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How do you listen your system? Front, mid or back

row?. Meaning near field or relatively far field? I find there are advantages in all listening positions.

Near field listening position has its benefits- Clear, intimate, abundant of details, wide soundstage- you can hear a pin drop, Drawbacks could be less perception of whole sound stage/imaging presense and probably less realistic instruments space. In otehrwords, sound is so involving but you are almost in middle amongst the band or orchestra.

Far field has its advantages, You can 'watch' the whole band playing-the parallax is now removed, the soundstage is much more clearer, clear imaging, you can 'see' back of the stage and now you can raise the volume a bit higher. Drawbacks are the sound is not as involving, loss of some details, imaging.

For me, I prefer near field most of the time inspite of some drawbacks.

Conversely, can there be two or more sweet spots for given systen, for same set up?
nilthepill
trelja
3,224 posts
 
Thank you, Distortion.

In all honesty, it's going to be a bit weird, as with the new hardwood floors the room seems more than a bit shouty and forward, just with me talking to my wife. Hopefully, when I move the furniture in over the next week, and put down an 8' X 11' wool rug that will calm down. We're also going to put in drapes, replacing the blinds we have always used.

Hosting an audio group meeting in about 3 weeks, and I have no idea how that is going to sound...
donbellphd
205 posts
 
Trelja,

I've had a couple of well known acousticians (e.g. presidents of the Acoustical Society of America) as colleagues. A common practice both use to get a feeling for the liveness of a room is to clap and listen to the magnitude and decay of the reverberation. It may be quick and dirty, but it is effective. A room with too much reverberation will not image well; too little reverberation is repressive. You want to hear a sharp clap, but have it die quickly.

db
trelja
3,224 posts
 
Thank you for your advice, Don. I appreciate it.

In all honesty, being the typical neurotic audiophile, I have done all of these things already. This is by far the liveliest room I have ever had a system in. But, I don't want to really react until I get the sofa, rugs, drapes, and everything else in there...

As an aside, my daughter and I recently completed building our DIY Room Tunes for the room that houses the main system. We used burlap and long hair carded wool, and due to the fact that the burlap kept breaking needles in the machine, it was 98% sewn by hand. It has had a tremendously positive effect on the sound. The harshness I was experiencing in the presence region, which overrode a lot of the other parts of the spectrum abated, and the mid - upper bass became tighter, punchier, and more focused. I began moving the speakers around, which has really impacted the sound, but have yet to dial it in as we have been busy with the aforementioned home improvement project. Ah, hopefully, soon things will quiet down, and I can get my bearings on the two rooms.
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