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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

Showing 1 response by donbellphd

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
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