I need a new monitor for my Mac soon and find the curved monitors quite interesting. However, opinions about them seem to vary. I've even read that some people get headaches from them.

Do you use a curved screen or why did you consciously decide against one?

From a sound perspective they’re awful because they create a reflection “beam” that focuses reflections towards the center. I would highly recommend against it. Best monitor for audio is a large TV as far away as possible, preferably against the front wall.

My son has one, and I really don’t like it. Also, rather than get a huge monitor, get two or three, (if you’re graphics card supports three monitors).

Here's a post that has a compendium of links related to my experiences and comments regarding curved displays.

Ultrawide Monitor.

Thanks, will have a look at the thread.

I get their point, but for whatever reason the curved screen makes my damn head spin and I cant look at them (and I work for a display manufacturer). I used to get a similar reaction when Nintendo released the first 3DS handheld system, had to turn the 3D completely off or it made me sick.

I'd still rather have two separate displays instead of one ultra wide where I can keep windows separate and in their own 'field' so to speak. I like to keep them maximized and 'snapped' in place and an ultra wide with its one giant desktop area makes things a little 'messy' for my tastes.

What nonsense are you talking about? Curved monitors are very comfortable to use. It's stupid not to admit it! And the fact that they supposedly have a bad effect on the sound, etc. sounds very funny! I repeat, curved monitors are very convenient and practical to use! Especially when it comes to wide curved monitors. I myself use 34" Xiaomi Mi Curved Gaming Monitor. It's a pleasure to work with this monitor. Before this there were 27 inch 2K monitors.

Many ultrawide displays can emulate two separate monitors. They will look like two separate monitors to the OS and any window you maximize will stay on its separate virtual screen.

Personally I do use a lightly curved monitor but it's just a 27". I find a larger monitor takes up too much space and would actually partially block the monitor speakers due to the small space I use it in.

FancyZones utility

No tricks or utilities needed on Windows 10 - use combination of Windows key + arrow keys to stick program window to the sides or corners.

see if you can get in front of one in a store with internet access and try to do dummy work on the computer. it won't be DAW work, but it should give you some idea of what they are like.

to me, it was so obvious i wouldn't like ultrawide or curved displays for DAW work that i didn't have to buy one to figure that out. a simple in-store demo was all i needed. those types of displays are well-suited for immersive video game playing, which is a huge market. but they aren't for me.

The opinion on curved screens seems to be less clear. That's interesting!
I will probably stick with a "normal" 4k screen.

Today most people would chose a curved monitor. That extra bit of curvature is appreciatively more comfortable on an ultrawide display.

Aircraft detection technology looks good on glossy paper.



but if you see someone who looks like this, they are probably spying on you.

I guess I’m not most people
Curved monitors may be fine for games, but not for DAW ime. I have a 32” monitor I bought a long time ago. If I was buying now, I’d get three 27” widescreens.

I recently bought a 43" monitor and opted for flat.

Works the same for daw or gaming. It's just better ergonomics, and we only live once.

My vision took a small dive at 45 years old. Switching between nieeunf two monitors was painful. Every time I had to readjust my eyes to their different angles, resolutions, contrast to background light etc.
one big curved monitor reduced that eye strain to where it is a non issue.
One big monitor far away sounds better if you can swing that

What nonsense are you talking about? Either you can disprove this bad effect, which has been described (See below), or you got nothing. This is a music forum, in case you missed it.
and

I'd be careful on that and what you wish for depending on your monitoring situation or studio..


a few years ago I did the same at one of my studios,.... as I personally like the 3 monitor setup for work myself, just like being the center monitor being the arrange page or midi editing, the one to the right being for plugins and whatnot, and the left being notes/video/ancillary editing/mixer window etc....

but at home I had 3 24"'s at the time, and that was fine for my setup there, and I didn't really do the math or think that much as just... well...

...when I put 3 27"ers up on the desk, ha, it was just too wide for my personal visual or audio monitoring preference, or setup, even with a relatively deep desk with a full keyboard on it and Moog minitaur/roland boutiques stuff behind that and between the computer keyboard and the monitors..etc....

so the triangle was lost for my normal sitting/at work situation, and hell, my neck got tired from looking left to right lol....

Now, where I'm at, (and it's only temp as traveling), I've got my laptop (with it's screen on), driving a 32" 4 or 5k in front/atop it, and a 27" to the side... and that's plenty.. I don't even use the other 24" much...(it might be 27", have to check), but it's hooked up to my older 5,1 system currently at the moment....

So yeah, like others have mentioned in this thread, I like kinda "compartmentalizing" my workspace monitors for different purposes, and I imagine could deal with software that kinda did same, or adjust to just one larger I imagine...

Curved I am concerned about parabolically changing sound and seems those that know here have the facts on that.. most mastering/mix engineers, or even those others that are just really fastidious, get concerned about flat screens in a room of size, and tend to mount them "down", on an angle as they have tuned their rooms and whatnot... and while I get where they are coming from... I mostly am a writer/producer/performer, and I'll swap the sonics in that regard in order to see what I'm doing... but I would keep it in mind...

I absolutely LOVED my Samsung curved monitor. I was sad when I had to replace it.

I recently bought a Dell S3422DW curved monitor and love it for Cubase!

My open question is ultrawide vs 4k. I prefer ultrawides for everything except for daw where even 3840 x 1600 feels too limiting vertically.

Off-topic side-bar: It's not curved, but the LG 42 C2 OLED has 3840 x 2160. It's not really for use in bright rooms and is actually a TV, that you can use as a monitor. I'm just throwing it out there.

The big question for the topic to me is what kind of monitors could work for an ultra-wide, or even otherwise hideously huge, display? Hanging from the ceiling?
If the negative audio aspects are real, can they be controlled somehow? If not, then head phones might be the only valid companion for this type of display.

OLEDs sound better.

You’re probably right. I also had a 24” as an additional screen until it broke, but haven’t bothered replacing It.

We just released some ridiculous 27" 2K/240Hz OLED for 'gaming' a few months back heh. The regular price on them is $900 a pop. Even with my employee discount, still too damn expensive for tech thats got a finite amount of life in it before the screen burns in heh.

Yeah, I kinda rambled in my above comment, but basically what I meant was, a lot of mix/mastering engineers I know who do it full time and have their own rooms etc, flat (or curved!) reflective surfaces like monitors are bad news.... like throwing a pane of suspended glass or tile hanging in the middle of a treated room is gonna make things bounce differently...

One thing I have noticed however over the years, and granted I got laser keratotomy performed a few years ago and was most likely "over corrected"... is that with superior screens and resolutions then what I was using 10-15-20-25 years ago (and that includes the ole' 21" crt monitors that were 3 feet deep or whatever lol)...

well... I like different screens and real estate in a working scheme/production flow thing... but they don't need to be as "big" anymore... I don't know if it's my improved eyesight for near vision, or the quality, but since then, for example, going from my old 15" 2015-16 MBP (which was top of the line for the time in regards to apple and their screens etc)... I'm using a new MBP m3 max now, and the screen is brilliant. Again, I have a 32" 4 or 5k screen above it, and it is my buddies who is a photographer and is his and uses by 'trade' whatever, so good enough for that.... and as I type, I generally find myself having the MBP screen as the "focus" centralized screen as opposed to the larger one above... as it's just 'better'... (granted, the 32" didn't come out in the last year or whatever but still....)...

In my next location I'm thinking just getting 2 quality 24"'s perhaps, or whatever, I know I will use whatever is at hand or cheaper to some extent...

but this little mbp can drive a lot of monitors without cpu overhead and no fans going etc...

so again, I'm tl/dr'ing here, but I'm not a gamer (or on this system at least), and my priority is just having information easily available and visible without a lot of windows buried at all kinda thing.... and with audio, and not having to be blown away by it in terms of gaming or watching a movie etc, newer tech and better screens seem to have switched the equation a little bit in terms of size vs quality and whatnot... (at least for me....)

Was thinking how cool it would be to replace the control room windows with some form of transparent monitor.