Nearfield listening - once more

Nearfield is a listening configuration that helps take room acoustics out of the equation. As such it serves as a very good reference point for how any system should sound. But fact is the farther from nearfield one listens the more the sound of exactly the same gear will sound different as room acoustics factors in more.

Some speakers are better designed for nearfield than others. A concentric driver design that is also highly directional is best at least in theory.

Sorry if I am a bit slow, answering the many good comments in this thread. Reason; I need some time to adjust my ears back to the music. I get tired listening to the sound. "Is A better than B, or maybe C", and so on.Testing is fine, now and then, but too much does not work for me. However, the discussion has been useful. I have moved my listening chair closer to the speakers, and will get used to this, before I change anything.

I went to the hifi shop to buy a pair of 2 way stand mount speakers for late night low to moderate listening because my big floorstanders needed some volume to really jell. I hung out at the shop a few hours listening, talking to the owners and on my own decided to max the power to my floorstanders instead. With their permission I borrowed a pair of Mc611 power amps to replace my very nice Hegel H590. Low volume listening was transformed!!! detail, dynamics, image specificity, depth, everything just came to life like I've never heard from a large speaker b4. With less than 1 watt i was listening to an effortless presentation. 

I bought and sold a half a dozen used speakers in the $25k(retail)price range and was dissatisfied because low volume listening didn't satisfy for one reason or another. I wouldn't have believed a 600 watt amp would sound different than a 300 watt amp at a half a watt output, and maybe there's more going on than the wpc here, but I've become an advocate for component matching now as the most important thing we can do for our speakers.

Nearfield listening is a fun option to my living room system. Neither is better or worse, just different. My living room is appx 36 x 41 and the nearfield system is in a small 9 x 12 room. Nearfield system uses Snell Kiis and makes a beautiful sound down there.

@chrisoshea - this is my impression too. I am now investigating a much closer to the speakers listening position than I've been used to. Very interesting. Better? Maybe no, my speakers are designed to work with the room. Timbre is better with the speaker and room interaction. Yet detail - or some if it - seems better in the near field. So this is at least a very interesting 'alternative take' on how my speakers sound.