Tweeter hight to ear level

yani

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As my previous posts have stated I an hoping to get a pair of KEF R300's for home demo. I know that when they sit on 24" stands the tweeter will be just about the right height for my ear position. This is when I am lazily slumbered on my comfy big chair with feet up on foot stool (drink in hand). So in theory ear and tweeter will be just the perfect height.

Well my question is, what if I had decided on the KEF R500's. I am only going by the photos but being a design engineer I have drawn up both speaker cabinet fronts and tried to position the tweeter drivers from the photos. On doing this I see the tweeter on the R500 sits approx 150 to 180mm below the R300's (when on 24" stands).

Would that I wonder make the tweeters too low on the 500's in my room / seating set up ?

Hope I am explaining this well enough !!
 

Thompsonuxb

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The height of the tweeters is not that important.

What is is how the sound integrates as a whole from the speaker.

Get the distance right between speakers and the speakers should 'vanish' - just make sure nothing inbetween you and your speakers blocks or impedes the sound.

For the record my speakers are 80cm tall with the tweeter below the mid-range.

Tilted slightly back I have no issues.
 

yani

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Why is tweeter height with regards ear level mentioned so much both here and on different forums. I understand distance between speakers and also distance from listener to speaker is important.
 

Thompsonuxb

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Lol.... I don't know.

But in my experience it's not important.

The main body of the 'top end' comes from the midrange - the tweeter adds the tip.

I think it has something to so with the term 'top end'

Note alot of modern designs place the tweeter below the middriver..
 

dim_span

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I have a pair of B&W DM2 speakers ... the original brochures state that the tweeters should be set at ear level. I managed to get a pair of low speaker stands made by B&W especially for the DM2

I also owned IMF floor standing speakers, and I also read that the tweeters were placed/designed into the cabinets at ear level if you are seated on a sofa
 

hg

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yani said:
Well my question is, what if I had decided on the KEF R500's. I am only going by the photos but being a design engineer I have drawn up both speaker cabinet fronts and tried to position the tweeter drivers from the photos. On doing this I see the tweeter on the R500 sits approx 150 to 180mm below the R300's (when on 24" stands).

Would that I wonder make the tweeters too low on the 500's in my room / seating set up ?

The KEFs have a coaxial tweeter and midrange with the midrange cone providing a waveguide for the tweeter radiation. The consequence of this as shown in the directivity plot here is that the tweeter does not beam strongly like a normal tweeter in a flat baffle (see directivity plots for other speakers). Being a bit off axis whether vertically or horizontally does not matter much with this type of speaker.
 

yani

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Obviously it is not as important as has been made out. You would be sitting virtually on the floor to get your ear level correct to the R500's tweeter.

This would give you much more flexibilty with stand height when not using floor standers. No need to have them perfect for ear level to tweeter level.

I admit I am slightly surprised at that after all that has been written.
 

yani

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I take your point with the uni-q tweeter but there must be many floor standers who's normal tweeters are way below ear level when the listener is seated. I think that is what hit home when I was thinking about it today. So if it's good enough for floor standers why would stand mounts need their tweeters lifted to ear level with particular stand heights ?
 

CnoEvil

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yani said:
So if it's good enough for floor standers why would stand mounts need their tweeters lifted to ear level with particular stand heights ?

It is the same issue with Floorstanders....and there are ways of changing the height of the tweeter, from tilting them back, to placing them on a platform. Since different seats have differeing heights, companies can't worry too much about this and just implement their designs based on good acoustic practice.
 

yani

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I must admit I would never have considered floor standers requiring to be 'built up' to suit tweeter height. I think I would hate the look after spending the extra cash for 'floor standers' !!!!!!
 

CnoEvil

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Depending on the height you need, it can be done tastefully with Granite and/or longer spikes.....or a lower chair. Some people put a slight upward tilt by adjusting the spikes.
 

yani

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I personally would not want to start altering my seating and would reluctantly alter the speakers. I think for that reason stand mounts would be much more easy to adjust by purchasing the correct stand height. They also would look far more 'normal' . I just feel the sleek look of the floor stander would be compromised somewhat.

Add to that the wife factor. I can hear the flac in my ears as I type. LOL
 

relocated

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CnoEvil said:
I do think having the tweeter at, or near ear height, is important (depending on brand/design)....but is much less so with the Kef's Uni-Q system, for the reasons explained by hg.

http://www.kef.com/html/gb/innovation/uni-q/

Cno is absolutely right. Easily getting tweeters to sit at the height your ears appreciate and your body, posture and seating enjoy is a major plus for stand-mounts over floorstanders.
 

Gazzip

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I don't think tweeter height can be that important. For example on the PMC's flagship BB5SE's the designers have placed mid and tweeter inboard and off centre of the front baffle to ensure clean dispersion across the baffle. They have also redesigned their stands at 500mm tall which leaves their tweeter up at 1200mm above floor level, well above ear level. It was obviously important enough to have the MF and HF drivers off centre at the expense of aesthetics so if it was important to match tweeter to ear they would have done that surely?
 

SteveR750

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Gazzip said:
I don't think tweeter height can be that important. For example on the PMC's flagship BB5SE's the designers have placed mid and tweeter inboard and off centre of the front baffle to ensure clean dispersion across the baffle. They have also redesigned their stands at 500mm tall which leaves their tweeter up at 1200mm above floor level, well above ear level. It was obviously important enough to have the MF and HF drivers off centre at the expense of aesthetics so if it was important to match tweeter to ear they would have done that surely?

At the price level, you'd expect that the height of the drivers was purposefully set - possibly to control floor reflections?
 

CnoEvil

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SteveR750 said:
Gazzip said:
I don't think tweeter height can be that important. For example on the PMC's flagship BB5SE's the designers have placed mid and tweeter inboard and off centre of the front baffle to ensure clean dispersion across the baffle. They have also redesigned their stands at 500mm tall which leaves their tweeter up at 1200mm above floor level, well above ear level. It was obviously important enough to have the MF and HF drivers off centre at the expense of aesthetics so if it was important to match tweeter to ear they would have done that surely?

At the price level, you'd expect that the height of the drivers was purposefully set - possibly to control floor reflections?

I think it's hard to generalize, as different companies take different approaches (with varying success)....but it's well worth experimenting with.
 

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