Listening out of the Sweet Spot - What Works?

If you have enough money just put a system in every room, its insane but I have seen more than a few Audio Freaks who do just that.....god bless if you can afford it.

Speakers with wide even dispersion across all frequencies will do what you need - the sound maintains correct timbral character and balance even outside of a narrow sweetspot such as in the next room or an alcove. Dynamic range is also critical to be able to convey the range of a real instrument as far as another room...

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.

"Thin"? Yes, I guess you could describe it that way

I did say "thin", didn't I? I meant to say it sounds lightweight. My connection with music has at least as much to do with physically feeling the weight and heft of the music as it does with hearing the notes. When I'm down the hall, and I can no longer feel the music, I lose a big part of the sensory connection, because I have to expend a certain amount of energy to 'extract' the music, as opposed to having it come to me. I have the same difficulty trying to get into a movie when the volume is so low that my effort to hear it circumvents my ability to be absorbed. It's like playing see-saw with a child, if that makes sense.

whether a person mostly listens actively or passively can dramatically change which system setup, and which component options, will in fact best fit the individual's goal.

Exactly! I do wonder; out of the membership here, just how many folks spend more time in the sweet spot listening, as they do listening from various other places. Home theatre would be the exception as it really demands you sit in one spot. I'm betting out of all the time I listen, only about 30% of that time is spent sitting in 'the spot'. The rest of the time is spent in various locations doing various things or just sitting and listening from afar. I find myself listening more to my SS rig when doing other things. Per Howard's experience, outside of the sweet spot, the music my SET provides does not travel well beyond the walls of the listening room. It looses much emotion and impact. Perhaps it is some of the PRAT that is lost. "Thin"? Yes, I guess you could describe it that way. Sit in the sweet spot, and it's all back again.

Marco

Marco,
Yes, that's exactly it, and this is precisely the reason we moved from SET to SS. For the past year, we have not had the time to sit in front of the system and actively listen. But we still want to listen to music. Our 104dB speakers surely don't need more than a few watts to fill the room with music, but the SETs--and we've heard at least 5 of them in our system--sound thin when listening outside the audio room. On the other side of the tube spectrum, higher wattage push/pulls often sound nightclub-ish boomy when outside the room. I'm sure it has much to do with the layout of our place.

Using the higher watt SS amp with a tube preamp proved to be the ticket for us. It fills the entire house with an even pressure of emotionally engaging music. When I can actively sit in the sweet spot, nothing connects quite like that triode sound. But for moving around the house, the SS does the trick.

Great topic, Marco, one that is often ignored when someone asks for a recommendation, or declares component XYZ to be 'the best'. Because whether a person mostly listens actively or passively can dramatically change which system setup, and which component options, will in fact best fit the individual's goal.

but nirvana comes from just digging your stuff and the way it sounds, and most of all, collecting the music that best defines who you are....

Well said. Thanks for that reminder as it is easy to loose track of when you are so focused on the empty part of the glass, or the glass itself (the vehicle for delivery).

Dpac 996 - No kitty Litter. Maybe I need to train our Bullmastiff to use a litter box. Could be a stinky proposition though. How about a litterbox full of Brilliant Pebbles!?!?! How about Cocoa Pebbles, would they work? Maybe I should just stuff the pebbles into my ear canals to maintain phase coherence?

Newbee, my friend...not at all an answer worthy of large flapping elephant ears! Angst certainly factors into the equation when you are dealing with A. Nervosa. I've always been able to work with music playing, direct or indirect, it never seems to be a distraction for me. For my wife, who was trained as a musician, it is impossible (her mind follows the music). I actually get more done with music playing, than I do in silence.

As an addendum, it seems to me that the systems I recall working to greatest effect from a distance, all had some added muscle pushing the music, while those that suffered most when out of the sweet spot have been the lower powered systems of which I am most fond. That fondness seems to end when I leave the "sweet seat", as Newbee so eloquently put it. Perhaps it's just the added energy with which the sound waves are being pushed...or am I showing my complete ignorance in physics here?

GregM -I cannot imagine how careful speaker setup would have anything at all to do with how well the music comes off upstairs (for instance). Your other suggestions are more to the point, IMO. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your version of careful speaker setup as I'd associate that with their abiltiy to image and produce a beliveable soundstage, but not to be convincing from a far. One of the systems I recall (which I still have, but in a different location), was playing solo piano downstairs one day when we had some workmen in the house. One asked if there was a piano downstairs. We have a rather open and 'live' house that is rather small as well.

I also seem to recall a discussion with my friend, Howard (Boa2) where he mentioned that in moving from SET to a rather powerful SS amp in his system that he experienced more enjoyment from the perspective of just walking around, doing work around the house while listening, as opposed to critical listening. The SET system did not engage him as much from another room, and I also have the same experience with my SET system. I'll have to point out this thread to him as I'm sure he could chime in from his own perspective, which I may not be recalling verbatim.

Thanks for the input.

Marco

Here's a dumbo answer! You're no longer listening to all of the soundstaging clues and you are listening just to the music when you are in a nearby room. If your equipment is not matched and optimally set up the angst you experience in not getting that pure holographic sound effect from the sweet seat will destroy the 'music', or even if it is perfectly matched and set up you will just sit and bask in the glory of your systems sound and still not listen to the 'music'.

For some the reduction in high frequency response might also be more reminiscent of live music.

FWIW I used to have a system in my office. It was distracting, not the music, just the 'sound effects' or lack there of. I now listen to my main system a room and a wide hall away and love it so much more.

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.

You have to to ask? Why the biggest jar of MD Brilliant Pebbles near your listening vantage point, of course silly. Don't you know? The molecular structure of the BP vibrates in lockstep with the phase irregularites to make sure the teeny tiny fluctuations (you know the ones that define microdynamics) arrive in pure time and phase coherence within your ear canal. It was so simple. As long as your trusty $200 jar of nice beautiful rocks is within line of site your all set Jax2!!! In my case my cat's litter box rattles at just the right frequencies (yes different mass densities lurk within)..anywho, the sound where my cat hangs out is glorious. I swear Aerosmith is purring (pouring ) out of my speakers

"Listening out of the Sweet Spot - What Works?"
You have to to ask? Why the biggest jar of MD Brilliant Pebbles near your listening vantage point, of course silly. Don't you know? The molecular structure of the BP vibrates in lockstep with the phase irregularites to make sure the teeny tiny fluctuations (you know the ones that define microdynamics) arrive in pure time and phase coherence within your ear canal. It was so simple. As long as your trusty $200 jar of nice beautiful rocks is within line of site your all set Jax2!!! In my case my cat's litter box rattles at just the right frequencies (yes different mass densities lurk within)..anywho, the sound where my cat hangs out is glorious. I swear Aerosmith is puring (pouring ) out of my speakers...

listening to a stereo is a completely different experience from listening to live music.....even listening to a band play in the studio, and then playing the music back through monitors later is totally and tonally different.....when a set of loudspeakers are doing their job, they trigger a reaction that makes you forget all that...you just enjoy them. with the climbing prices of exotic hi end, 2 channel components, we all have weak moments upgrading where we believe can hit some 'ideal' in our listening rooms that captures the 'live' experience.....this fuels the hi end industry, but nirvana comes from just digging your stuff and the way it sounds, and most of all, collecting the music that best defines who you are....