Listening distance

I chimed in with the 83% formula on the last thread not as a rule but as something that has worked for me in several past set ups and is providing good results in my current listening room and system. Interestingly, I was at a friends yesterday and we installed some outriggers on his PSB Synchrony One's. I brought along Jim Smith's "Get Better Sound" and explained to him how the 83% formula was designed to work and that he may want to consider moving his listening position accordingly. We put the outriggers on the speakers and did some listening in the usual location--with the speakers 86" apart and a ear to speaker distance of approximately 14 feet. We had already calculated the "correct" listening distance using the 83% formula (I believe it was around 103") and had made a mark on the carpet at this spot. We listened to several tracks in the original position and then moved the chair forward to the 103" mark. The effect was quite pronouced. The sound became much more present, evenly balanced and coherent when listening from the closer position. We both moved back and forth a few times to experiment and confirmed that the sound was noticably better using the 83% formula. The funny thing about all this was that my friends 22 year old son has always moved the furniture around to sit in the exact spot (103") where the system sounded the best. Dad kept telling him he was sitting too close and needed to move back but the kid insisted on sitting front and center. Sometimes we can learn things from people who are not audiophiles and therefore bring few preconceptions to listening to music via a stereo system. The kid figured out where to sit by trusting his ears!

My understanding is that the crossover design may also impact the preferred listening distance for multiway systems. I think I read somewhere that a 1st order (6db slope) requires more distance for the drivers to sum before reaching the listener than a crossover with steeper slopes.