how far do you sit from your speakers?

Shadorn

it's close. Either just above or just below, depending on posture. Early evenings, just above .... later on just below.

I'm well off the back wall nearly 10ft or so. unless you meant due to the chair back being above my head a little bit.

Then you are in an excellent position. The head rest on a recliner will not have much effect if it is soft and rounded. A high back that partly surrounds your head would not be good.

Shadorne

I'm well off the back wall nearly 10ft or so. unless you meant due to the chair back being above my head a little bit.

BTW.. I always cock my ears before listening. I hear better that way and it's fun for friends and family..

A little under 7'. The speakers are a little under 7' apart between the tweeters and over 5' off the front wall.

I'm over 4' off the back wall although there's an open hallway immediately behind my seat.

You want to sit as close as you can with the drivers still integrating because distance reduces their level relative to the reverberant field. 8' out from conventional speakers you may be getting as little as 1/16th of the energy directly from the speakers.

You want both yourself and speakers far away from reflective surfaces so your brain doesn't hear the reflections as part of the direct sound.

My room is 10'x12'. I sit against the back wall (short wall) with the speakers 4' from my ears.

I sit about 1 tot 2 feet from the wall about 8 feet from my speakers. My Speakers are about 8 feet apart. This is the maximum I can reach in my room. My listening room is also my living room. The whole room is about 13 feet wide and about 22feet long. Not ideal but Dutch house tend to be (a lot) smaller then houses in the US. I have have furniture between my speakers. I hop to do something about that though.

My ideal would be speaker about 8 feet apart listening position about 10feet from the tweeters. But I all depends on the speaker room and most importantly the all mighty WAF.

I'd agree that it really depends on the room and system and personal preferences.

Kind of like Lincoln's answer to the query, "how long should a man's legs be?" Lincoln's reply: "Long enough to reach the ground."

I think it has a lot to do with the type of music I prefer, room size, speaker size and maker as to where the speakers sound best. I mostly listen to jazz, blues and rock so my speaker placement is more immediate with an open sound stage that has more width than depth. If I listen more to classical, big band and or parade type music I think I would want a much deeper and wider sound stage because of the size and scale of the music and the complexity is much more involved.

I can also turn my bass cabinet forward or backwards and again for the type of music I listen to I have them forward.

My room size taking away the record rack along the back wall is 19D X 14'7"W X 8'H. I sit 3' from the back wall and 11' from my speaker. The speaker are 2' 8" from the side wall, 4'5" from the back wall and they are 9' apart at the tweeter. I toe them in quite a bit.

As I lay back the chair, or keep it upright, the presentation alters. Noticeably.

Not surprising - when you get close to a wall there is significant variation in sound quality reaching your ears. It is especially noticeable in the bass.

The other effect of reclining is your own ears - unless your pinna is able to rotate like a dog would do (cock an ear and turn it toward the sound)

What's ideal depends upon the specific room and the speaker make/model and can only be determined by expermentation. Jim Smith's book "Get Better Sound" has an excellent procedure for doing this.

The procedure explained in the book worked well for me. I was pleasently surprised by the result.

If you are told one particular seating position is THE position for best sound or even particualrly good sound, will you repair to that scenario even if once done you aren't happy with it?

Theories aren't always applicable or even practical at times. Although there is an immense data base for optimizing sound via speaker placement and seating positions which indeed help out a lot, in the final analysis the main factor is you.

Good to optimum speaker placement addresses only a portion of the issues surrounding the audible presentation. room treatments address the rest. Seating position for 'your' sweet spot will then be pretty easy to determine.

I use a recliner now and my head doesn't rise above it completely, so I'm like sitting close to the back wall, yet I listen in the near field sitting right at or a bit less than the width of the speakers away from them.

As I lay back the chair, or keep it upright, the presentation alters. Noticeably. What's best then? About 2/3 to 3/4 of fully reclined... IMO. But not only am I moving slightly away from or closer towards, the speakers as I lay back the chair, I'm lowering my ears closer to the height of the tweeters as well.

In the end, for me, being able to have the flexibility of minimal vertical and inline movement to and away from the drivers works for me. the changes in the soundfield at any different position are noticeable and I enjoy previewing music from different perspectives with some ease.

I'm sure you'll pick well, your fav spot... but do try several to find out. I think it's kind of like picking out headphones. Find the right neighborhood, then the right street, knock on a few doors and you'll find the house that will suit you best. Good luck and do enjoy.
I've moved me and speakers about so much I had to replace the carpeting and use platforms under my speakers! Now I just move the chair... up & down.

I have soundlab m2's 3 feet off the back wall;10 feet apart and sit 12-13 feet in front of and right in the middle.My back wall is 10 feet behind me and side walls are 8 feet from the listening position.

Some speakers work for near field better than others.I only had them for short time but a pair of Audio physic Sparks were fun since they were narrow florstanders easy to pull up away from wall and then put back.Those "near field" sessions gave up some bass but added to sound stage depth and speaker itself lent itself to doing so easily.Other large speakers or even monitors aren't as easy to move around.But some speakers require different distance from wall which everyone knows but some speakers like studio monitors are designed to listened to up close.But Hartley's rule of thumbs is good starting point before you start moving them around to find optimal placement.Some speakers sound lousy and are difficult set up some aren't.A lot of speakers just snap into focus with small changes in placement.
Chazbo

According to the Wilson Audio Set Up Procedure (WASP), the listening seat should be in the area of 1.2 times the distance between the two speakers. For instance, if the speakers (measured from each tweeter) are 10 feet away from each other, you should consider sitting 12 feet away from each speaker. I hope this helps.

Speakers are (approximately) 6.5' apart and I sit 9' to 9.5' feet away. Speakers are slightly toed-in. These are the general paramaters provided by my speakers manufacturer (Merlin). The wall behind me is approx. 10' away.

Yes you need to be sitting well away from any wall - 2 feet is a minimum - 4 feet or more is best.

I sit 10 - 12 feet away.
A fluffy (as opposed to hard) blanket on the back wall works wonders.
Also, a chair without a headrest is preferable.

I have a few smaller rooms and one larger one. My preference is the larger room where I can sit a good bit back and take things in rather than being more immersed in the sound closer up.

Robert Harley suggests sitting "slightly" farther away from each speaker than the distance between the speakers.

http://www.avguide.com/hifibooks

You could try treating the wall behind you. I suggest panels at least 4" thick. ATS acoustics make cost effective acoustic panels.

My Quatros are a little more than 7' apart and I set a little less than 9' away from each speaker. This is actually what the Audio Perfectionist uses for his Vandersteen 3As, but I started out about 8' away and my Poang chair tends to drift back on the carpet, but the soundstage sounds good at this distance.