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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 5 responses by rauliruegas

rauliruegas
13,125 posts
 
Dear @deep_333 : " I choose to move on. "

Yes because your targets/priorities are different.

Oranges has its own characteristics/advantages and disadvantages and apples too but both are way different.
Some of us like more an apple than an orange but this fact does not means that apple ( multichannel. ) is superior to orange ( stereo. ).

The forums as Agon it’s not to see which win and which one beated and you want to win and this is your misunderstood because a forum is a place to share experiences with other gentlemans where those experiences could be or could helps to some one of us and for others gentlemans could helps to confirm what we already know, no one lost and every body ( some way or the other ) win.

Btw, for two way different targets exist two differentiaded solutions: multichannel solution for you and stereo for some of us. That is all about. @ieales posts explain it very well.

R.
rauliruegas
13,125 posts
 
Dear @deep333 : "   go to 5.2.2 atmos setup powered by a good surround processor and amp. Some very smart guys declared that you need a lot more than 2 channels to make it work and they were not wrong.

My 15k multichannel setup beats the living daylights out of 100k+ 2 channel setups i have/had. 2 channel setups will have you chasing your tail forever. "

I think that you are making " universal " statements in two way different sound reproduction room/systems.

A multichannel set up has totally different main targets that a plain stere/two speaker system and because the targets are different in between you can't or I can't said that one of these alternatives is superior to the other one.

You speak for your self and according your sound reproduction priorities and I speak for my self where the main target in my room/system ( is not that the orchestra be in the room. This not even a multichannel can do it, it's just a crazy statement. ) is to stay nearer to the recording nearer to what the recording microphones pick-up and to achieve that in the best way I need to put all type of generated room/system distortions at minimum adding the less audio signal manipulation at all system levels.

My main target precludes/avoids the multichannel alternatives where there is no way to stay nearer to the recording no matters what.

Certainly you have a different target or targets and your multichannel system is not superior to a two speaker system in any way. We can't compare oranges with apples as you did it.

R.
rauliruegas
13,125 posts
 
I think that the power and very high dynamics of those transients/harmonics is what permits that almost everywhere can happens what you posted:

""   image within it AND sounds good.  "

Yes, in a live event is almost impossible that at some position/hall location the sound can be really bad. Live and home are two totally different " worlds " for experience MUSIC.

R.
rauliruegas
13,125 posts
 
Dear @erik_squires  :  "  There’s no concept in my mind of finding a listening location where I have "good imaging" in a live performance. It is all good. "

It's almost all good but not the same, exist differences in between locations/positions.

My choice in a music hall is as close I can if the direct sound of violins are at least at around same level than my ears and seated as close center field as I can. Not that out of the center I don't like  what I'm listening because I like too.

The issue in a live event is that the overall music hall space is truly big with a wider really wider dispersion and direct sound certainly it's not at 2m-3m. from our seat, so things are different that in a home system but even in a live event the sound timing that the sounds arrives to our ears is just critical too.

O ther main and crucial difference is that in a live event exist almost " nothing " but air between the transients and fast harmonics developed between the sound sources/instruments and you.

R.
rauliruegas
13,125 posts
 
Dear @mijostyn : "" I have listened to corrected point source speakers particularly a friends Watt/Puppy JL Audio subwoofer system and dead on center it produces a beautiful miniature image. Move off center and it falls apart as you would expect.
It is sort of the exact opposite of what the OP says, the more noticeable the sweet spot the better the system ""

everything the same your statements are absolutely rigth and one way or the other @audio2design is in agreement with and the @mikem experiences are exactly the same too.

Yes @erik_squires OP is exactly the other way around.

Even in a music hall the specific sweet spot is only one where if we change to the next l/r " chair " things change because that critical timing. We could think that there the sweet spot is wider, certainly not: if we move things will comes different.

Obviously that many of us think different and even I read that a gentleman posted that has two sweet spot positions.
Not me, I have one and only one specific sweet spot position and yes when we have it MUSIC reproduction experiences are just amazing.

That’s why is so important the intrinsical relationship between room treatment, speaker/subs positions and seat position, these overall accurated set up just makes the true differences.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
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