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Distance from the front not the rear wall?

What´s the optimun distance from the front wall (lisener seat) to the speakers? A lot has been said about the distance from the speakers to the rear wall, but no much regarding the distance from the lisener seat to the speakers. I ask because my seat is located against the front wall and I wonder if the sound (direct from the speakers and the sound reflected from all surfaces) that hear is "blurred" due to this reflexions. Should I put my seat at the same distance I have placed the speakers from the rear wall? Thanks in advance for your comments.
tiofelon
unsound
7,356 posts
 
IME, with speakers out from nearby walls (especially sidewalls) and absorbing room treatment behind the close wall to the listener, I enjoy better sound than from other arrangements.
peterayer
1,382 posts
 
One has to work with the room he/she has. If it allows for enough space behind the speakers, behind the listener and to the sidewalls, that is great. If it does not, one needs to adjust. Jim Smith just voiced my system in my small to medium sized room. The first thing he did was to locate the listening seat for best and smoothest bass response. In my case, this meant moving the sofa even closer to the rear wall. My ears are now about 12" from the wall behind my head, but that wall is treated with absorption. Bass response, both in extension and smoothness, as well as soundstaging and image focus all improved with deliberate and careful placement of the speakers, the listening seat and specific room treatment.

I think it is very hard to generalize about this stuff. One does want to minimize reflections and give most speaker designs space to breath, but beyond that, each room is different and each system is different, and it will take time and experimentation with placement to optimize the sound in a given room for the most realistic presentation.
shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,491 posts
 

I think it is very hard to generalize about this stuff.

If everyone accepts that speakers are best kept away from reflective surfaces by several feet (ideally 3 or 4 feet or more in order to get an optimal stereo image and soundstage) then according to physics it is a given that the same applies to the listener. (A reflected sound within 5 msec of that of the direct signal from speaker to listener can be created either way: Speaker=>near speaker side Wall=>listener or Speaker=>near listener rear wall=> listener; and in both cases the imaging will not be as precise as without these close reflections)
unsound
7,356 posts
 
Shadorne, I doubt anyone is disagreeing with what you've posted. I think that the use of specific absorbing room treatment can go a long way in adapting to the situation.
hornguys
180 posts
 
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I disagree with your conclusions completely.

As do many others, including the late John Dunlavy.
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