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Seating height and bass

So my myriad of other threads seem to have me believing I have a null which explains the lack of low bass at my sitting position.

tonight I pushed the couch out of the room and used a chair instead. Bass was much improved but I realized that with the chair my ears are at tweeter height. Sitting in the couch they are several inches below the tweeter.

i stacked some books to mimic my height when sitting on the now displaced couch and started moving them closer to the speakers. I tried 6 positions starting at where I normally sit (relative to the front wall/back wall) and there were differences. However I moved that chair to the same positions and better bass in each spot (some more than others but all better than the books/couch). 
Anyone else run into this? Bass better when stating vs sitting? I wish I could borrow any pair of stand mount speakers and try this again to see if, what I believe to be poor engineering/stands for aesthetics not performance, is indeed the case. My speakers are on 24” stands but are front ported with a big 4” port at the bottom front raising the drivers up 4”+.
gochurchgo
jzzmusician
156 posts
 
If I remember correctly, most speakers want the tweeter to be positioned at ear height.  That would be step number one. 

The old leather couch in my listening room is 32 1/2 years old.  We bought it when we got married.  When I bought new speakers 2 years ago I spent a lot of time finding the "right" spot.  The problem was I had to sit on a couple of pillows to get my head at the right height.  I clearly made a world of difference, not only in the bass, but everything. 

I bought some sofa risers on Amazon for 20 bucks or so that raised that old couch 4 inches.  I figure I saved at least $1500 or more by not having to buy a new sofa.
Try that first.  And good luck!
theaudiotweak
2,801 posts
 
You can redirect the bass that travels the ceiling and redirect some of it to your listening chair. Tom
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Pierre over at Mapleshade, who has exceptionally good hearing, sez sitting on the floor is usually best. Nobody seems to know why.
theaudiotweak
2,801 posts
 
Play a favorite tune..climb a ladder and as you travel up and down the bass changes. At some step there will be a void. Once you hear that then what do you do with that energy and information. Tom
erik_squires
16,201 posts
 
OP:
Tweeters get darker off-axis. That is, they have the most HF output if you are listening to them directly, and as you go off axis the high frequencies roll off. See figure 6 (yeah, this is lateral, but horizontal should be similar):

https://www.stereophile.com/content/monitor-audio-silver-300-loudspeaker-measurements

As you go off axis, you get more mid (or mid-woofer) and less tweeter.

Ive got a 2-way that I designed to be flat on-axis, but I still like listening a little below the tweeter. Troels Gravesen has also reported similar findings.

Anyway, point is, off axis the speaker’s character changes, and it’s up to you to decide what you like more, but room modes won’t. That is, even if you tilt the speaker the room modes (if any) will remain the same, so this is a way to test if this is truly a room mode issue, or speaker tilt issue.


If truly a room mode issue, highly recommend the Soffit Traps from GIK Acoustics.

Best,

E
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