Nearfield listening

Listener57,

What vintage are your Clements RT-7s? I bought a pair in about 1985-86 and kept them until about 2000. Mine were the old version that had a complete foam grille wrap from top to bottom. They looked very much like a vandy 2C, only turned sidways (narrow profile toward the front).

Funny, I can't remember why I sold them.......

Enjoy,

TIC

I sit 6.5 to 7 feet away in my listening position. My chair is against the wall behind me and my speakers are roughly 3 feet from the wall in back of them. These are big Mirage bi polars. i like these speakers but feel they are too big for my small room. I'm looking for smaller speakers (not bi polar design like my currents) more suited to a room only 10 feet wide.

I listen near filed with both a set of floor standers and monitors on stands. Sound stage is always better in the near field. A sony engineer who is heavily involved in doing mixing tells me all that is done on monitors in near field. So, apparently that is the sound being produced for the cd. Crazy.

I was using magnepan and put them aside for a new pair of usher 6371's. I like the 6371's much better especially up close. With the magnepans I could never just sit still and listen. I always wanted to keep moving them around but couldn't find the right positioning. This happened in every place I lived in all different types of rooms. Also, with medium to high powered amps. I felt like I was always observing the music from far away vs. being immersed like with the ushers. I guess I just like box speakers better. I did try numerous monitors for close listening but they always seemed too bright with no heft to the sound.

Reubent,
I purchased my pair of Clements RT-7's when there was a small cosmetic upgrade in the '88-'89 era.
Still the basic appearance you mentioned, but with beautiful Zebra Wood top and bottom caps, with an ambience opening in the front of the top cap above the special design ribbon tweeter.
Each relatively tall speaker came with an additional factory supplied heavy metal low stand, allowing for spikes to be between the stand and the floor.
The imaging and overall sound integration I hear is surprisingly fine even when only three feet in front of speakers spaced ten feet apart. I'm usually about four to five feet in front.
I think each listener has his own sense of when an adequate illusion of solid performers in three dimensional space is achieved.
I listen to Spendor LS3/5A's in another room so I am aware of how smaller monitor speakers can optimize the nearfield experience, minus the deeper bass.