MusicReasonResource
Monitor Placement, Alignment & Listening PositionInteractive
Geometry can make placement and timing assumptions explicit, but it cannot replace measuring a real room or a real playback system.
MusicReasonResourceMonitor Placement, Alignment & Listening Position
Geometry can make a monitoring setup's assumptions explicit: where the speakers sit, where the listener sits, and how far sound travels to reach each ear. It cannot replace measuring a real room or a real playback system, and every calculator in this family says so plainly.
The equilateral triangle is a starting geometry, not a rule
Placing two speakers and the listener at the corners of an equilateral triangle gives both speakers equal distance and equal angle to the listener, a symmetric, neutral baseline.Speaker Placement Explorer and Listening Position Calculator use this as a stated starting comparison, not a claim that it is optimal for every room.
Path-length difference converts directly to a timing offset
This falls directly out of the speed of sound, about 343 meters per second at room temperature. Delay Alignment Calculator uses exactly this conversion to turn a measured or estimated path-length difference into a timing-alignment value.
Inverse-square falloff is an approximation, not a room measurement
Sound Pressure Distance Calculator models only the direct, free-field sound-pressure falloff with distance from a point source. A real room's reflections and reverberation change the level you actually hear, which is exactly why this is stated as an approximation.
Phase alignment is frequency-dependent, timing alignment is not
A fixed time delay translates into a different phase shift at every frequency, which Phase Delay Calculator makes explicit. Aligning two signals in time does not automatically mean they are phase-aligned at every frequency simultaneously.
Placement and room modes are related, separate questions
Where you place a listener also interacts with the room's own low-frequency standing-wave structure, covered separately in Room Modes and Low-Frequency Behavior. Neither calculation substitutes for the other.
Frequently asked questions
Placing two speakers and the listener at the corners of an equilateral triangle is a widely used starting geometry that gives both speakers equal distance and angle to the listener, a symmetric, neutral baseline rather than a guaranteed optimum for every room.
It falls directly out of the speed of sound, about 343 meters per second at room temperature, so sound covers roughly 0.343 meters, or about 1.13 feet, in one millisecond. Delay Alignment Calculator uses this to convert a physical path-length difference directly into a timing offset.
No. It models only the direct, free-field sound-pressure falloff with distance from a point source; a real room's reflections and reverberation change the actual level you hear, which is exactly why this is stated as an approximation, not a room measurement.