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If you don't have a wide sweet spot, are you really an audiophile?

Hi, it’s me, professional audio troll. I’ve been thinking about something as my new home listening room comes together:

The glory of having a wide sweet spot.

We focus far too much on the dentist chair type of listener experience. A sound which is truly superb only in one location. Then we try to optimize everything exactly in that virtual shoebox we keep our heads in. How many of us look for and optimize our listening experience to have a wide sweet spot instead?

I am reminded of listening to the Magico S1 Mk II speakers. While not flawless one thing they do exceptionally well is, in a good room, provide a very good, stable stereo image across almost any reasonable listening location. Revel’s also do this. There’s no sudden feeling of the image clicking when you are exactly equidistant from the two speakers. The image is good and very stable. Even directly in front of one speaker you can still get a sense of what is in the center and opposite sides. You don’t really notice a loss of focus when off axis like you can in so many setups.

Compare and contrast this with the opposite extreme, Sanders' ESL’s, which are OK off axis but when you are sitting in the right spot you suddenly feel like you are wearing headphones. The situation is very binary. You are either in the sweet spot or you are not.

From now on I’m declaring that I’m going all-in on wide-sweet spot listening. Being able to relax on one side of the couch or another, or meander around the house while enjoying great sounding music is a luxury we should all attempt to recreate.
erik_squires

Showing 4 responses by musicaddict

musicaddict
382 posts
 
As always, this is entertaining (thanks, Erik), and merely mildly provocative.

I am starting to wonder if a whole-house Sonus system might satisfy some better? <grin> When I listen to two channel music it is for pleasure and I am not walking around in the room, nor in the rest of the home. Music for that walkabout experience is known as ‘background music’ to me. Fortunately my speakers sound fine from other rooms due to large openings.

When I am listening for pure musical pleasure I want the very best experience. My spouse is not concerned. Having a large mushy sweet spot and losing imaging, etc. seems like a poor trade-off for me.  It’s great to want a large sweet spot, if you use it, and if you have company that can actually appreciate it. But, understand you are not getting the very best your system can offer. It may be the best it can average out to over a large zone though.

(+1 to cymbop, prof, musicfan2349, and wspohn, as I remember…)

I think it comes down to how one uses the audio system. I can enjoy my primary at its best in the living room, or in another room if desired for background. I just don’t move around enough in the living room to want to sacrifice the best sound possible for when I am listening critically.

Finally, I’d say it is easier to argue that the true audiophile is the person who demands the single best audio reproduction his system can give.  And that is not from six different seating positions all over the living room. We know that. It makes me chuckle if we are talking ‘true audiophile’. For me, a fat and wide, non-optimum, sweet spot doesn’t fit the bill.

(Remember Dunlavys? The largest wooden floor-standing headphones on earth.)


musicaddict
382 posts
 
quote:       It's my experience that a wide sweet spot never elicits comments like "Joe Pass is sitting RIGHT THERE!"
   Love it. +1


musicaddict
382 posts
 
            A guess tossed out earlier (perhaps too boldly):
"It’s great to want a large sweet spot, if you use it, and if you have company that can actually appreciate it. But, understand you are not getting the very best your system can offer. It may be the best it can average out to over a large zone though."

Thanks ctsooner for sharing, and Richard V for minor validation:

"The only way to make the “sweet spot” larger is to lower resolution and homogenize the signals enough to make the presentation mediocre everywhere. RV"    
musicaddict
382 posts
 
I guess my point is that to me, the true audiophile requires the best his/her system can deliver. Trying to do that for multiple positions means you are going to sacrifice the best. That's okay if that's what you want.

I do not buy into the thought, 'I'm a true audiophile because four people can listen to 97% of what my system can do.' Doesn't work that way for me.  I'll take 1x100%

I've heard MBLs plenty at shows, and the good old Bose 901s of yester-year. I always thought the MBLs were great, if you like that kind of spread out sound. I like a bit more definition, and for a head singing to sound like the size of a head.
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