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Hello dear community,

I'm proud to announce that I have treated my room, and got new speakers, as well as a big enough iPad.

[img]https://imgur.com/a/SDwyYuT[/img]

The speakers are mounted on top of the K&M 18810 Keyboard stand and feel a bit shaky.
In the back I stacked 'clothed' basotect material.

I wonder, since I get headache with this new setup, might I need to adjust something?
I read afterwards, that my speakers are too big for that distance.
I alter my distance between 42 and 62 cm.

The manual says, get the Neumann KH 80 instead cause its suited for 50cm min distance, while the Neumann KH120 needs min. 75cm to the listener.

What would you guys change?
I know the acoustic foam pads are kinda bulky and a bit too large somehow even.

Best regards and thanks.

Add: Speakers are currently not able to be moved as they are mounted on the keyboard stand...

Very nice setup! It's screaming for some cable management, though. I like it, and it looks like a fun space!

My first thought:

Those are _really big_ speakers (and probably quite a bit of power in the amp):

. . . If you get headaches, _turn down the volume_ !

. . . Or try playing with "musician's ear plugs", which have a fairly even
. . . loss across the audible frequency range:

https://www.amazon.com/Etymotic-High-Fidelity-Earplugs-Polybag-Packaging/dp/B00RM6Q5HM

Direct links from imgur do not work well.

About the distance, does it sound good to you? If it does, then that is what matters.

What a nice pair of monitors! But.. I think you're losing a lot of stereo field by having them setup so narrow. To follow the triangle rule, you would have to have your head while playing directly above the fallboard and I'm thinking it's not very convenient Buy/build dedicated speaker stands and spread them out

Yes, the monitors angle is definitely wrong. In fact, when you calculate the intersecting point, it should be behind your head, because your head is not zero width, so the ears are at a distance you need to compensate to align with the tweeters.

Also, are you using the most extreme fixing points on the stand?. I have also no less than three of them, and would say there is a further position, but can't check at this moment.

I find most piano original speakers well fit for purpose. If it's too quiet, you turn them up . . .

Ordered new K&M Monitor stands.

The integrated Roland FP-30 sound just sucks compared to PianoTeq. Thats my reason.

A little cable management and you're good to go.

It's hard to judge perspective from the photo, but ... it looks like the speakers are aimed inward too much.

If your head were hovering over the keys at around middle C, the speakers would be "just right".

But if your head is in a normal position on your shoulders, and you're sitting on a bench in front of the keyboard ...
... then I think the speakers should be turned more forward.

You would be getting a lot of direct sound with the placement. It is desirable for monitoring, but for a piano a reverberated sound would be more natural. If you are getting listening fatigue, experiment with speakers forward, angled away, placed as far as your room allows, or a combination of internal speakers and external speakers placed behind.

Hi,

have gotten the stands.

But I feel somehow that the piano is a bit disjuncted from me. I went for around 1 meter distance to me and between the speakers.
Also I got a bit of a headache with for example C5.

On the Neumann KH 120 A, I would have to turn down the Midrange on the right speaker really far to make it bearable. But maybe also I need to get used to the new sound.

I'm currently a bit underwhelmed by the difference in sound quality.

By now I removed the blue BASOTECT things cause they hurt my eye.

Hello,

@nicknameTaken, Those separate monitor stands must be an improvement.

I use similar stands. The poles of the stands are in line with the lowest D# and highest G# of my Roland FP-10, and a little closer to the piano than in your photo (the heart of the poles is 14"/36cm behind the rear end of the keys). I have a 'toe-in' of 15 degrees. With the two-way speakers I use, the point between the woofer and the tweeter is at ear-height.

My experience of connection with the instrument is now rather good. To get more of the fat body of sound that a real upright piano gives, I added four more speakers below keyboard level, though.

For a two-speaker setup, you are close to optimal in my mind. So, if you're still unhappy with the sound, consider different speakers. I tried active (class-D driven) monitors as well and much disliked them for the piano. So I went for old-but-great Onkyo amplifiers and good HiFi bookshelf-type speakers (a mix of new and old Wharfedales, all of them with 5" low/mid drivers) instead.

Hope this gives you some extra hints/ideas.

Cheers and happy optimizations,

HZ

I love it.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

Thank you very much. I love that you love it

Update:

Compared to the Roland-FP30 onboard speakers, the setup sucks acoustically.
The Neumann Speaker cannot reach anywhere near. Probably psycho-acoustic stuff going on.
It doesnt matter where and how I place em.

I have a big acoustical problem with them, they seem totally unforgiving.
I am gonna ship my stuff back. This is kinda sad. And its also one of the reasons I will probably not go for other speakers anytime soon.

The problem is that I would need to invest a lot and move...

I got nauseous listening to the speaker, kinda like out of phase effect...

I just asked somebody that suggested to put speakers in down-firing position so that it could compare.
But maybe I should play with the PianoTeq settings a little more.

Your speaker setup isn’t supposed to be forgiving. They’re supposed to recreate the sound that the developers designed. Now that you can hear what they made its up to you to select the settings that will give you a piano sound that you love.

The ‘unforgiving’ description might be from a couple of different reasons. Try these in order.

1. You are hearing too much of the piano’s Forte sound. Try turning up your volume. This will force you to play more in the mp to mf range on your keyboard. You can also adjust the velocity curve to allow you to play more in the soft range of the piano voice.

2. You are hearing the piano sound from mics that are very close to the strings. (More suited to rock and jazz). Select mic positions further away. (More like a classical concert setting). This will smooth the sound but in a much more natural way than manipulating your speakers.

3. Try some very small tweaks to the EQ. Like salt and pepper on a great dish, this is done ‘to taste’.

4. After doing the above, try adding a little reverb. But do this last.