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Listening out of the Sweet Spot - What Works?

What factors most contribute to a system's ability to portray a realistic impression of live music when listening from a separate room in the house. I've had some systems that were startlingly live sounding from another room, or even another floor. I've also have had systems that were hair-raising in the sweet spot, but once you were out of the room that same system sounded very hifi and not at all convincing. I wonder what system-specific factors determine how convincing a system is away from the sweet spot. Obviously the space, and inter-relations of spaces within a house or apartment will play some roll, but I have a hunch that the system-specific factors may play an even stronger roll. In general I've found the SS systems I've used to be more convincing from afar, where tube-based systems tend to fall off more sharply when out of the room. There have been exceptions in my experience, but in general this has held true. I am limiting my own observations to more simple acoustic music and not more complex layered music like a symphony performance or rock concert. In those cases I can't think of any systems I've owned that have convincingly created the illusion of a symphony orchestra from a room or two away. Obviously soundstage and scale is not a factor here. Anyone have any thoughts on the subject or experience to share? In turn, where is one's money best invested to create a system that convincingly realistic from other rooms in the house, or outside of the sweet spot?
jax2

Showing 2 responses by gregm

gregm
3,396 posts
 
What factors most contribute to a system's ability to portray a realistic impression of live music when listening from a separate room in the house
No set-up that I've experienced is any approximation to live/ real. Having said that, a realistic portrayal of what is available AT the sweet spot often happens when:
1) Speakers have reasonable or better power response characteristics
2) Speakers have been set up with absolute care and are thereby fully coupled (that's extremely rare) -- that helps propagate the complimentary energy between the spkrs.
3) The Freq extension is acceptable or better from mid-bass downward.
4) Of course, there are some openings between the spkrs room and where you are standing. Otherwise you only hear the low freq.
5) In order to achieve some of the above, you need more than anaemic electronics, etc.
6) The first & second are most important. The rest is useful.
gregm
3,396 posts
 
Marco, no: I don't mean well-positioned speakers image well. That's easy to do. The difficult part is to cuple the two composite sound sources together and, as a couple, inside the room, in such a way as the maximum of energy and information emanates in the best possible relative timing (as correct phase as possible).

Then, the "sounds" correclate with the music. Listening outside the room itself will lose you hi-freq but should still allow you to be tricked into a "they are there, in the other room" situation. Adequate power is a must, as others have noted. Cheers
Cheers.
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