How sweet is your spot?

[bossfan]

Just relax folks this is about music. Lol My 5.1 system, like most, is set up so the sweet spot is square in the middle about ten feet back from the tv and sound system. I often sit just to the left of the sweet spot on the couch just because it is where I have always sat. Obviously I get a slightly distorted left-side heavy experience when listening to 5.1. But when I am really serious about listening to 5.1, when my wife is away or in bed, I sit in the center spot and I must admit it is quite a different experience. 1 or 2 feet seems to make a big difference!
Just wondering about other members' experiences with finding "the sweet spot" and if they always sit there while watching movies or listening to music?

 

[LuvMyQuad]

My sweet spot is quite narrow. My surrounds are at 90-100 degrees to the front and because of that it even makes a difference if I sit back or hunch forward.

I sit in the sweet spot for any serious listening. Generally that does not include movies.

 

[GOS]

yes, I'm always in the sweet spot, because I only have a single recliner as my room is quite small. I do have another small chair to the left, but sitting there you basically just get a lot of noise as it's left heavy.

 

[jimfisheye]

Medium field here at 6'. 120 deg Ls,Rs

Smaller sweet spot with that! But not stupid small like near field. Surround mixes still need to sound "right" from out of the sweet spot and listening from the next room. Same with stereo.

I thought 120 deg rears was pretty accepted practice. I bet most surround mixes are mixed like that nowadays too. Is anyone still doing 135 deg rears? Does anyone have an opinion around that with any older 4.0 quad mixes?
Less than 120 deg on the rears places them as side speakers. You'd have a sweet spot of like 1/2" or something front to back.

 

[jsulzinger]

The way I judge if I am sitting in the correct position is if the phantom center jumps out at me while listening to a quad recording. If I am seated correctly the phantom center is uncanny.

 

[Hamilton59]

Two and one half square feet.

My La Z Boy rocker/recliner is left of center in our living room and my wife’s is right of center. Her hearing is badly damaged so she uses hearing aids that are bluetooth‘d to stereo outs for the TV. I use Audyssey room correction from my Marantz to setup my speakers. Originally, I configured a large 4’ x 8’ rectangular space that would contain both of our chairs but it turns out that my wife really doesn’t care. So I tried setting up all 8 Audyssey mics positions for about a 2 1/2 square foot space just around my head and I was in sonic bliss! I’ve never heard music sound so good and there’s an almost soft tactile pressure now with the music... I assume it’s because all of the speakers are now tuned/timed to the exact space around my head, vs a larger area.

Now listening from other positions in the room sounds good...but the balance is off. I find it interesting to listen from our couch along the right side of room which puts the rears to your left and the fronts to the right. This really highlights the rear surround mix to me...

 

[proufo]

Horrible. Just a bit of head movement changes noticeably the center location (2-ch).

I believe it has to do at least partly with my speakers being JBL Control V that are meant for near field listening.

I hope eventually I will have the space for larger and better speakers.

 

[jimfisheye]

The way I judge if I am sitting in the correct position is if the phantom center jumps out at me while listening to a quad recording. If I am seated correctly the phantom center is uncanny.

Sometimes I have to get up and go right up to the center speaker to confirm it isn't actually on! That tells me my speaker placement and level calibration are on point.
A tape measure and level go far.

 

[GOS]

Sometimes I have to get up and go right up to the center speaker to confirm it isn't actually on! That tells me my speaker placement and level calibration are on point.
A tape measure and level go far.

For sure, I've done the same thing. It's a great feeling to hear center, go up to the center and NO center.

 

[skherbeck]

My sweet spot is 12 ft from my center and 7 ft from each rear, which are positioned at 90 degrees. My fronts are each 5 ft from the center. My spot is sweetest when my mind is at least 10 ft above my head.

 

[esimms86]

How sweet is your G spot? I'll ask Rosanne Rosanna Danna. Oops, sorry! Never mind!

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Sometimes I have to get up and go right up to the center speaker to confirm it isn't actually on! That tells me my speaker placement and level calibration are on point.
A tape measure and level go far.

Yup, same here, I'm right at 9 feet from my speakers (a little closer for center), but I lose the sweet spot if I move more than about 6 inches from the SS.

 

[Audiowannabee]

For sure, I've done the same thing. It's a great feeling to hear center, go up to the center and NO center.

For sure, I've done the same thing. It's a great feeling to hear center, go up to the center and NO center.

Yep GREAT

 

[ssully]

Medium field here at 6'. 120 deg Ls,Rs

Smaller sweet spot with that! But not stupid small like near field. Surround mixes still need to sound "right" from out of the sweet spot and listening from the next room. Same with stereo.

I thought 120 deg rears was pretty accepted practice. I bet most surround mixes are mixed like that nowadays too. Is anyone still doing 135 deg rears? Does anyone have an opinion around that with any older 4.0 quad mixes?
Less than 120 deg on the rears places them as side speakers. You'd have a sweet spot of like 1/2" or something front to back.

Dolby recommends 90-110 degrees. Mine are @110. I don't find it a problem.

Some have noted that standard multichannel home setups tend to leave a large sonic gap between front and surround speakers. (DPLII addressed this with its 'Panorama' setting, gone now that Dolby has obsoleted PL II in favor of DSU) It has been suggested, for upmixing at least, to try having the surround speakers actually a bit *forward* of the MLP. Obviously this doesn't work for dedicated surround mixes of movies and music.

 

[hobie1dog]

with a 13 x 14 room and 8 speakers in it , and 3600 watts on them.....no such thing as a sweet spot

 

[Jim the Oldbie]

First off: great Subject: header.

I have one of those "yep, he's single - and will probably stay that way" setups:

Room is 12' x 20' w/ 8-1/2' ceiling.
System is set up along the long dimension of the room.
L & R front speaker baffles are 3' out from the front wall, 6-1/2' from either side wall.
Seating (1 loveseat) is ~2' in from the back wall.
No center channel at this time; center is mixed to front L & R @ -3 dB to each.

With very little early side wall reflection, the stereo sound is fantastic. With butt parked in the center of the loveseat, I'm just inside the apex of the equilateral triangle. Soundstage is so wide I still find myself walking over to the surround speakers from time to time to make sure I don't have some pseudo-surround thing engaged.

Unfortunately, what helps the 2-channel setup is actually a hindrance to the surround experience. Since front-to-back is the narrow dimension, the surround speakers are back in the corners as far as they will go, so even though they are the same make & model as the front speakers, they don't sound quite the same. Experimentation w/EQ has been disappointing; will try wall treatment back there next.

This setup also places a limit on the surround angle; mine is about 100°. This works pretty well for movie effects, but with music (especially the old quad mixes), I find myself wishing I could get them further behind me. Fortunately my miniDSP boxes allow me to "pan" the L & R surround channels a little bit toward the center-rear (mono), which helps them to sound less "off to the sides."

(Of course another advantage to the long-wall setup is: more room for a BIG projector screen! I'm just about to upgrade from 84" to 110", woo hoo!! I can't wait...)

 

[bluelightning]

with a 13 x 14 room and 8 speakers in it , and 3600 watts on them.....no such thing as a sweet spot

Bring the whole house down

 

[The56Kid]

My sweet spot is 12 ft from my center and 7 ft from each rear, which are positioned at 90 degrees. My fronts are each 5 ft from the center. My spot is sweetest when my mind is at least 10 ft above my head.

I can dig it, Sean. Going Rasta does seem to take the sweet spot to a whole new level!

 

[Sonik Wiz]

I have one of those "yep, he's single - and will probably stay that way" setups:

Haha good come back! I have one of those "yep he's married with family but lives in the Basement" setups.
When we bought our house I made a deal with my wife that she could do anything with the upper levels without my interfering if I could have the lowest level & do what ever I want. 37 years later it's worked out well.

My basement is divided with utilities workshop on one side & music/movie room on the other side. Dimensions are 13' x 25 on the music/movie side'. Primary speaker set up is the front 2/3 with storage & PC workstation in the rear.

It was partially remodeled when I moved in and the dominant visual focus was a firplace with floor to cieling stone work. In the vertical center was some stone work that I adopted as the lateral center. My front speakers are placed eaually to the side of this referance with 105" in between, middle of speaker to middle of speaker. My center front is flush with my proection screen & both were adjusted so the tweeter is in line with the main front speakers. From there it is 105" to the sweet spot epicenter, straight back not measured diagonal to sweet spot. Many years ago I determined what would be the sweet spot & stuck one of those doughnut paper hole reinforcing thingies stuck to the carpet. It is still there.

The rear speakers are 105" from that spot straight back, that is not a diagonal measurement. So everything is quite equidistant from the sweet spot.

After moving & needing to adjust the speakers one of the things I do is place a mic stand over the carpet marked sweet spot. Then on the front left speaker I place a T square with a laser pointer on top of the cabinet. I rotate until the laser hits the mic stand & repeat for the front left speaker. This way I have good matching on the toe in. Repeat for the rear speakers. Then as a final check I have long had a string attached to the mic stand with a knot in the far end. If all is set up right I can take the end of the string with the knot in it & exactly touch the front baffle on each speaker & it will match. If not, tweak again.

So the sweet spot is pretty sweet ass sweet. Like others there are times I'm listening in stereo or 4 ch & I must get up & check I haven't left a center fill mode on. If only side imaging worked as well.

Right between the rear speakers is a couch. Most visitors gravitate there & as long as you sit int middle with no one (me) on the other side you still get a pretty good sound stage. The fronts contract L/R but now being between the rear L/R speakers you get a very convincing 180" soundfield. Put 2>3 people on the couch & it goes pretty much to crap. But no notices but me.

I have had a blast reading through the extreme variations in room/speaker set ups people have. I'm sure there's some kind of an ISO audio evaluation standards but who does that? What we do have is music lovers adapting & doing their best to maximize audio quality. Even tho everyone's listening set has disadvanteges it will also have it own individual strong points as well. I'm sure I could plop myself down in any of these set ups & have a great listen. Also I might mention what Genestl said elsewhere: when are caught up in the emotions of listening to music so much of the tech trivia disappear because you are paying attention to what really matters. Any corrections or expansion on that Gene , please do so.

 

[marpow]

I have a real good system, well calibrated, measured, etc. I am about 8' back of right, left and center, right and left are toed in slightly.
Rears are left rear 8' in line with my shoulder pointed directly at my left ear, right is the same about 12'.
My room is an L shape which is my biggest disappointment and the reason for the right rear farther out than the left., however with all the highly advanced settings within the equipment, Audessy, correction, Pure direct, etc always sounds great. i like others have wondered about center channel, rears, etc, but I am very familiar with what I am playing and i have two amps with VU meters which of course always tell me the speakers that are working and how much with just a glance, but mostly it sounds so good I can hear very well and quite pleased.
Wish I had a designated listening room, as my wife and I watch TV together in same spot and no plans for a bigger house.