We have a large music room (20x30) with a cathedral ceiling and front outside wall angled out at 105 degrees, (typical contemporary) with a tall bank of windows. In order to avoid interaction with the glass, speakers must be placed along short (20FT) axis of room. The room is live (hardwood floors), although we have thick wool 9x12 rug in front of speakers
We would like to use a near field listening configuration, and have several questions:
1. We assume nearfield listening is an attempt at zero interaction with boundaries so that only direct path sound arrives at the ear. Is this the consensus, or have we overlooked something in the definition?
2. Speakers are placed 6 feet from the "back" wall. What is the result of eliminating the back wall from the listening equation?
3. In order to minimize interaction with the floor (the closest boundary) should we worry about carpet on the sides and behind, not just in front of our speakers?
4. Are there a canonical set of rules for spatial optimization in near field set ups?
Guidance from the experienced is much appreciated.
I am especially interested in the observations made in this thread about speaker coherence and near-field listening.
1. Is coherence a function of the spatial field set up by the speaker for low vs. mid+high frequencies? What specifically are you referring to as speaker coherence. My understanding of a pair of coherent sources from physics, does not appear to be relevant here.
2. How do you detect the effects of coherence? One of my test&burn cd's has a listening test for "in phase" vs "out of phase". Is one's ability to distinguish "in phase" vs "out of phase" related to the condition of coherence?
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