cyrano]

Unless there's a back bass-reflex port, I see no reason why the speakers couldn't be with their backs to the wall.

It will boost low-end a bit, but that might just be what you want. It might also create some reflections, especially like they are now, with some toe-in.

Personally, I'd try them flat to the wall first. That gives the least reflections from the back wall and if the speakers are a little bit omnidirectional, as they should be, it won't hurt the frequency spectrum. Unfortunately, some "near-field" speakers, pretending to be monitors, are rather directional.

Slide them around and listen. Stands won't do much, if anything.

In real studio's, monitors are often in the wall...

[JHughes]

Comb filtering cannot be EQed out. Be careful about putting them next to the wall.

[Lokasenna]

Originally Posted by cyrano

Unless there's a back bass-reflex port, I see no reason why the speakers couldn't be with their backs to the wall.

The closer it is to the wall, the higher the frequencies that are affected when sound bounces off the wall and then interacts with the sound coming from the front of the speaker.

In real studio's, monitors are often in the wall...

Because this completely removes the issue of sound bouncing off the wall. Speakers being right against the wall very much do not.

[clepsydrae]

I keep my small monitors as close to the wall as I can for the reasons described above; the boost in bass makes the overall response better. The rule seems to be that if you can't mount them in the wall, and can't get them far from the walls, then you want them close to the wall. (The middle distances seem to be the main issue.) Check this link out: http://arqen.com/acoustics-101/speak...-interference/

You could keep them up against the wall and stick some absorption behind them to tame the (not very strong) higher frequencies heading backwards.