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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
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rauliruegas
13,029 posts
 
Dear @erik_squires  :  "  There’s no concept in my mind of finding a listening location where I have "good imaging" in a live performance. It is all good. "

It's almost all good but not the same, exist differences in between locations/positions.

My choice in a music hall is as close I can if the direct sound of violins are at least at around same level than my ears and seated as close center field as I can. Not that out of the center I don't like  what I'm listening because I like too.

The issue in a live event is that the overall music hall space is truly big with a wider really wider dispersion and direct sound certainly it's not at 2m-3m. from our seat, so things are different that in a home system but even in a live event the sound timing that the sounds arrives to our ears is just critical too.

O ther main and crucial difference is that in a live event exist almost " nothing " but air between the transients and fast harmonics developed between the sound sources/instruments and you.

R.
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rauliruegas
13,029 posts
 
I think that the power and very high dynamics of those transients/harmonics is what permits that almost everywhere can happens what you posted:

""   image within it AND sounds good.  "

Yes, in a live event is almost impossible that at some position/hall location the sound can be really bad. Live and home are two totally different " worlds " for experience MUSIC.

R.
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ieales
1,201 posts
 
Skip trying to perfect a grossly inadequate number of speakers (i.e 2) for the ultimate music listening experience and go to 5.2.2 atmos setup powered by a good surround processor and amp. Some very smart guys declared that you need a lot more than 2 channels to make it work and they were not wrong.
Horse puckey.

5.2.2 Atmos is nebulous beyond extreme. One may be enveloped in sound but no-one no-how nowhere gets an image such an engineer captured or created. Listening to well recorded 2 channel music, either actual space or studio synthesized, with good ambience on 5.2.2 is almost nauseating.
djones51
4,947 posts
 
Yes, you need music recorded for immersive sound systems. 
deep_333
1,305 posts
 
@mahgister, Huh? No boasting or fad on my side….Quit the blanket accusations, relax and try to think this through for a minute. All I did was share the results of a 20 year long exploration of what can be achieved with well made electronics and speakers. In fact, it is this 2 channel “purist” notion that is perpetuated in these circles that leads to constant disgruntlement and endless emptying of one’s wallet with vendors who are happy to take your cash.

After one spends an arm and a leg on the best 2 channel gear/speakers money can buy, he will realize that it is only trying to scratch the surface of what a multichannel setup can achieve at a fraction of the cost. This was my reason to throw some cost numbers out there

You can treat your room all day long and keep praying. But, if you want the orchestra to come right home, those 2 speakers are simply not going to cut it. A multichannel setup is also a lot more forgiving for mortals who don’t have the best rooms/treatments in place as well. SCIENCE and research will deliver you the ultimate music listening experience, not this notion of “purism” spread in these circles.

I hope this post save the wallets of some of the 2 channel tail chasing mortals out here. But, if you achieved some miracle with your God like homemade gear and your God like understanding of room acoustics (done the right way apparently!), more power to you. Good luck.
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