Soffit mounting in control rooms is a non-optimal corruption of half-space mounting

Evidence

In control rooms, it has been common practice for decades to mount the main front monitor loudspeakers in some form of half-space mounting. Eargle (1973) and Mäkivirta and Anet (2001) are examples of advocates of this form of installation. Some rooms, because of the location of the viewing window into the studio, force the loudspeakers to be installed in an overhanging structure placed against the ceiling and with the loudspeaker surface some distance forward of the window and remainder of the wall. In the audio industry this is called soffit mounting, although the word normally has a different meaning. It is a corruption of half-space mounting; consequently, non-optimal boundary interactions may be anticipated. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1500

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains that ‘soffit mounting’ in audio is a corruption of half-space mounting, with the word normally meaning something else.
• CANDY: Fun fact: the audio industry commandeered the word ‘soffit’ for something it technically isn’t.