After five years of making music, I'm taking the plunge and investing in some entry level active monitors/ Looking at the Mackie MR8, and determining how I'll set them up.
I'm considering a couple of Hercules speaker stands because I have a few guitar stands and recently bought a boom stand - the build is impressive from Hercules.
My question is - how do monitors get mounted ? Do we screw them on to a plate ? My concern would be that any internal electronics may be damaged - or is the box's cavity allowing for this?
Stand-Mounted Studio Monitors
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- Banned
- Topic Starter
- 327 posts since 24 Jul, 2013
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do_androids_dream do_androids_dream https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=164034 - KVRAF
- 2908 posts since 26 Oct, 2007 from Kent, UK
My monitors just sit directly on top of the stand - no need for screwing them to it. If it's a good quality stand with a wide base and a decent sized platform for the monitors to sit on there shouldn't be any need to attach them to the stand.
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- KVRAF
- 3080 posts since 17 Apr, 2005 from S.E. TN
Hi KarmaShamanKarmaShaman wrote:After five years of making music, I'm taking the plunge and investing in some entry level active monitors/ Looking at the Mackie MR8, and determining how I'll set them up.
I'm considering a couple of Hercules speaker stands because I have a few guitar stands and recently bought a boom stand - the build is impressive from Hercules.
My question is - how do monitors get mounted ? Do we screw them on to a plate ? My concern would be that any internal electronics may be damaged - or is the box's cavity allowing for this?
Do you intend to use the MR8 as at-home studio monitors, for recording or "critical listening"? Or do you plan to use them as some kind of small PA system for live playing?
Just curious. The MR8 might be a decent studio monitor for the money. I haven't a clue, but it would be a mistake to get them for PA work, because the same money would buy much better PA speakers (different designs for different purposes).
Stands are used for studio monitors, but the only hercules stands google shows me pictures of, are tripod stands intended to hoist medium-to-small PA speakers. Even small PA speakers often dwarf large studio monitors.
You can make the hercules stands work for home studio speaker stands, and it might even be a smart long lasting durable purchase. But the tripod hercules spk stands would need a simple adapter shelf made to hold home studio monitors.
Most modern small-medium size PA speakers have a built in socket on the bottom that the spk stand plugs into. For home studio monitors you need a shelf with a speaker socket on the bottom so you can put the shelf on the stand and the speaker on the shelf.
Maybe such a shelf is sold ready made, or it would be easy for a woodworker to make some.
The typical home studio spk stands are intended non portable, and sometimes are stupid expensive marketed to the same audiophiles who will buy $1000 digital video cables. They are often designed to be solid and non resonant and such.
An audiophile would not like his speaker sitting on an aluminum tripod stand, fearing that the aluminum would resonate with negative celestial vibrations and ruin the benefit of his $1000 video cable.
However, in the real world perhaps the hercules stand would work fine for home studio. In my tight room, I'd be most concerned that the stand's legs would be too wide, take up too much floor space, and make a tripping hazard I might fall over.
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- KVRAF
- 8414 posts since 4 Jul, 2012 from Alesia
pick up acoustic stabilizer pads for your speakers and some acoustic padding for your room. It will make a world of a difference.
Last edited by V0RT3X on Wed Jul 16, 2014 7:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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thecontrolcentre thecontrolcentre https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=76240 - KVRAF
- 35184 posts since 27 Jul, 2005 from the wilds of wanny
My monitors sit on top of their stands. The width of the plate they stand on is adjustable , as is the height of the stands. No screws into the monitors involved.
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- Banned
- 194 posts since 30 Aug, 2008
I use KRK 5 monitors on custom stands ( stacks of Computer Music magazines topped with egg cartons). 
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- KVRist
- 71 posts since 23 Apr, 2014 from Denver
You can go with something like the Auralex MoPads which allow for angle adjustments - although just a couple. Isoacoustics are more expensive but you can adjust the angle to pretty much whatever you want.
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- KVRAF
- 8414 posts since 4 Jul, 2012 from Alesia
coskivst wrote:You can go with something like the Auralex MoPads which allow for angle adjustments - although just a couple. Isoacoustics are more expensive but you can adjust the angle to pretty much whatever you want.
Yah the Mopads seem really useful for those heavy square cabinet based monitors. I don't know if they would be as useful with something like Munro Egg 150s or Genelecs which often come with stands that do the same thing. I'd probably definitely use them for the Event Opals though.
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- Banned
- Topic Starter
- 327 posts since 24 Jul, 2013
Thanks for the replies.
JCJR - The monitors will not be used for PA applications, but for use when I am making music, mixing and mastering, plus general day-to-day use such as playing albums, internet audio etc. After looking at a lot of tripod-style stands (such as the Hercules) I have since noticed that many have a large circular termination on the business end, which led me to think that PA boxes have an insert at the bottom, as you have described. I will need to consider more appropriate options.
A concern of mine with stands where the speaker simply sits on top of a plate is that I have a young kitty that like to help me when I'm making music (by help I mean he jumps all over stuff, claws at things etc). So I need to find an option where surface area to gravitation & monitor weight ensures that nothing topples over and potentially crushes the little bugger.
Desk-bound setups such as the iso-acoustics configuration seems perfect, but I'm a bit concerned that my cat might scratch away at the delicate bass cone when it's easily accessible. While a $700 pair of monitors may not be big outlay for some, it's a significant purchase for me, and I would be pretty annoyed if they were ruined. My option here (and I welcome feedback on this) is that I might build a couple of mesh screens with velcro attachments, and leave these on while the gear is unattended, and pull them off while in use, especially at the most critical times when I am mixing.
In the short term I can sit them atop some old Technics tower speakers, but I'll be building a custom desk for my studio setup so surface space won't be an issue if I plan for it.
JCJR - The monitors will not be used for PA applications, but for use when I am making music, mixing and mastering, plus general day-to-day use such as playing albums, internet audio etc. After looking at a lot of tripod-style stands (such as the Hercules) I have since noticed that many have a large circular termination on the business end, which led me to think that PA boxes have an insert at the bottom, as you have described. I will need to consider more appropriate options.
A concern of mine with stands where the speaker simply sits on top of a plate is that I have a young kitty that like to help me when I'm making music (by help I mean he jumps all over stuff, claws at things etc). So I need to find an option where surface area to gravitation & monitor weight ensures that nothing topples over and potentially crushes the little bugger.
Desk-bound setups such as the iso-acoustics configuration seems perfect, but I'm a bit concerned that my cat might scratch away at the delicate bass cone when it's easily accessible. While a $700 pair of monitors may not be big outlay for some, it's a significant purchase for me, and I would be pretty annoyed if they were ruined. My option here (and I welcome feedback on this) is that I might build a couple of mesh screens with velcro attachments, and leave these on while the gear is unattended, and pull them off while in use, especially at the most critical times when I am mixing.
In the short term I can sit them atop some old Technics tower speakers, but I'll be building a custom desk for my studio setup so surface space won't be an issue if I plan for it.
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- KVRAF
- 3080 posts since 17 Apr, 2005 from S.E. TN
In the last year I modified an old keyboard stand that was just a big 4 foot wide plywood box, to add a speaker/video monitor shelf, at proper height to put the speaker midpoint between woofer and tweeter, exactly at ear level. I used 2x6(inch) lumber uprights screwed and glued on both sides of the keyboard box, a 6 foot long 2x6 atop the uprights, and a 6 foot wide, 12 inch deep melamine mdf shelf screwed and glued atop the horizontal 2x6. It is reasonably non resonant, with absolutely no wiggle or wobble. A perfectionist would probably put some kind of decoupling pad between speakers and shelf, but I haven't in this case noticed any speaker induced resonances in the assembly.
The speakers on both ends of my shelf are essentially "suspended in mid-air" with nothing under, above, or toward the outsides, and the speakers shoot past the front lip of the shelf so the shelf itself can't have much affect on the acoustics as far as I can tell. Some folk who study in detail speaker placement, can find something wrong with almost any speaker placement. They may be right, but on the other hand there is such a thing as practicality, and speakers have to be placed somewhere.
A cat can go anywhere. Luckily most monitors are heavy enough I'd hope a cat couldn't drag one off the shelf, but a rim of 1 inch wood tacked down on the shelf, around the footprint of the monitor certainly wouldn't hurte in helping prevent the spkr from sliding off.
I am very ignorant of the pedestal type monitor stands. It is said that getting the monitors up in the air away from mixers and desks is a valid way to improve the sound. But ideally at ear level and "pretty close to your head" for small speakers and near field monitoring. The farther you get from the monitors, the less direct sound and the more room sound you hear. So with greater distances the acoustic imperfections of the room will bother you more tempting you to spend time and money on room treatment. Don't buy foam. It is too expensive and ineffective per dollar spent.
When I see pictures of monitors on skinny pedestals it makes me nervous about falling speakers. Think that some of the designs expect you to half-fill them with sand to lower the center of gravity and make them less resonant, but maybe I'm remembering wrong.
The speakers on both ends of my shelf are essentially "suspended in mid-air" with nothing under, above, or toward the outsides, and the speakers shoot past the front lip of the shelf so the shelf itself can't have much affect on the acoustics as far as I can tell. Some folk who study in detail speaker placement, can find something wrong with almost any speaker placement. They may be right, but on the other hand there is such a thing as practicality, and speakers have to be placed somewhere.
A cat can go anywhere. Luckily most monitors are heavy enough I'd hope a cat couldn't drag one off the shelf, but a rim of 1 inch wood tacked down on the shelf, around the footprint of the monitor certainly wouldn't hurte in helping prevent the spkr from sliding off.
I am very ignorant of the pedestal type monitor stands. It is said that getting the monitors up in the air away from mixers and desks is a valid way to improve the sound. But ideally at ear level and "pretty close to your head" for small speakers and near field monitoring. The farther you get from the monitors, the less direct sound and the more room sound you hear. So with greater distances the acoustic imperfections of the room will bother you more tempting you to spend time and money on room treatment. Don't buy foam. It is too expensive and ineffective per dollar spent.
When I see pictures of monitors on skinny pedestals it makes me nervous about falling speakers. Think that some of the designs expect you to half-fill them with sand to lower the center of gravity and make them less resonant, but maybe I'm remembering wrong.
