What is nearfield listening?


I had someone "in the industry" who some of you have bought products from tell me that nearfield listening doesn't have to do with actual distance from the speakers, that it refers to whether you are sitting inside or outside a 60 degree angle from the speakers.

Secondly, what are the drawbacks to sitting close to your speakers? I figure that there are advantages like being able to pull your speakers far out from back and side walls and also that the listening seat can also be far from the back wall.
128x128b_limo
Okay, I'm a little confused now. On the one hand you stated they don't normally eliminate reflected sound, and then that they use near field techniques to take room acoustics out of the picture.
They will often use nearfield listening techniques (or headphones) to take room acoustics out of the playback picture. Most consumers do not care about soundstage and imaging when listening.
One way to think about near-field listening, sitting 3-5 feet away from your gear.