Sweet spot

[microstrip]

The characteristics of sweet spot in stereo have always been a controversial subject in the high-end. Perfect stereo assumes symmetry and central position, but using methods and tricks based in psycho-acoustics audio designers created solutions having a wide sweet spot, preferred by some audiophiles.

My preference has evolved along time - although it is hard to forget the intoxicating experience of listening to point like speakers such as the Quad ESL63 in the near-field (5 feet away from them) I am now ready to accept some compromises to get a somewhat wider sweet spot.

Audio designers and solution creators must manage compromises to please different types of preference, due to audiophile and social needs. If people are interested we can discuss them in this open thread.

I have been moving between speakers that are in extreme positions in the tread subject - the ESL63 (diplolar pont like) and the Soudllab A1Px (ultra large curved panel driven full range) with a long time experience of the Wilson Audio XLF, that is soon returning to my room - my opinions are surely biased by experience with them and , surely by physics and reference text books and articles on the subject.

 

[Kofi Baffour]

directivity control, dispersion pattern evenness (control, narrowing, widening), speaker pair matching, in room bass management to get as smooth of a low-end presentation without nulls are all factors that give a sense of locked in centre image. Also, on axis and toe out angles too.

Reason why competently designed coaxial, horn and baffle speakers that are matched well and in a room that is acoustically not overly compromised always sound locked in with a superb phantom centre. And experiencing that in a studio space is what led me to overhaul my space and be more serious about checking the CEA dataset of my speakers