Looking For The Perfect Listening Chair

I agree George, an armless chair would not work for me

kach22i said:

Does anyone have experience with the Corona Chair by Poul Volther? It does have a matching ottoman footstool.

Carnal-Knowledge-Jack-Nicholson-Art-Garfunkel-Carol-Kane-1971 – DC's

Link to knock-off with video (below), the woman with book as shown sits lower than Jack Nicholson (above).

The Corona Chair

Replica Poul Volther Corona Chair Comfortable easychair from 1964 Available in soft cashmere or semi-aniline leather Pair with the matching Poul Volther Corona Footstool sold separately POUL VOLTHER CORONA CHAIR An iconic and timeless classic, the celebrated Poul Volther Corona Chair has...

www.stin.com

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The problem I see, is no place to put arms but in own lap.

I really like the red leather Freedom Chair that "RDSChicago" posted a few posts above.

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Put your arms around her

I have reservations about the claims made below. I suspect my elbows would be so far back, that my chest would be puffed out like a peacock, the opposite of slinking back into a recliner.

The concentric shapes on the backrest can also be used as armrests so it balances aesthetic apeal with superb comfort.

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This looks to have been originally designed for easy access to an ashtray. Plus side is if you eat and drink a lot while listening anything missing your mouth is going right for the floor.

That's how I buy my chairs... based on how much food they'll catch that's flying out of my mouth while I'm trying to eat.

Folsom said:

That's how I buy my chairs... based on how much food they'll catch that's flying out of my mouth while I'm trying to eat.

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Chair folds accumulate detritus over time.

For having that much surface area, it looks livable for someone who doesn't fill out a suit. Those with a more tolerant neck and back could find it a comfortable place to wake up a few hours after the last track finished. Jack up there even managed to languidly roll in with an elbow hooked. Ready for a full evening's listening session so long as his iPad gained a pound of silicone wrapping against the inevitable.

Comfort for me usually comes in the form of nothing eclipsing my shoulder blades while also allowing for a compact, narrower than typical width. Stiff straight backed old lady chairs or the Chesterfield sofa a few pages back qualify.

howiebrou said:

To me the most comfortable chair is a Chesterfield sofa with buttoned seats, not cushions. Nice and firm, straight back. High armrests to rest your arms and look great. No soft squishy chairs for me please.
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This is a Hans Wegner shell chair (reproduction) in my listening room.
It has a 350 lb load capacity. I'm about half of that and the width suggests it will be obsolescence proof!

I am both thrilled and embarrassed to make this post. I am thrilled because I finally after all of 60+ years as an audiophile, I realized that I never paid sufficient attention to my listening chair, except for its location for which I regularly use a laser measuring device to insuire equidistance to both spealers for optimum souind staging and phasing.. I also try to do my best listening with my glassess off and never a hat; but somehow I overlooked that my listening chair is a heavily stuffed leather Natuzzi arm chair that the way I sit has a back above my ears. I know the dangers of this causing unwanted reflections in my near field. I even knew to move my equally over stuiffed matching leather ottoman which clearly impacted my bass my response.

But, some how I overlookeed that I was sitting in a very damped position in my chair after spending gobs of money to insure clarity with my electronics. cabling and speakers, only to screw it up within inches of my ears. Steve's getting a new listening chair with a lower back height started my thinking in this area.

Well today my selected new listening chair arrived after weeks of obsessing and fighting the battle betwenn my head and my gut about how much is it okay to spend on a chair now that I am retired. Most of what I liked cost at least $3,500 and up to $6,500. and somehow that was too much, actually next to nothing compared to what I have paid for my bucket list system. I have no cables that cost less than this amount and many that cost up to 4x per meter.

Well while I am resorceful at finding reduced pricing on most of what I buy, I really won on the chair front. I had decided I wanted an Ekornes Stressless chair, after going to a dealer and sitting in one for about 20 minuite. The question is which one, because they have an incredible number of models that are variants of their core design, and each comes in small, medium and large, which impacts the size of the overall chair, (damping influence) as well as the height of the back of the chair (reflected waves).

There are lots of used Ekornes chairs on Ebay and elsewhere, so the price dropped to the $2,500-$3,500 point, but many have been well loved and used because it is so comfortable (that I will probably listen to even more music now), but most showed signs of wear that somehow offended me. Also most of these chairs are heavily stuff and in fact overstuffed versions for audio. So I found on Ebay an Ekornes Mayfair Small that was in good shape and from what I could determine, was succiently narrow to reduce the global damping factor and the back was atleast two inches below my ears when most erect and even better with a small bit of recline.

So I made a lowball offer and paid $1,100.00 plus $200 for shipping, which makes it the cheapest piece of my system by a big margin, and it arrived today. The chair is beaturiful and comfortable as expected, but the impact on the overall room sound, changed dramaticallty because there is so much less damping in my acoustic nearfield. It is too soon for my final assessment. But I can already tell you somethings that I really like. It feels like I am listening on a pedestal with much less floor interactions and the components of each sound are individually more articluate, AND I am listening at slightly lower levels because it sounds more pure.

I am guessing that I will fall asleep in this find tonight!!!

Congratulations, Russ! I have had Ekornes Stressless chairs for years, and I find them extremely comfortable!

Ron Resnick said:

Congratulations, Russ! I have had Ekornes Stressless chairs for years, and I find them extremely comfortable!

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Ron,
BTW, the My Sonic Lzb Signature Platinum is a natural fit with the Bergmann Odin arm. I cannot imagine what it would sound like on the American Sound TT. I lust for it much more than I ever did with the ZYX Optimum.

Kenc said:

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This is a Hans Wegner shell chair (reproduction) in my listening room.
It has a 350 lb load capacity. I'm about half of that and the width suggests it will be obsolescence proof!

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Beautiful. And looks comfortable.

I don’t wish to take this too far off topic, but has anyone found a perfect listening loveseat? My wife likes to listen to music with me sometimes, but when she does she doesn’t like sitting in a separate chair. So I’m trying to find a comfortable “two person” capable seating solution - one ideally without a two seating cushion design, so that when I’m listening alone I’m not sitting on more cracks than are absolutely necessary!

Understood, but does such an audiophile approved seating option exist?

Better late than never.

Ekornes has a number of very nice looking loveseats, but they’re all two cushion jobs.

tony22 said:

I don’t wish to take this too far off topic, but has anyone found a perfect listening loveseat? My wife likes to listen to music with me sometimes, but when she does she doesn’t like sitting in a separate chair. So I’m trying to find a comfortable “two person” capable seating solution - one ideally without a two seating cushion design, so that when I’m listening alone I’m not sitting on more cracks than are absolutely necessary!

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What about a “chair and a half”?

ACHiPo said:

What about a “chair and a half”?

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Hey, that looks pretty nice! Thanks @ACHiPo.

tony22 said:

Ekornes has a number of very nice looking loveseats, but they’re all two cushion jobs.

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I bought a small sofa in my small room that has only one bottom cushion but three cushions for the back. It was hard to find.

Another option is to get a system that does not force you to sit in the dead center with your head in a vice and simply listen to the music a bit off center.

My new system allows me to sit anywhere on the sofa and enjoy the music.

PeterA said:

I bought a small sofa in my small room that has only one bottom cushion but three cushions for the back. It was hard to find.

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Any chance you could share info on this sofa?

PeterA said:

Another option is to get a system that does not force you to sit in the dead center with your head in a vice and simply the music a bit off center.

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As an audiophile who lived with Shahinian speakers for over 30 years, I have a clear understanding of what that positional freedom is all about. Fortunately, my new system - while no longer based on a polyradial speaker - is sufficiently dispersive that this is not a problem. I just enjoy sitting in the middle.