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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
ieales's avatar
ieales
1,201 posts
 
Skip trying to perfect a grossly inadequate number of speakers (i.e 2) for the ultimate music listening experience and go to 5.2.2 atmos setup powered by a good surround processor and amp. Some very smart guys declared that you need a lot more than 2 channels to make it work and they were not wrong.
Horse puckey.

5.2.2 Atmos is nebulous beyond extreme. One may be enveloped in sound but no-one no-how nowhere gets an image such an engineer captured or created. Listening to well recorded 2 channel music, either actual space or studio synthesized, with good ambience on 5.2.2 is almost nauseating.
djones51
4,947 posts
 
Yes, you need music recorded for immersive sound systems. 
deep_333
1,468 posts
 
@mahgister, Huh? No boasting or fad on my side….Quit the blanket accusations, relax and try to think this through for a minute. All I did was share the results of a 20 year long exploration of what can be achieved with well made electronics and speakers. In fact, it is this 2 channel “purist” notion that is perpetuated in these circles that leads to constant disgruntlement and endless emptying of one’s wallet with vendors who are happy to take your cash.

After one spends an arm and a leg on the best 2 channel gear/speakers money can buy, he will realize that it is only trying to scratch the surface of what a multichannel setup can achieve at a fraction of the cost. This was my reason to throw some cost numbers out there

You can treat your room all day long and keep praying. But, if you want the orchestra to come right home, those 2 speakers are simply not going to cut it. A multichannel setup is also a lot more forgiving for mortals who don’t have the best rooms/treatments in place as well. SCIENCE and research will deliver you the ultimate music listening experience, not this notion of “purism” spread in these circles.

I hope this post save the wallets of some of the 2 channel tail chasing mortals out here. But, if you achieved some miracle with your God like homemade gear and your God like understanding of room acoustics (done the right way apparently!), more power to you. Good luck.
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,190 posts
 
You can treat your room all day long and keep praying. But, if you want the orchestra to come right home, those 2 speakers are simply not going to cut it
First i apologize for my choice of the word "boasting".... I did not wanted to offend you but i did...

Then my complete apology... I am like you a passionate temper...


Second i intervened because your view even if right is not a balanced opinion...

I dont have a God like understanding at all, in fact i am ignorant, but i figure out something that work but which is not taught in audio forum: the Helmholtz method....

I thank you for your passion we all  like that, at least most of us ....  But two opinions are better than one....😁😊😁 If not? Who knows how many people would trash their 2 way system in the river? 

My deepest respects.....
erik_squires OP
16,243 posts
 
Don't get me wrong, there are expensive and cheap seats and, unlike in a lot of audio, you always get what you pay for! :)

What I mean is, the idea that my listening position will no longer convey the location of the performers accurately because of dispersion or phase or timing issues vanishes.  The violin or the singer or the piano sound arrives at my head without the degradation possible by attempting to reconstruct the music via 2 speakers. Or 20 speakers.  The imaging in real life is always correct.
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