Floorstanders with a large sweetspot

Yes, agree with PSB for something more conventional that I have heard that also excels. I could probably live with those! From my experience, those still sound best a couple feet out from the walls. Most speakers do, though some are designed to go flush/couple directly to walls and/or corners with perhaps some sacrifice in soundstage depth, which is not a concern for many. Klipschorn is the classic example. Rear ported speakers tend to be designed to do best further from rear walls in general, so probably avoid speakers that are rear ported.

REGA R7s / RS7s

http://www.stereotimes.com/speak022306.shtml
http://www.audioreview.com/cat/speakers/floorstanding-speakers/rega/r7/prd_337424_1594crx.aspx

REGA R9s

www.plurison.com/rega/Test%20Reports/Hifi%20Choice%20R9.pdf

Sorry, the phase cancellation from unequal path-lengths for centrally placed images (as an example) not only sound markedly different off-axis, they MEASURE differently.

IMO, having a wide spot to sit to hear centered images with their ENTIRE FREQUeNCY ENVELOPE INTACT is not possible with stereo, unless there has been a recent break-through in the Laws of Physics.

We will buy time-and-phase-aligned speakers and then sit off axis which is most certainly NOT a phase and time aligned listening position.

Doesn't mean that we can't sit off-axis and enjoy the sound, but it is important to recognize that such sound is a distorted version of the original.

Can still be great fun to listen - I do this when my wife joins me - she gets the sweet spot :)

Hornguys: Do you think speakers vary as to whether they give a more or less satisfying listening experience off axis, or are they all they same, regards the decline in litening quality as one moves from the "sweet spot"?

John

>05-10-12: Andrejb
Looking to place the speakers about 5-10 inches from the rear wall and 1-2 feet from the side walls. As far as the sweetspot goes, I would like something more than just a single seat on a couch.

You'll do better with speakers designed for in-wall use.

Get something which has a real speaker enclosure (flexing dry wall would be bad for the sound) and run a three-way with a small midrange driver.

Triad has some nice designs and will color match the grills to the edcor.