LEDE does anyone subscribe to this?

Danny,

I don't think it's regarded as the right solution here among the pros. It does have its application in the right room with the right speakers and there os no harm in trying. I've heard this concept used with small monitors that were against the wall. The dead end was the speaker end. The listening position was far from the back wall. It was great. Most times though you need to control reflections by making them very random. I like a room filled with lots of stuff. Shelves, bookcases, knick knacks, plants, etc. The more junk in the room the better it will sound. If you like the spartan look you will likely need to be more scientific. My opinions are based on experience with various systems in a couple of different houses always having a dedicated listening room.

Danny,

I also think that LEDE doesn't apply as well to home stereo as it does for studio use. As you mentioned in your post, LEDE was really developed for studio use where the listening is (very) near-field.
I use ASC tube traps & from what I have read & personally experienced in my listening room, the LEDE concept needs to be inverted. The original LEDE says that the speaker end is dead & the listener end is live. From my experience it is should flipped - the speaker end should be live & the listener end should be dead. THIS IS A GENERAL STATEMENT 'cuz neither end is completely live nor completely dead respectively.
What I found to work best w/ tube traps in my room is:
* directly behind speakers, directly to the side of the speakers & directly behind listener should be dead.
* 4 corners of room should be reflective 400Hz & above.
* If you have more traps then the remaining space along the walls should have varying degrees of reflection/absorption for best sound. Here the user needs to tune the trap to his/her listening preferences.
FWIW. YMMV.

LEDE fell out of favor in pro studio because engineers found that mixes did not translate well from one studio to another. If you look at the majority of pop/rock releases you'll see that they were recorded or mixed at several different studios. It is important that the work done at one studio sound substantially the same when taken to another studio. Mixes of songs done at LEDE designed studios failed this important requirement. Also remember that most pro studios use a combination of near field and flush mounted monitors.

Danny,
My dedicated basement listening room is based on the LEDE concept, and the results are superb.The size is 18x14x7.The entire 14ft. back wall behind the speakers (Vandersteen 3a)is covered with a 1" thick foam product similiar to Sonex brand.The corners on the same wall use home made bass traps.Mike Green pillows in all top corners,ASC panels on the first order reflective side areas,and diffuser panels directly opposite the speakers complete the treatments.Speakers sit 30" from the rear wall(measured from front plane)Seating is 36" from rear wall.The overall sound is slightly laid back,but natural,not lacking in detail with zero listening fatigue.The bass traps improved bass response greatly with better definition and dynamics.Use of the Rives set-up cd, and a little tweeking with the eq settings on my Mac C42 preamp dialed everything in just to my taste.Email me for more specifics, and my phone# if you'd like to discuss in greater detail.In my opinion,the LEDE concept can work successfully.The problem is,you have to try it in your specific room and see.This may be difficult/costly to do.
Dennis

I subscribe to the DELE. Basically the LEDE was very good for studios that used it correctly. However, it's not good for home listening and doesn't work particularly when you are not doing nearfield monitoring. However, having a live end behind the speakers, particularly with planars preserves the kinetic energy of the speaker and allows for short reverberation (really reflection in this case) times. Then having a more dead area behind the listener helps relieve the kinetic energy and keep from having longer reverberation/reflection times from coming back to the listener.