# Lyd 48 speaker placement



## pmountford (Nov 18, 2020)

I've just ordered a pair of Lyd48's - maybe a bit crazy as I've not heard them, just read plenty of favourable comments here but I was after an upgrade from my Mackie HR824's (MK1) that I've had for a long, long time so hoping these will suffice.

My concern is placement. I've just had a look at the online manual and it talks about placing them way into the room. So if I just place them on the wall brackets the Mackie's are currently on then they'll be pretty close to the wall (say 6"). Am I going to be struggling placing them so close? My desk is about a metre deep, fixed to the wall, so I'm limited. Any thoughts?


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## jamwerks (Nov 18, 2020)

Is the front wall behind the speakers treated?


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## pmountford (Nov 18, 2020)

It's just a solid concrete block cavity wall, plastered. I've put a couple of DIY bass traps in the corners. The room is about 5m x 3m. Probably easier to describe in the photo attached.


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## chillbot (Nov 18, 2020)

The LYDs are amazing you will love them! I love mine so much.

Can't really help with your predicament, mine have about 6 feet of room behind them. But it doesn't look like you have any choice in the matter. Personally I wouldn't stress it, the LYDs are going to sound better than the Mackie's regardless of the space. Might be less-than-ideal but maybe some day you'll move to a more ideal space?

You could also experiment with pulling them a bit out from the wall and putting them left/right of your monitors. They are surprisingly smaller than you think. I have some Adams set up in that way.... it's also not ideal having them that wide and close and the monitors can block them... but again you have to compromise so pick the best compromise you can.


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## Noeticus (Nov 18, 2020)

The Lyds can go on the brackets, not a problem. Make sure there is rubber or foam under the speakers to separate them a little from the brackets.

If you do not have a subwoofer in your room I suggest you add one.


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## chrisr (Nov 18, 2020)

Hi Phil!

Hope you're keeping well in this crappiest of years!?

Just had a look at that manual and it's really just describing optimum positioning in an ideal scenario - think you'll be ok.

In fact from the SOS review - I think there may be a setting on the rear panel of the monitors to select "wall" (near wall) operation? - specifically for situations like this.

best,
Chris


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## chillbot (Nov 18, 2020)

chrisr said:


> I think there may be a setting on the rear panel of the monitors to select "wall" (near wall) operation?


Can confirm... just looked there is a "wall/free" toggle under "position".


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## jamwerks (Nov 18, 2020)

pmountford said:


> It's just a solid concrete block cavity wall, plastered


Imo you really need to treat that wall. As is, you're hearing lots of early (first) reflections that go from (back of) speaker to wall to ears. And those are too close in time to the direct signal (speaker to ear) for your brain to decipher. That whole wall should be very absorbant. You would very much notice the difference. I had a similar experience and was very pleasantly surprised.

The treatment to your left and right are good placements. You will probably love those monitors. They are on my short list as well


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## pmountford (Nov 18, 2020)

chillbot said:


> The LYDs are amazing you will love them! I love mine so much.


Yeah, tbh your input was one of those I was reading. So if they're crap, I'm blaming you. 



chillbot said:


> maybe some day you'll move to a more ideal space?


I love your optimism!


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## pmountford (Nov 18, 2020)

Noeticus said:


> If you do not have a subwoofer in your room I suggest you add one.


Is that to compensate for the potential room acoustics/speaker placement not being ideal, or do the LYD's not have sufficient bass?


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## pmountford (Nov 18, 2020)

chrisr said:


> Hope you're keeping well in this crappiest of years!?


Thanks Chris, let's just say I'm optimistic that 2021 can only be better. Oh no, that's just jinxed it...



chrisr said:


> In fact from the SOS review - I think there may be a setting on the rear panel of the monitors to select "wall" (near wall) operation? - specifically for situations like this.


Excellent. Thanks for checking.


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## chillbot (Nov 18, 2020)

pmountford said:


> if they're crap, I'm blaming you.


Not too worried.


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## pmountford (Nov 18, 2020)

jamwerks said:


> Imo you really need to treat that wall.


You gotta love this forum when you get advice as I have here from y'all! Thanks for this. I'll have a look into treating the wall. Any suggestions or pointers? Do you suggest lining the whole wall with some dense sound absorbing material? Or just a patch around each speaker?


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## jamwerks (Nov 18, 2020)

pmountford said:


> You gotta love this forum when you get advice as I have here from y'all! Thanks for this. I'll have a look into treating the wall. Any suggestions or pointers? Do you suggest lining the whole wall with some dense sound absorbing material? Or just a patch around each speaker?


As much of that front wall as possible with say 7-10 cm bass trap style but with some (20%) reflective parts to still have a sound. There are lots of products now that do that. You can then put your monitors up against that.

A lot of sound presure comes back from the back wall at all kinds of angles, and an absorbant front wall will tame that. That's a nice size room, but small enough that you really need to do things right. 

For my room, I built an 8cm panel made of Gyptone Line 6 tiles (front & back) with 6cm dense insulation in the middle.


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## Noeticus (Nov 18, 2020)

pmountford said:


> Is that to compensate for the potential room acoustics/speaker placement not being ideal, or do the LYD's not have sufficient bass?



The LYD series do not have enough bass, which is why Dynaudio makes and sells lots of subwoofers.

And.... even the Core series require a sub as far as my tastes go.

The LYD 48s are the best of the LYD series, but to my ears it really needs a sub.

Of course you do not have to have one. It is all about preference. I do feature film work and so REALLY need a sub to be happy.


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## Noeticus (Nov 18, 2020)

pmountford said:


> You gotta love this forum when you get advice as I have here from y'all! Thanks for this. I'll have a look into treating the wall. Any suggestions or pointers? Do you suggest lining the whole wall with some dense sound absorbing material? Or just a patch around each speaker?



I would use "SONEX Classic" foam.


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## chillbot (Dec 13, 2020)

pmountford said:


> I've just ordered a pair of Lyd48's


So did you get the LYDs?


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## Noeticus (Dec 13, 2020)

chillbot said:


> So did you get the LYDs?



I did. Meaning I recently bought the LYD 48s for another room/setup.

UPDATE: I had to cancel the LYD 48s as they were out of stock for far too long.


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## pmountford (Dec 13, 2020)

@chillbot thanks for your interest. Problem with original supplier but found alternative retailer. They only arrived this week but studio being redecorated and rejigged. So only taken them out of boxes yesterday and it made me think about what you said, they are compact! Away atm but will test next week. Do you find they need a sub? I didn't realise they're 6 inch drivers. I assumed they were 8 for some reason.


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## chillbot (Dec 13, 2020)

I use a sub, yes. Not sure if it's "necessary" per se but I've always used subs and like to hear what's going on down there.

Aren't they 8" drivers? I thought the whole "48" was beacuse a "4" and an "8" what am I missing.


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## pmountford (Dec 13, 2020)

chillbot said:


> Aren't they 8" drivers? I thought the whole "48" was beacuse a "4" and an "8" what am I missing.


Maybe my mistake or misunderstanding but when I measured the cone on the lyds I think it was 6". Coming from the Mackie hr824 made me measure them as I think the mackies were 8" and they deffo looked smaller. But will stand corrected.


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## chillbot (Dec 13, 2020)

Yeah sorry, I don't know where they measure from. If you just measure from the inside of the speakers they should be called LYD 36s.

These replaced the Dynaudio BM15As for me, which I also loved, which I also used with a sub. Those were 10" + 1" and I definitely didn't notice any loss going to a smaller speaker, not sure how much the sub had to do with that. I like these better.


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## Noeticus (Dec 13, 2020)

The LYD 48s have 8" drivers.

For me, using a subwoofer is a must, and a major difference.


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## pmountford (Dec 14, 2020)

It turns out the Mackies cones are larger than 8" which is why I thought the lyds weren't 8". Thx for feedback re sub. Look forwards to testing them later this week.


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## Noeticus (Dec 14, 2020)

pmountford said:


> It turns out the Mackies cones are larger than 8" which is why I thought the lyds weren't 8". Thx for feedback re sub. Look forwards to testing them later this week.



Yes, the Mackie HR824's main driver, if you include the flange, comes out to almost 9" in diameter.


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## MusiquedeReve (Dec 15, 2020)

Here is my setup with LYD 48's

I have always wanted to get a subwoofer but have no idea where it would go in this room
(those are bass traps in the corners) - the rest of the room (back and side walls) are treated with GIK acoustic panels

In reality, the sub could only go on either side of my desk -- not sure it would even be worth it at that point

Thoughts?


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## pmountford (Dec 15, 2020)

EpicEsquire said:


> In reality, the sub could only go on either side of my desk -- not sure it would even be worth it at that point
> 
> Thoughts?


Very nice photo.

So you're feeling the lyds would benefit from a sub too?

I know when setting up home cinema that the sub location is not really that important BUT that isn't the attitude I'd take with a studio so I look forward to hearing others chime in on sub placement too.


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## MusiquedeReve (Dec 15, 2020)

pmountford said:


> Very nice photo.
> 
> So you're feeling the lyds would benefit from a sub too?
> 
> I know when setting up home cinema that the sub location is not really that important BUT that isn't the attitude I'd take with a studio so I look forward to hearing others chime in on sub placement too.




Thanks for the compliment (I change the color of my lights (LIFX) to create different moods as I write)

I think I could benefit from a sub -- probably (based on cost) the S9

I am hoping some studio experts can chime in as well


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## chrisr (Dec 15, 2020)

__





Q. Is there any advantage to using two subwoofers?


I've heard of having a subwoofer in your studio in combination with your monitors to reproduce the extra-low frequencies, but why would anyone use two?




www.soundonsound.com





I somehow posted the above in a completely different thread a moment ago... was meant for here. Has relevance to anyone thinking of one sub also.


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## Windbag (Dec 15, 2020)

It's not particularly ideal to have rear-ported speakers on a rear wall, hence the recommendation for lots of space. At the same time your mackies had a rear facing passive radiator so you're not really _changing_ much

Throw some pyramid foam on that back wall and call it a day. That should knock down and disperse reflection enough to keep you from getting a meaningful dose of it - depending on your sources for it (around here I can get unbranded 4x8' sheets pretty cheap) you might just cover the whole wall.



pmountford said:


> So you're feeling the lyds would benefit from a sub too?



Everything benefits from a sub 

My understanding is that sub _direction_ isn't especially important (IF crossed over low enough - i.e. typical 80hz) but for mixing (and depending on the presence of a phase control on the sub itself) you want to try to keep it on the same radius as the other monitors. Those wavelengths are too long for your ears to discern directional information from but you want to keep the system in the same phase as much as possible. It gets messy when you start dealing with cancellation nodes, however, and it's often a lesser-of-evils situation necessitating sub placement near a corner or other location that averages out the room modes well enough for you to get a reasonably flat image.


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## pmountford (Dec 16, 2020)

chillbot said:


> Not too worried.


So far I can see (or atleast hear) why you're not too worried. I'm impressed. Just set them up and listened to my most listened to soundtrack and there is definitely more clarity to my old ears. So thanks for your recommendation, they'll do me. It looks like you were right.....this time


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## pmountford (Dec 16, 2020)

Windbag said:


> It's not particularly ideal to have rear-ported speakers on a rear wall, hence the recommendation for lots of space. At the same time your mackies had a rear facing passive radiator so you're not really changing much
> Throw some pyramid foam on that back wall and call it a day.



Just building a couple of acoustic treatments to go behind the Lyds. There's about 10" between them and the wall so when the 4" treatment is fitted I'm hoping it'll be fine. If I am understanding this correctly, the treatment will absorb some of the sound energy whereas the pyramid foam will redirect the reflections? I guess I'm overthinking? 



Windbag said:


> Everything benefits from a sub



Except my wallet  But yes, I'm sure you're right.


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