Some people like Ohm speakers for this reason.
Listening Room
Hello to all,
I think this is a situation many audiophiles find themselves in: That being your listening room is NOT a dedicated room that your expensive audio system resides in. You do NOT have a chair that is perfectly positioned in between speakers to optimize your listening enjoyment. Why? The room simply cannot accommodate a chair in the center or, most likely, your wife and/or significant other will not allow you to place a chair where it's supposed to be when listening.
Having said that, you listen to music from everywhere in the room. How does one go about speaker placement? How do you increase the sound stage? Are some speaker brands better than others when you do not have a dedicated listening room? Thanks for your input.
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You want to minimize toe in and look for speakers with wide sweet spots. Also consider satellite/sub configurations or wall mounted speakers as well. Revel is a reasonably affordable brand that fits this description. Some of the mid-small size JBL monitors may also be good candidates here, especially the models with the butt-cheek horns. |
WHAT??? "wife and/or significant other will not allow you" WTH? I'm always amazed when I see men say things like this. We have very comfortable DR chairs which I move in place after puling my recliner back a little. Then when I/we finish listening session, I move it back where it belongs. |
@jgjg123 is a disturbingly familiar sounding screen name. Could it be? Nooo . . . tell me it isn't. . . Anyway, on the outside chance that this is a serious question, I'd say +1 to @erik_squires for recommending a pair of forgiving speakers.
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Negotiation or bribery. A marriage or relationship requires compromise on both sides. If you are an audiophile then your partner should work with you. Btw, when we moved together she had Ohm speakers, which we happily jettisoned along the way. Listening chair on wheels to move into position. My partner hated the big black boxes in our living room for nearly a couple decades… but she recognized that it was one of my passions. We now have a large house with a large dedicated area for my system. I’m not sure we would have gotten to 38 years had she prohibited me from experiencing the sweet spot.
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Both kids moved to LA after graduation and left all kinds of rooms vacant in the house. Built my wife a killer home office on floor 1. French doors open out to the sun deck, Peleton bike and all her goodies fill her space; room is terrific. I then took over a floor 2 bonus type room where the kids used to entertain friends, sleepovers, gaming stations, etc. I moved my audio systems into that good size room both digital setup and analog/vinyl. Figured it'd be a spot to stash all my gear and if it got messy, well, just close the door. Not the case - I found myself buying all kinds of vintage MCM furniture, art, rugs, and other cool things to surround the space & make the room intimately mine. Even bought a bad-ass chandelier, but havn't hung it yet, lol. Showed my wife how to turn the system on and now she uses the room too when she wants to unwind after a long day or just take a break from her stressful routine. Have even cought her showing off "her husband's music room". So boys, keep your space neat & tight, put a little pride into it and share your music with the person you share everything with anyway. I see some of these pics of guys selling their gear with photos from their listenig chair... some ratty Lay Z-Boy recliner with your gross ass feet in the pic. STOP, if that's all you've got, a $20K system and $50 dollar yard sale chair & frat house furniture, there in lies your problem. Just my opinion... |
think flexible use: In your case, I would plan on how to temporarily move a chair where you want it, just for listening when alone, then back to please the wifey! You get the advantage of a multi-functional space. ................................. My Listening Room is the main room in our small house: one open space, dining/listening one end; living/video other end. other end, spin the two chairs around That end is the small 5.1 video system Windows; daylight; fresh air spring and fall; art; plants. I have friends with dedicated listening rooms, for me they lack ’life’. Prior home: same open setup; prior college days similar long open space (parlor floor in a brownstone, Brooklyn). I listen with the wife, listened with my kids (gave them a proper musical education with music from the 60’s/70’s) they had their friends over, listened, our parties, the kids parties .... big annual picnic, lots of people moving thru the space. In my case, I turn two chairs in the middle around, one direction for listening, other for conversation/video. also, I have flexible alternate toe-in; speaker positioning; listening chairs positioning, I gain a lot of flexibility with my speakers on wheels.
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In the 70s my dad had a great system; huge Bozak speakers, Marantz, MacIntosh, etd. Living/listening room was well treated w heavy wool wall to wall carpet and heavy drapes. Then my Mom bought a canary. That canary loved listening and singing at the top of his lungs to the music. We tried a variety of things, like putting a cover on the carary's cage to no avail. He had to get used to it. |
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If you are a ROON user or have something similar. I use this in my office and it was a revelation compared to analog BALANCE control. If you want something as good as a great 2-channel but do not want to deal with the room then consider the following, (16) RAAL 1995 headphones, Magna and Immanis | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org I have heard both the Magna and Immanis, Both are Incredible. I am going to get the Immanis. I think the listening experience will be as good as my Yamaha NS5000 speakers. Need to get another job to buy this. 😀
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@jgjg123 , JerryG123, is that really you????
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@elliottbnewcombjr - "I see some of these pics of guys selling their gear with photos from their listenig chair... some ratty Lay Z-Boy recliner with their gross ass feet in the pic. STOP! If that's all you've got, a $20K system and $50 dollar yard sale chair & frat house furniture, there in lies your problem." Right on cue... 5200 posts and all |
This dude always aimed at character it seems ... This OP ask a legitimate question... As i did in my last post in another thread , and as i did with the informative posts i send in the bolong thread just week before his "gracious" character pointed his suspecting nose ignoring the post content every time and aiming at the person attack instead.. Will you change behaviour or it is your way of being ? Dont answer... My post only track your history of character attacks...( asvjerry after me and now the OP)
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Sorry you found the question I asked the OP (of this thread) to be offensive, Saint @mahgister , I am genuinely curious as to whether the OP is @jerryg123 . Quite a similar screen name he picked out. No biggy to me one way or the other--just curious. Since you brought it up and referenced it, I noticed that on the other thread (meaning the one you just now referenced) a lot of your truly bat-crap crazy posts have been deleted. What happened? Did you go back and look at them and decide that they really did make you seem unstable? Just asking for a friend who wants to know.
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@acman3 What makes you think that isn't happening now? 🤣 |
I pointed to your repeated insinuation here (2 times) about the OP identity instead of genuine interest in the thread matter as your past behaviour proved it in the Bolong thread and in the solar flare thread ...
The posts were deleted because they were only deconstruction of your lies, accusations, character attacks against me or asvjerry and no more useful. My posts with a content with the thread were kept there ... For sure your insisting identity question about the OP are only "innocuous curiosity" in this case here...Or perhaps an indication about your past behaviour... Now as you harassed me for a year i will observe also your future behaviour ... 😊
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Again, Saint @mahgister , when I saw the similar screen name I was genuinely curious, so I asked, and since I thought OP may have overlooked my question, I simply asked twice. Sorry that this offended you, but to OP's original question, I did say that I agree with @erik_squires , that probably the best one could do in the circumstance described was to use forgiving speakers. Since I have never had a room that was well acoustically treated (meaning my living room in the past and a smaller room in the present), but I have had some sound that satisfied me, I had always felt that my speakers (B&W 805 Matrixes) must be relatively forgiving.
Okay, so you did delete them because in a rare moment of clarity you did realize that they were batcrap crazy. Good for you.
Hopefully I can serve as a positive role model for you; you certainly need one. |
Thanks indeed. Your behaviour here seems to almost return back to respect of others... Even your answers loose sarcastic mockery...😊 I will behave accordingly ...
I answered arguments by arguments... Nowhere i did mock people for months as you did...In the past, it seems if i read you ... Be a model for everyone ... Not just me ... If you disagree with one of my too long post answer with arguments of a rational nature as i did ... 😊 |
bgross huh? when I first posted my virtual system, someone suggested I sell photos of my feet, not give them away free. guess they didn't look too closely, I've had 9 foot surgeries. one of the most comfortable chairs in the world is the Laz Y Boy in my brother's basement!!!!!!!! I would never have one here due to appearance, but |
@mahgister , did I ever begin a post by referring to someone as a "coward liar" or an "idiot" or accuse them of "hatred"? I can only think of one such thread where I may or may not have used insults that were similar (but not the same), and it was quite some time ago; and at the time I was responding to a pot calling what was not a kettle black. With that aside, since you appear to be curious as to why I am (or was) interested in whether the OP of this thread is the persona once known as JerryG123, it is because as I remember him in that form, he was an accomplished audiophile. Meaning that if they are one and the same, this thread is a put on (for I do not know what reason), but I wasn't going to waste my time (which I am doing anyway) relating my experiences trying to extract satisfying sound in an imperfect environment. And it is possible that I am mistaken and that the similarity between jgjg123 and JerryG123 is simply a coincidence. But as Brad Pitt told Michael Fassbender , in the movie The Counselor, about the cartel people (and this may be somewhat of a paraphrase) , "They have heard of coincidences, but they don't believe in them." And I am inclined to feel the same way about this one, but I was simply checking and double checking to be sure. |
Greetings, I have no clue who JerryG123 is and I really don't care. I simply can't believe how a simple question can take so many different paths to answer. I am like most people (I think) who spend time on this site. Just looking for advice and intelligent feedback. Thanks to everyone kind enough to offer suggestions. All is well................. |
I apologise if i had suggested otherwise answering a post suggesting it ..... my best to you ....😊
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Will you harass him then for the next year to come about his alias as you did for me ? I advise you to not do it again as you did with me ...😊 Educated people apologize when someone correct them in a public forum as i just did ... We are not in a Justice court or in a police inquiry here about who is who ...
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Your REPEATED opinion in four posts here now about OP identity without any argument in a case which anyway is not about your business interest no one... Your posts are trolling... As you did in the thread about solar flare against me baiting other as laoman ... Instead of posting RATIONAL content about the thread .. You like me so much i begun to develop a great love for your behaviour ... 😊
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If you don't have to worry about that sweet spot, it may be a great blessing. As far as I'm concerned, the sweet spot with just two speakers ain't so sweet. That's right where comb filtering of center panned sounds is the worst, ruining tone. It never sounds right to me. I went through the first 20 years of my life listening to music and enjoying myself immensely with no concept of the sweet spot. As a kid I was moving around the room all the time, sort of playing and dancing, letting the music romance me and take me on adventures. That stupid sweet spot is a nightmare. I've now got a super complex and unorthodox two channel system all built around trying to get that sweet spot to sound right. |
@jgjg123 Good post - many of use have a dual use room. I tend to agree with @asctim a bit - you don't have to focus on a single location too much. In a music club or concert it is rare to be in a perfect spot. You can still enjoy the music by sitting off center and simply hearing the sound as if you are at a live performance and seated off to the side. In addition, I believe you can adjust your speaker position to relocate your sweet spot to some degree. Your R & L speaker do not have to be the same distance from the back wall and the side walls. My room is not symmetric so my speakers are not mirrored either. |
I have enjoyed listening to my system in various asymmetric settings over the years, and found my favorite listening positions were often nowhere close to the center. I wasn’t paying much attention to imaging. I never used to think about it much but somewhere along the way got pulled in to trying to get perfect imaging at that perfect spot. It can be quite impressive, but too much focus on it can ruin one’s ability to just sit back and enjoy the tunes. I’ve got what I think is a very good sounding sweet spot now, but I have to laugh at myself just a little when I consider what I’ve gone through to make it work for me. When I’m at trade shows, I preferentially sit off to the side. If there's ever a demo of something like BACCH or multi channel with a center speaker I'll give the sweet spot a try to see if they've got it working any better than I do.
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Some people got what they got, and will never own a home with dedicated room. Especially now in this abysmal economy with sky high prices and 7 & 8 % interest rates. In fact, there are very few people buying much of anything right now, judging from ebay sales of late. People have very little expendable income. My room is not dedicated in any way shape or form, but I'm happy with my systems sound. It's not perfect, but it does not have to be to just enjoy the music. Luckily, I have a sweet spot on my large leather sectional couch. Coffee table on wheels, but seldom move it, don't notice much difference with table removed or present. I still count myself as blessed to have what I do have. |
We bought our house in '91 (the Bush recession) and the rate was 8% and everyone tld me we did good.
You must not be living in the same world I am, @audioguy85 .
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First, I am not trying to be combative (others others on this post already have that part covered). I am just curious and confused how any room can't be configured in some way that it allows for a sweet spot of some sort. Either permanent or repositionable. Surely there must be some sort of compromise to be worked out with whomever is pushing back on this. That being said, I apologize if this is a sore spot and I am being jerkish.
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