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If you don't have a wide sweet spot, are you really an audiophile?

Hi, it’s me, professional audio troll. I’ve been thinking about something as my new home listening room comes together:

The glory of having a wide sweet spot.

We focus far too much on the dentist chair type of listener experience. A sound which is truly superb only in one location. Then we try to optimize everything exactly in that virtual shoebox we keep our heads in. How many of us look for and optimize our listening experience to have a wide sweet spot instead?

I am reminded of listening to the Magico S1 Mk II speakers. While not flawless one thing they do exceptionally well is, in a good room, provide a very good, stable stereo image across almost any reasonable listening location. Revel’s also do this. There’s no sudden feeling of the image clicking when you are exactly equidistant from the two speakers. The image is good and very stable. Even directly in front of one speaker you can still get a sense of what is in the center and opposite sides. You don’t really notice a loss of focus when off axis like you can in so many setups.

Compare and contrast this with the opposite extreme, Sanders' ESL’s, which are OK off axis but when you are sitting in the right spot you suddenly feel like you are wearing headphones. The situation is very binary. You are either in the sweet spot or you are not.

From now on I’m declaring that I’m going all-in on wide-sweet spot listening. Being able to relax on one side of the couch or another, or meander around the house while enjoying great sounding music is a luxury we should all attempt to recreate.
erik_squires
musicaddict
370 posts
 
            A guess tossed out earlier (perhaps too boldly):
"It’s great to want a large sweet spot, if you use it, and if you have company that can actually appreciate it. But, understand you are not getting the very best your system can offer. It may be the best it can average out to over a large zone though."

Thanks ctsooner for sharing, and Richard V for minor validation:

"The only way to make the “sweet spot” larger is to lower resolution and homogenize the signals enough to make the presentation mediocre everywhere. RV"    
antigrunge2
1,397 posts
 
@musicaddict,@musicaddict,

there is another way: use omnidirectional speakers
ctsooner
2,480 posts
 

 Like Richard Vandersteen said, most narrow baffle speakers have good off axis radiation patterns so using an omnidirectional speaker is one way to diffuse the direct sound with reflected sound (homogenization) for a larger “sweet spot” albeit less resolute.



musicaddict
370 posts
 
I guess my point is that to me, the true audiophile requires the best his/her system can deliver. Trying to do that for multiple positions means you are going to sacrifice the best. That's okay if that's what you want.

I do not buy into the thought, 'I'm a true audiophile because four people can listen to 97% of what my system can do.' Doesn't work that way for me.  I'll take 1x100%

I've heard MBLs plenty at shows, and the good old Bose 901s of yester-year. I always thought the MBLs were great, if you like that kind of spread out sound. I like a bit more definition, and for a head singing to sound like the size of a head.
djones51
4,947 posts
 
A lot of these so called true audiophiles think fuses, wires and speakers that have a FR that looks like the snake river provide the best listening experience. Give me a pair of Genelec the ones set up right and you can have a wider sweet spot than the size of your head,  sacrificing nothing.
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