How important is speaker position to you?

Warszawa

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Speakers are a piece of furniture you have to live with. Mine should ideally be more central in the room and a bit further from the wall but that would mean them (and the rack) being in the way of the windows and looking a bit daft. That's something I'm not willing to do for a bit of soundstage depth and razor sharp imaging. If that doesn't make me a true audiophile then so be it.
 
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Nativebon

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Equal triangle listening position between speakers and listening position somehow I find less appealing. I fine the triangle Theory somehow lacking in bass depth.

This is not an absolute, but in most cases I seem to prefer longer listening positioning from the speakers. Sounds more 3D to me.
 

tuga

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Equal triangle listening position between speakers and listening position somehow I find less appealing. I fine the triangle Theory somehow lacking in bass depth.

This is not an absolute, but in most cases I seem to prefer longer listening positioning from the speakers. Sounds more 3D to me.

The furter you sit from the speakers the more the direct/reflected sound ratio tilts towards the latter. This impacts the tonal balance and phantom image sharpness in a negative way but increases the sense of envelopment and helps the speakers disapear as sound sources. It also makes the bass sound a bit more reverberant.
You sound like the right good candidate for a pair of Bose 901s if you wish to give them a go:

HK8gImc.jpg
 

Nativebon

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  1. No
The furter you sit from the speakers the more the direct/reflected sound ratio tilts towards the latter. This impacts the tonal balance and phantom image sharpness in a negative way but increases the sense of envelopment and helps the speakers disapear as sound sources. It also makes the bass sound a bit more reverberant.
You sound like the right good candidate for a pair of Bose 901s if you wish to give them a go:

HK8gImc.jpg
Got nothing against Bose speakers but no, they would not be my second choice neither my third.
I don't have to abide to any rules...
But thanks
 

newlash09

Iam deaf at the ears, but way more dumb in between
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I suffer from many OCD's. Sitting exactly in the center is one of them. So that means iam always sitting with a bum each on each of the 2 cushions in the sofa.

So I quickly have to decide which I prefer more : precise imaging or No piles
 

rabski

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I don't think so. Lot's of people enjoy the soundstage effect. @rabski is a huge fan.

I listen mostly to classical but I also enjoy the stereo stage with jazz and other genres.

I'm more than just a fan Ric. To me, it's one of the mainstays of a decent system. The tonal balance, details, etc. need to be correct, but the perception of instrument placement is an absolute 'must' for me.

Obviously on a lot of studio albums it's an artefact, but on live recordings it shouldn't be. Even if it's 'artificial' the recording engineer obviously intended it to be like that, so that's how it ought to be reproduced. I want a system to do better than just sticking the drums and the guitarist in the 'right' place. If I close my eyes, I want the speakers to disappear, the sound to appear to have no point source, and the spatial image to have width, depth and height. I've pretty much got it how I want here. I could do with possibly a bit more depth and height, but there's enough to make it sound 'real'.

What always surprises me is how much the whole chain of the system contributes. Obviously speakers, room and speaker placement are crucial. Yet I've had plenty of amplifiers here that seem to turn 3-D into 2-D, whereas others really open up the image. Worse (non-believers please turn away now), some speaker cables seem to do the same.
 

tackleberry

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Systems do surprise me occasionally, But I’m still not convinced by ((something I hear a lot of) speakers ‘completely disappearing’. I get that speakers/ recordings can take you by surprise but I’m yet to hear anyones speakers disappear.
 

George 47

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I listen to a wide range of music and an image is obviously needed for classical and live music. But it is also really important for rock/pop. For electro the artists spend hours and hours getting the right image, effects and soundscapes (William Orbit, Eno) and some systems throw it away. A lot of recordings are very dense and a system that separates the individual musicians and allows you to hear everyone without destroying the music is a musical step forward. It can't be artificial and overdo it by giving speakers the BBC mid-range dip where you end up with 30 foot pianos.
 

Fullrange

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I like most here seem to enjoy the precise location of instruments within the sound stage.......
Most I think, would agree to some extent the sound stage produced by the amp and speakers is made up in our heads.

A friend of mine was waxing lyrical about his system. Saying the sound stage was amazing and you could hear the guitarists nails hitting the strings. I went around to his house with excitement as I love to hear new systems and sounds...... What a shock. No sound stage and a complete mess of a system.
Who is right? He thought it sounded amazing with a fantastic sound stage. I quizzed him further. He really believed what he thought he heard.
Very interesting. Who is right?
This is a genuine post, please don't spoil it.
 
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rdale

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I listen to a wide range of music and an image is obviously needed for classical and live music. But it is also really important for rock/pop. For electro the artists spend hours and hours getting the right image, effects and soundscapes (William Orbit, Eno) and some systems throw it away. A lot of recordings are very dense and a system that separates the individual musicians and allows you to hear everyone without destroying the music is a musical step forward. It can't be artificial and overdo it by giving speakers the BBC mid-range dip where you end up with 30 foot pianos.
Some systems allow you to hear the different instruments and their timings clearly but they don’t image that well, while other systems might image well at the same time as making the music difficult to follow. So I don’t think good imaging always goes with the system separating the individual musicians.
 

awkwardbydesign

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I like most here seem to enjoy the precise location of instruments within the sound stage.......
Most I think, would agree to some extent the sound stage produced by the amp and speakers is made up in our heads.

A friend of mine was waxing lyrical about his system. Saying the sound stage was amazing and you could hear the guitarists nails hitting the strings. I went around to his house with excitement as I love to hear new systems and sounds...... What a shock. No sound stage and a complete mess of a system.
Who is right? He thought it sounded amazing with a fantastic sound stage. I quizzed him further. He really believed what he thought he heard.
Very interesting. Who is right?
This is a genuine post, please don't spoil it.
We all hear things differently. Some of it is physical (my hearing measured with a peak at 6-8kHz some years ago) and some of it is mental. And it is possible to learn to hear diferently (my music graduate grandson can hear Autotune instantly; I can't), so it's possible you are both right.
PS. Sibilance used to kill me, where some others couldn't hear it at all. MY HF hearing is pretty shot now, though.
 

andrew s

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I listen to mainly classical music and I like to "feel" the acoustic of the venue and be enveloped by the sound field.

This is most obvious when radio 3 goes from a studio presenter to one in the hall where I can hear the change in ambiance. It may be artificial but it works.

Certainly the auditory auditory illusion is in my head but it is dependant on the sound field as it only materialised when I added room treatment that cut down the first reflections. Before that it was always my room acoustic that dominated.

If I close my eyes I can't locate the speakers (although I know where they are) so in that sense they disappear for me.

So yes positioning ++ is very important to me.

When I use iem or headphones the image is inline through my skull between the ears.

Regards Andrew
 

tuga

. . .
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Ricardo
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I like most here seem to enjoy the precise location of instruments within the sound stage.......
Most I think, would agree to some extent the sound stage produced by the amp and speakers is made up in our heads.

A friend of mine was waxing lyrical about his system. Saying the sound stage was amazing and you could hear the guitarists nails hitting the strings. I went around to his house with excitement as I love to hear new systems and sounds...... What a shock. No sound stage and a complete mess of a system.
Who is right? He thought it sounded amazing with a fantastic sound stage. I quizzed him further. He really believed what he thought he heard.
Very interesting. Who is right?
This is a genuine post, please don't spoil it.

Part of the soundstage effect is the result of speakers/room interaction. Maybe his system is your friend's best in his room, and would produce an amazing soundstage in your room, which is after all your reference point.
 

uzzy

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David
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  1. No
I suffer from many OCD's. Sitting exactly in the center is one of them. So that means iam always sitting with a bum each on each of the 2 cushions in the sofa.

So I quickly have to decide which I prefer more : precise imaging or No piles
I just nudge the sofa along a bit so that I do not have the bum split problem
 
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newlash09

Iam deaf at the ears, but way more dumb in between
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Y.Manohar / mike
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I just nudge the sofa along a bit so that I do not have the bum split problem
To try something similar, I think it depends on the bum size, and width of the room :D
 

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