Nearfield listening - once more

Testing some more with the Audiokinesis Dream Maker floorstanders. They stand ca 5.5 feet from the wall, and 5 from the side walls, toed in ca 40 degrees. They stand 6.7 feet apart, measured from the center of the drivers. My conventional listening position has been ca 8 feet from the middle of the front plane of the speakers. Now, I tried 2 feet away, 3 feet etc in small increments. Large impact on the sound. I found that 2-3 feet was too close. 4-5 was better, more coherent, and with some space and depth also. Although maybe, all in all, 7-8 was best. Not sure yet. Although I don't end up very nearfield, it may be that my listening chair should be closer to the speakers than I have thought.

My last visit to the shop the large Dali Epikore 11 were around 12' apart with the sofa about 6' back, the speaker toe in was extreme to the point that there was only 1 spot to sit, dead center between the 2, but results were special. I agree with a previous poster that nearfield with toe in does reduce boundary effects, but also think individual speaker design will divide results as much as moving speakers from the long wall to the short wall.

The idea that you cannot hear where the sub sound comes from below 120 or something herz is PLAIN WRONG to my ears

The 'magic' frequency is more like 80Hz. To that end, the subs must not make anything above that or they will attract attention to themselves. If you set the crossover to 60Hz the sub will still make some energy above 80Hz. So you have to be careful.

The classic nearfield speaker was the BBC Rogers LS35a. There are a number of manufacturers that have reproduced this speaker and done enhancements- get the 16 Ohm version if you can.

I did a combo experiment one time. What I mean by that is I put some small, wide dispersion speakers at a normal listening distance in a small room. I crossed them over pretty high, about 600 Hz, to some larger ported speakers which were within 1 foot of each ear, off to the sides. Those were attenuated and time delayed to match level with the smaller speakers. The result was that when I sat in the sweet spot right between the bass speakers the bass was very full, rich and smooth, but seemed to be coming from the soundstage in front of me. If I got up from that chair and moved away it sounded like there was virtually no bass in the room. It was really a very compelling sounding arrangement, allowing me to experience solid bass and a soundstage that seemed to fill the room, without much in the way of room interference muddling things up in the lower midrange and bass. It was also good for not bothering other people with bass. One downside was the need to sit fairly still and be well positioned between the bass speakers. Slight movement toward one speaker or the other would cause a rapid change in relative level between the left and right ears.

I think it's time I try repeating this experiment with my current setup.

Interesting experiment asctim ...

I used a foldable wood screen with absorption and diffusive surface as a focusing lens between my ears and the room speakers and walls ...It was not farfield nor nearfield ... I was in my listening position at 9 feet from the speakers...

Astounding... I felt like the best of headphone intimacy  coupled with speakers holographic and  realistic impression...

In some recorded albums the soundstage extended all around me almost behind me ...

But my room was heavily tuned with 100 different resonators ...

After this experience i understood why sound experience is mostly acoustics and psycho-acoustics ... Not taste ...