I can prove your room is bad

Erik wrote:

"The difference between what you hear sitting in front of the speaker like this, and what you hear at your normal location is all in the speaker dispersion and room acoustics."

I can go along with that. 

So if the speaker’s off-axis response is poor, would you expect the room to fix it?

If so, how?

Duke

@erik_squires : "Oh, no, not me. :) That’s why I stated in the OP that the difference is in fact the combination of the room and speaker dispersion."

Thanks for replying; we’re on the same page there.

What I’m getting at is, in my opinion, sometimes the speakers’ off-axis response is either the main culprit or a significant contributor.

As a thought experiment, would an unamplified instrument such as piano or acoustic guitar suck in the same room? Would they significantly benefit from nearfield listening? If not, then perhaps the room is not the primary culprit; perhaps the speakers and/or setup are more at fault.

I'm not AGAINST improving the room's acoustics!!  But I think the room gets blamed for problems which originate in the speaker's off-axis response, and which are therefore difficult to correct via acoustic treatment alone. 

Duke

@erik_squires asked:

" Lets say there is a speaker with good forward and poor off-axis response. How do you suggest an audiophile discover this with no tools but their ears?"

Excellent question!

First, make your best estimate of what frequency region has a problem.

Second, look at the drivers and crossover points to see if there seems to be a correspondence with the problematic frequency region(s). Typically a direct-radiating speaker has extra-wide response at the bottom end of a driver’s frequency range (like at the bottom end of the tweeter’s range), and relatively narrow response at the top end of a driver’s range (like at the top end of the midwoofer’s range, and again at the top end of a dome tweeter’s range). Given that frequency response peaks are more likely to be audible (and objectionable) than frequency response dips, audible off-axis anomalies are most likely to be associated with the bottom end of a driver’s range.

Third, do YOUR suggested test to see if the "predicted" off-axis anomaly disappears in the nearfield.

This isn’t ironclad proof of course, but imo it can add up to an "educated guess".

Finally, here is a way to test the room independent of the speakers: With no music playing, walk from room to room in your house, speaking out loud and listening to the timbre of your voice. It is best to do this when nobody else is around; people tend to get the wrong idea. The other rooms are to give you some baselines; pay particular attention to the timbral quality of your voice in your listening room. IF you hear a timbral skewing which corresponds to the anomaly you hear when your speakers are playing, then the room is at least PART of the problem and may well be the ENTIRE problem. But if your voice sounds good and natural in your listening room, that points to the speakers (or sometimes something else in the signal chain) as the primary culprit.

Duke

" This method does not demonstrate a need for you to improve the room. "

Looking at Ralph’s observation that his speakers sound better at the listening chair through an alternative lens:

Ralph’s Classic Audio T-3 horn loudspeakers generate a spectrally correct reverberant field, which makes a beneficial contribution at the listening chair.

I’m not saying this is the ONLY beneficial thing going on at a normal listening distance in this case, but imo it is one of them.

Duke

Here’s an interesting perspective from acoustician Matt Poes, who does room design and installs acoustic treatments for home audio and professional studios and venues:

"A speaker that has controlled dispersion does basically the same thing you’d expect an acoustic panel to do, but it does a better job.”

Interesting coming from an expert in the field whose commercial interest is in acoustic panel sales, but not in  speaker sales.  [Disclaimer: I have a commercial interest in speaker sales.] 

Duke