If your workstation is up against a wall, any speaker is going to represent
false information to you, either through acoustic coupling of the speaker to
vertical surfaces like the walls and corners, or you will end up with early
reflections that will smear the stereo image, negating the idea of buying
new speakers for clearer mixing.

I'm not much out of whack with what you have, although I'm out of whack with
any real decent mixing environment. With my desk against the long wall, I
have my speakers on stands about 19" out from the corners of the short wall.
Luckily they are directly in front of tons of books (another 19"), and I
almost mean that literally. So my workspace doesn't let me mix while
listening in the sweetspot, which means I have to do a lot of mix changes
and stop and just listen. It's not an easy way to work, but it allows me
the time to distinguish whether I'm making mistakes or not, and the best
thing is that my 8" two way JBLs do not sound too big for the room. Were
they closer to the walls and/or corners of the room, I'd be asking for even
more serious problems than I already know exist.

So, to me, the answer is no, 8" two ways are not too big for the room, but
you must understand that they need their space so you have to work around
that requirement.

Check on Ethan's Real Traps too. By running your speakers sound along the
long walls, it might be that some acoustic taming will be required. If you
can't afford them, look at www.ethanwiner.com and read his article on bass
traps and get his earlier design to build some of your own.

--


Roger W. Norman
SirMusic Studio

"Carlos Alden" wrote in message
...
Hey all:

I have a small recording setup in my basement. I don't pretend it's a
home
studio for recording other people - just myself for projects and ideas and
the occasional track for my band. I have a Mac iBook, MOTU 828 MkII, and
external fw drive. Workdesk is against a short wall, and unfortunately,
the
monitors are too. Great little setup. My room is small - 8.5' W x 12.5'
L
x 7.5' H.

I've been using an old home stereo system for monitors, but I'd like more
clarity, so I'm looking for something new. I'm thinking of acquiring some
used Event bas v.2 speakers, and am trying them out. The basic sound is
pretty good, but it seems to be that they feel too big in that small
space,
and I'm moving around a lot to get the proper imaging. I turned the bass
control down a bit from the zero setting, but I feel like I'm just too
close
to them. I'm thinking that I might find it easier listening with smaller
monitors with 6" or 6.5" woofers instead of 8" woofers.

I do mostly acoustic music so don't need the gut-wrenching bass and volume
that some folks do. However, i want it loud enough so that a guitar
sounds
like a live guitar, and I want clear midranges.

So here's my question: Am I correct in thinking that monitors with 8"
woofers are just too damn big for my little space, and that I will get
better clarity and accurate imaging from smaller boxes? I'm not asking
whether this or that make of monitors is better, but rather am I going to
encounter problems with any mid field monitor when what I should be
looking
at is slightly smaller nearfields.

Thanks in advance,
Carlos