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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
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
theaudiotweak
2,801 posts
 
Or you can change the spectral balance yourself if you know how to do it and want to try. Commanility in all rooms are they have walls floors and ceilings. You can redirect and use some of this energy that travels these surfaces and redirect a portion to your advantage. Tom
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,318 posts
 
Or: move the couch back into position, and using the regular stands turn the speakers upside down.  See what that sounds like.  Might be horrible, but....
gochurchgo OP
923 posts
 
@erik_squires  excellent. Makes total
sense. I’ll give that a try

@twoleftears  I did try this and it sounded off. These speakers actually screw to the stand and so when upside down seemed bass light. I’ll try it again though.
theaudiotweak
2,801 posts
 
When the speakers are unscrewed from the stand surface they are mechanically decoupled and resolution will suffer. Tom
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