Hi OP,
You may have seen one of my dozen or so suggestions that Audiophiles move their chair so they can hear their speakers up close.
The difference between that and what you hear at the listening position is how the speaker interacts with the room.
I often suggest this as a way for audiophiles to think about whether their problem is before the amp, or after it. The near field listening greatly shifts the amount you hear of direct sound, vs. reverberant. It's analogous to increasing the signal to noise. This is why speaker designers often put microphones 1/4" or less to the drivers, so they can ignore what the room and baffle are doing and get quasi-anechoic measurements.
I find it a very good diagnostic tool for audiophiles who find problems with tonal balance, or warmth or imaging. If the problems go away at the near-field, the issue is acoustics in nature. If the problem remains, we know it's at the speaker or before.
What I want to know is, why does it sound so good this close?
You may have seen one of my dozen or so suggestions that Audiophiles move their chair so they can hear their speakers up close.
The difference between that and what you hear at the listening position is how the speaker interacts with the room.
I often suggest this as a way for audiophiles to think about whether their problem is before the amp, or after it. The near field listening greatly shifts the amount you hear of direct sound, vs. reverberant. It's analogous to increasing the signal to noise. This is why speaker designers often put microphones 1/4" or less to the drivers, so they can ignore what the room and baffle are doing and get quasi-anechoic measurements.
I find it a very good diagnostic tool for audiophiles who find problems with tonal balance, or warmth or imaging. If the problems go away at the near-field, the issue is acoustics in nature. If the problem remains, we know it's at the speaker or before.