What is nearfield listening?

Most none orchestra recordings are mixed using near field speakers very close to the mixing board. Headphone mixing is even worse, yet seems to be done to often. So, there is nothing "normal" about the speaker/room/listener arrangement present. That is one reason that so much of what we are presented with to hear in recordings is pretty bad. It is the reason things like imaging, soundstage, and "air" are often missing.

YEs, good point. NEarfield listening requires tighter co-location of drivers for proper integration/coherency across the audible sound spectrum as Rrog indicated, although that often helps with imaging, soundstage and detail in non/less nearfield listening configurations as well. Proximity of drivers becomes less important geometrically when listening from a more distant location/perspective.

SOund artifacts that require room acoustics and reflected sound to be heard, like imaging, soundstage, and "air" are not a consideration.

I disagree. Imaging, soundstage and air do not require reflected sound. The can be enhanced by reflected sound, but it is not required.

Bill Evans, Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian = nearfield listening at its' best. Of course a little SET action in there will make it as toasty as their three recordings were meant to be. I always move my listening chair a couple of feet closer when these guys are on my rig.

I have tried many configurations in different rooms, and even though my room is 25 feet long and 17 feet wide, I prefer to sit with the speakers along the 17 foot wall, and I sit 9 feet from each speaker. This leaves a lot of space behind me, so there are minimal reflections off the back wall. Is this "nearfield"? It is to me because it takes much of the primary reflections out of the equation. It is easier to set up the speakers and requires little wall treatments at the first reflection. I am curious about the statement that recordings are mixed to "sound their best in a normal room", (implying a large room with reflections?). All of the studio mixing consoles I have seen are in the nearfield. They may be mixed to sound like a large room but the monitors are close to the sound engineer/mixer. How can this be?