Has anyone ever used open baffle speakers in a Near Field listening environment? I was thinking of getting a pair of custom made open baffle speakers with Audio Nirvana 'Super 12 Cast Frame drivers in them for my secondary system. I'd only be sitting about 6ft away from them and they would only be about 5ft apart. |
Coffeey,
I've been a proponent of 'nearfield listening' for about 30 years...not everyone will pay attention long enough to 'get it'...that being, eliminating room stuff till long after 'first arrival'...but nearfield is absolutely intoxicating.
Also, and off the subject, I wrote this on another post, touting, Renee Olstead...just trying to share the beauty of her voice and music.
01-31-11: Lrsky
Maybe I'm late to the party...but I've got to say that the finest talent, new to me, that I've heard in the past 20 years, is Renee Olstead.
She's just now 22 years old--but if one goes to youtube and watches her "Someone to Watch Over Me", that she performed at the ripe old age of 14...you'll hear someone who's voice sounds, angelic, beautiful, well seasoned and just beyond imagination. (Feel like Rod Serling with that one).
WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW.
She has two albums--I have both, and they're hypnotic--she takes ownership of every song she sings...they are hers once you've heard her sing them.
"A once in a generation or two, or three, voice!"
Larry |
I'm 5 feet away from bigger Clements speakers 207 d i's and they are killer sounding and not in your face at all ,Some of the best i have have had with my stereo. |
Try ATC monitors. The models 11, 19 and 20s work great. |
I listened to about 6 ft away on my main system ( Dunlavy V ) and about 5 ft for bedroom/study system (Dunlavy IV). My primary goal is to avoid room reflections. Works great. |
I had the opportunity to hear the Harbeth M40s at a true nearfield, (about three feet away, and 5 feet apart) in an acoustically treated room. Matching REL Stadium 111's, tube amplification, state of the art turntable ( sorry, I don't recollect more specifics ). Let me just say it was a transformative aural experience. As big as they were, when I closed my eyes those M40s just disappeared! I could almost reach out and touch the musicians as they played. Startlingly real 3D sound stage. I never knew what can be achieved with really high end equipment in a prepared environment. But my listening and my goals in approaching my sonic ideal are forever changed. I may never get there at home on my budget, but at least I now know what to aim for. As we can all tell by reading the great information available at A-gon, there are many different ways to get to our own musical Nirvana. The fun is in the quest. And I surely will try to get to that Promised Land.Thanks to A-gon for providing this great forum. |
Robr45,
Phil Clements is still making speakers under both the Clements, and Solus names.
His company website, Solusaudio.com, shows one of the Solus architectural in wall/ceiling designs retaining his ribbon tweeter.
Not sure if his patented bass loading technique is still a current design feature in any of his current box speakers. |
Reubent,Listener57;
Those Clements are awesome speakers. I remember a local hifi shop growing up carried them. What ever happened to Clements? |
Reubent,
I purchased my pair of Clements RT-7's when there was a small cosmetic upgrade in the '88-'89 era.
Still the basic appearance you mentioned, but with beautiful Zebra Wood top and bottom caps, with an ambience opening in the front of the top cap above the special design ribbon tweeter.
Each relatively tall speaker came with an additional factory supplied heavy metal low stand, allowing for spikes to be between the stand and the floor.
The imaging and overall sound integration I hear is surprisingly fine even when only three feet in front of speakers spaced ten feet apart. I'm usually about four to five feet in front.
I think each listener has his own sense of when an adequate illusion of solid performers in three dimensional space is achieved.
I listen to Spendor LS3/5A's in another room so I am aware of how smaller monitor speakers can optimize the nearfield experience, minus the deeper bass. |
I was using magnepan and put them aside for a new pair of usher 6371's. I like the 6371's much better especially up close. With the magnepans I could never just sit still and listen. I always wanted to keep moving them around but couldn't find the right positioning. This happened in every place I lived in all different types of rooms. Also, with medium to high powered amps. I felt like I was always observing the music from far away vs. being immersed like with the ushers. I guess I just like box speakers better. I did try numerous monitors for close listening but they always seemed too bright with no heft to the sound. |
I listen near filed with both a set of floor standers and monitors on stands. Sound stage is always better in the near field. A sony engineer who is heavily involved in doing mixing tells me all that is done on monitors in near field. So, apparently that is the sound being produced for the cd. Crazy. |
I sit 6.5 to 7 feet away in my listening position. My chair is against the wall behind me and my speakers are roughly 3 feet from the wall in back of them. These are big Mirage bi polars. i like these speakers but feel they are too big for my small room. I'm looking for smaller speakers (not bi polar design like my currents) more suited to a room only 10 feet wide. |
Listener57,
What vintage are your Clements RT-7s? I bought a pair in about 1985-86 and kept them until about 2000. Mine were the old version that had a complete foam grille wrap from top to bottom. They looked very much like a vandy 2C, only turned sidways (narrow profile toward the front).
Funny, I can't remember why I sold them.......
Enjoy,
TIC |
6 feet is not near-field and not quite far-field. The main reason to use big speakers is to get accurate bass reproduction and to achieve realistic higher SPL levels and a more natural presentation (think headphones most unnatural as no reverberant field and small near-fields as in between and large speakers in far-field as most natural sounding balance between primary and reverberant sound).
The main reason to sit near-field is to hear more primary signal and less room reflected response. Studios will often mix on near-fields (for precise mix decisions) and then use main monitors in far field for bass checks and to impress clients. |
Silverline Sonatinas work great for me in nearfield with 9 watts/side. |
Same here. I'm at about 6ft. from the speakers. |
Based on Onhwy61's corrected definition, I don't listen in the nearfield, it's around 5-6 ft. |
I sit 7 ft from my 3 way front horn using 8 15in woofers in vert array 4 per front horn with comp mid horn and comp tweeter horns. Design integrated seemlessly even as close as 6ft away. ea is 350lbs ea. 6ft-h,46in-w,38in-d. Most large loudspeakers dont do well in nearfield or sudo nearfield like my set up. Since I design loudspeakers if I want large loudspeakers for small room close listening I can design construct my own.Nice thing about DIY or having loudspeakers custom built is one can have a near perfect match to room system budgets or listening preferance. |
Most large speakers are not designed to be listened to in a near field setup. The spectral balance will be incorrect and the overall coherence will be non-optimal. In a multiway speaker the drivers need a certain minimum distance for their soundwaves to correctly overlap.
BTW, near field is more correctly defined as listening within 3 ft. of the loudspeaker. It originated in pro studios with the speakers being placed atop the mixing console. The speakers were always either single driver or two way designs. |
I listen to Clements RT-7's in the nearfield. |
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Yes, I use Reimer Wind River GS in the nearfield. |
about 6ft. or closer from the speakers. |
Please define nearfield listening. |
I use Gallo Reference 2's for nearfield listening. |
