Studio monitors that can be placed close to a wall in a small room?

Recording, Mixing and Producing
#1

Any suggestions for monitors for a less than ideal room? I have some acoustic treatment. I will be adding more substantial bass trapping at some point. The main issue is that my studio is small and my desk is against a wall in a corner (no option to rearrange due to placement of drums, amps, etc). Definitely not ideal, but which speakers can deal with suboptimal placement? I want to stick with 5” woofers. The Focal Shape 50 seem promising.

Thanks for any suggestions.

#2

Sometimes something like Sonarworks may be able to help get a more even response in your sweet spot.

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#3

My studio is similar. If you’re sat at a desk, and the speakers are against the wall, they are effectively nearfield monitors and the room doesn’t really affect them. All the comb filtering etc happens behind you.

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#4

my speakers are against a thick treated wall as well, You will minimize the rear reflections and comb filtering, but you will still get the room modes. So even with that placement you will need to treat the room to some degree to minimize the bad modes. Room correction softwares can help there.

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#5

For sure, treat the room as much as possible too.

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#6

Hey fgf,

Good choice! Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any entry–level monitors that have dedicated “boundary compensation,” but the Shape 50 do have a “LF SHELVING” adjustment that will help control the LF buildup if placed near a wall. Also, the fact that they are not ported is certainly helpful for that placement mode.

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