The Best Position To Listen ? . . . You Better Sit Down For This.

Michael Davitt

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Nov 3, 2020
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I believe our group here and maybe even others out there in the real world, may have an interest in utilizing the very best, to enjoy music. We buy the most harmonious equipment we can afford, spend hours adjusting it to the room, search out the best recorded content. We position everything just so, to optimize the experience.

But, have we forgotten something else? I posit . . . What is the very best position to listen ?

This little Golden Thread was prompted by Steve Guttenberg's video ~ " Audiophiles: Do you (ever) listen to music standing up?

My observations which I pose as a coherent group of propositions, I have personally formulated to explain a group of facts or phenomena in the natural world, which I have repeatedly confirmed through experiment or observation.

Declaration:

Music "is" best experienced in a seated position, relaxed, composed and attentive to the enveloping sensation produced by periodic stimulus in the organs of hearing.

Standing ~ No, major loss of tweeter, high frequency dispersion.
Dancing about ~ No, induced fatigue in the lower limbs, shortness of breath
Passed out prone on the floor - No, No, NO I can't remember that aria, no memorable music.
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I take my point of reference from the way I experience "Live Music" that is my touchstone and how I compare everything else.

When I go to Symphony Hall in Boston, considered to be the best in the United States. It is built with brick, steel and plaster along with wooden floorboards. Its' coffered ceiling and numerous statues create irregularity to balance reflecting and absorbing sound, and its shallow balconies prevent any reverberations from becoming muffled. I "sit " back in the 15th through 30th row in the middle. That is my sweet spot. Not too close, not in the balcony. Where the sound is fully developed as it washes over me. This is, for the wont of a better word ... what I want, and aim for at home.

As for you, what is your sweet spot ?


And I don't mean, like my ex, how she enjoyed the Maytag with an unbalanced load.

In life as in all things, I seek balance.

.


Next week:

BEST Noise Canceling Headphones To Jog With ???
*including . . .
MUSIC a therapeutic to heal ~

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MarkusBarkus

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Feb 6, 2021
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...beware of unbalanced loads in all things musical *and*
laundry-related.

Re: best position for audio, I prefer seated. It seems well balanced and offers excellent penetration at all frequencies.

Caveat: seat back should NOT extend above shoulder height. I see pics of beautiful homes and systems, where the listening seat is an Eames chair.

Whaaat? I love my Eames chair, but use if for reading and working on that load balancing issue. It is NOT a good chair for audio...if you want waveforms coming at you from the back or sides.
 
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sbnx

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Mar 28, 2017
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Ideally one would find the optimum location in the room for your ears to hear the smoothest frequency response possible. I suppose this could be seated on the floor or standing but I doubt it. As you move off axis vertically (especially above the tweeter) most speakers have pretty bad response. But no matter where you decide to put your ears the speakers will need to be optimized around that location.
 
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MarkusBarkus

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Feb 6, 2021
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...I agree re: optimization, however I can report I was surprised how good things sounded when I lay flat on my back, mid-way between the speakers, with a blanket and my 10 year old dog. Remarkably satisfying.
 
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Michael Davitt

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Nov 3, 2020
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...I agree re: optimization, however I can report I was surprised how good things sounded when I lay flat on my back, mid-way between the speakers, with a blanket and my 10 year old dog. Remarkably satisfying.
I agree everything sounds better with a dog, I remember quite fondly sharing a turkey sandwich after Thanksgiving, being licked in the face as a lubricious merci beaucoup and a please Sir may I have another. Never had George Frideric Handel's Wassermusik (Water Music) sounded so . . . . intrinsically real !
I recall the canine companionship illuminating the piece giving the nautical theme added depth as never before . . .

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schlager

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May 7, 2015
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Home space audio can't give a very exact illusion of a concert hall of classical music. Reflections and reverb from the home environment is so much different, because the room is so much smaller. Multi channel would be an improvement, because it is possible to control the delay from the surrounding speakers.
 

Kal Rubinson

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May 4, 2010
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Multi channel would be an improvement, because it is possible to control the delay from the surrounding speakers.
Yup. I prefer seated because my system was set up to for the sound from all the speakers to have the same arrival times at my ears. The sofa has a back that is just a bit lower than my shoulders and the wall behind me is >10' away. Standing up is OK but there is a loss of coherence/integration because the arrival times are different. (FWIW, I have not tried standing on the sofa.)
 

schlager

Well-Known Member
May 7, 2015
325
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Denmark
OP asks "What is the very best position to listen ?" If I listen for hours I prefer seated:). Jokes aside, for normal cones and domes I would say that ear height should be approximately between tweeter and midrange, but much depend on listening distance, room size, speaker power response, speaker configuration etc. There is no clear cut only guidelines.

It's also about speaker position. I like the center image to be life like in terms of height, so if the speaker is short, I prefer it raised, so the tweeter is i little above ear height, in the vicinity of 100 - 120 cm (40-48 inch).
 

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