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If you don't have a wide sweet spot, are you really an audiophile?

Hi, it’s me, professional audio troll. I’ve been thinking about something as my new home listening room comes together:

The glory of having a wide sweet spot.

We focus far too much on the dentist chair type of listener experience. A sound which is truly superb only in one location. Then we try to optimize everything exactly in that virtual shoebox we keep our heads in. How many of us look for and optimize our listening experience to have a wide sweet spot instead?

I am reminded of listening to the Magico S1 Mk II speakers. While not flawless one thing they do exceptionally well is, in a good room, provide a very good, stable stereo image across almost any reasonable listening location. Revel’s also do this. There’s no sudden feeling of the image clicking when you are exactly equidistant from the two speakers. The image is good and very stable. Even directly in front of one speaker you can still get a sense of what is in the center and opposite sides. You don’t really notice a loss of focus when off axis like you can in so many setups.

Compare and contrast this with the opposite extreme, Sanders' ESL’s, which are OK off axis but when you are sitting in the right spot you suddenly feel like you are wearing headphones. The situation is very binary. You are either in the sweet spot or you are not.

From now on I’m declaring that I’m going all-in on wide-sweet spot listening. Being able to relax on one side of the couch or another, or meander around the house while enjoying great sounding music is a luxury we should all attempt to recreate.
erik_squires
chorus
976 posts
 
I can also (vaguely) recall that the spot one avoided 
incorporates most of letters in sweet.
midareff1
182 posts
 
My sweet spot only needs to be big enough to put my head in.  LOL, you may need an extra wide, I don't.
asvjerry's avatar
asvjerry
4,599 posts
 
*G* My 'sweet spot' is currently out of town, but that's an another story unto herself... ;) *S*

@erik_squires ...you know how Anything posted is subject to 'topic drift'...*mea culpa*beats on chest*....(mine, not yours)

Mho, that's always been my 'issue' with the 'conventional' loudspeaker, the 'roll-off' one experiences when moving off-axis.  Which triggers the 'sweet spot fixation'; great for critical listening ses, not so much for the 'pause for the cause' day2day listening whilst occupied with the 'd2d'...

(Critical listening is when the TT is cued to one's fav disc, or the like....*S*  Everything is lit, and the fav imbibe in hand (or the equivalent), and all one wants is escape into the selection...)

For self, maps, and those of that distraction, Walsh, Ohms, and the other omnis do allow for both.  Yes, omnis are not 'Perfect' in the sense of razor blade reproduction.  To accomplish that, the room must be treated as an essential element of the equation...everything 'just so', to the point of surgical....

Nice if one can do so....most can't, as the sig 'other' will pitch a fit.  Some have noted, ah, 'excising' that source of complaint....

For whatever rationale, most don't want to 'go there'.  It IS pretty extreme, and tends to expensive....;(

The LS-50s' seem to be getting raves....Me, I'd 4chan and sub them, just because I'm 'bent' like that.  Since it's out of my expendable $'s, I'll stand by and keep playing with my diy's...

Cheers 'n jeers, J


erik_squires OP
16,049 posts
 
What you really want is a crossoverless ESL with a 45 degree dispersion angle.


You misspelled line array. :-)
musicaddict
370 posts
 
As always, this is entertaining (thanks, Erik), and merely mildly provocative.

I am starting to wonder if a whole-house Sonus system might satisfy some better? <grin> When I listen to two channel music it is for pleasure and I am not walking around in the room, nor in the rest of the home. Music for that walkabout experience is known as ‘background music’ to me. Fortunately my speakers sound fine from other rooms due to large openings.

When I am listening for pure musical pleasure I want the very best experience. My spouse is not concerned. Having a large mushy sweet spot and losing imaging, etc. seems like a poor trade-off for me.  It’s great to want a large sweet spot, if you use it, and if you have company that can actually appreciate it. But, understand you are not getting the very best your system can offer. It may be the best it can average out to over a large zone though.

(+1 to cymbop, prof, musicfan2349, and wspohn, as I remember…)

I think it comes down to how one uses the audio system. I can enjoy my primary at its best in the living room, or in another room if desired for background. I just don’t move around enough in the living room to want to sacrifice the best sound possible for when I am listening critically.

Finally, I’d say it is easier to argue that the true audiophile is the person who demands the single best audio reproduction his system can give.  And that is not from six different seating positions all over the living room. We know that. It makes me chuckle if we are talking ‘true audiophile’. For me, a fat and wide, non-optimum, sweet spot doesn’t fit the bill.

(Remember Dunlavys? The largest wooden floor-standing headphones on earth.)


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