Evaluating Speakers from the Side?

[KeithR]

Some have said the sign of a good speaker is that away from the listening position or in an adjacent room that the speakers still sound good. Is this a function of off-axis sound or something else?

 

[Catcher10]

If your speakers are setup such that you have a triangle (equal sides) and the point is your listening spot, then moving your chair or head side to side gives that off axis feeling/sound or off balance. Whether you view that as bad is your call, but I have never heard of judging a speaker from another room not sure I see any point in that.

If you are solely into critical listening then you really want that sweet spot triangle setup IMO.

 

[DaveC]

From another room you're hearing the power response of the speaker or the overall energy produced. However, higher frequencies will fall off faster naturally so it's a real rough approximation that will vary quite a bit in real life. In most speaker designs the highs are more directional and the power response falls off, this is also a justification for using a rear/up-firing tweeter, it evens out the speaker's power response. It's debatable whether this is a benefit and depends on the room and personal preference to a large degree. Most try to compare to what they imagine a live band would sound like or try to decide if they could be fooled into thinking the sound is from a real band.

Away from the listening position (LP) but in the room, in front of speakers and moving away from LP, sound is mostly dependent on speaker design. I see value in achieving a balanced response but there is no speaker in the world that will soundstage as well outside the ideal LP. Overly directional speakers can sound "head in a vise" and speakers with lobing issues may vary off axis more vs a theoretical ideal. IMO people make too big a deal out of this sometimes as you'll be in the LP for critical listening 99% of the time... but otoh smooth off-axis response is also very important, the highs will always fall off but the polar plot should be be smooth.

Edit... Jagged off-axis response caused by combining drivers with different directionality is one of the main components of the "box sound" some complain about. An example is a simple 6" midwoofer and a dome tweeter on a flat baffle, at xo point the tweeter will be very wide dispersion while the woofer will be narrow dispersion. This is why some tweeters are in waveguides instead of a simple flat baffle, so the dispersion patterns of the drivers match and it makes for a smooth polar plot.

 

[Tango]

It is the tone and how the speakers radiate musical energy in the room. When they are there, only a few notes after the needle is dropped anywhere in the room make you realize the system is quiet special. That is because the reproduced tone is quite familiar to what you hear outside the room and you also feel the energy. But It never gonna sound as good as at the listening position where staging can be heard more correctly.

Tang

 

[Folsom]

I hate being tied to the LP. I prefer speakers that have some control, but not completely narrow. And I do think they should sound ok outside of the room. If they sound bad outside of the LP, then they don't sound nearly as good in the LP as they could because you've probably got huge problems with the room, diffraction, etc.

But if you don't mind being tied to the LP, it's not as much of an issue if you like them in the LP. Some speakers power response simply only works in a narrow axis. It can even be rather good, but only in that limited range. I'm not interested in that personally but some people don't care.

 

[Fidach Lad]

I have heard, elsewhere, and have also tried this: putting LS3/5A speakers in the middle of a room and listening from behind. Still brilliant.