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Speakers for extremely close listening

I am not sure if this can be called "extreme nearfield listening", but I wonder whether some kind of audio bliss is achievable within an extremely narrow space?? I am talking about listening distance of not more than 3 feet (or around 1 meter) from the speakers.

Of course headphones could be an option, but I would rather not having to wear headphones. Just personal preferences.

The listening spot will be at a corner of a small room, with book shelves lining the walls behind and beside it. The speakers will be quite close to the wall -- one feet or less.

I do not have any amp for the speakers yet, but I plan to use some SS integrated amp and with CD as the only source. Due to many factors tubes are out of question for me.

As this will be a third system for me, I would like to keep the budget to be less than $1500 used. This system will mainly be used to play rock, electronica, and vocal pop, as well as post-rock, alternative rock and even metal music. So bass needs to have good impact and deepness.

The speakers will have to be small monitor size. Floor-standing will not do, because the speakers will be put just beyond my working desk.

I have given it a few thoughts. Perhaps you can see if they make sense:

- with such close distance, would a single driver or co-axial driver unit be much more desirable? My gut feeling says a 2-way co-axial driver like the KEF Uni-Q unit may be the best for any achievable imaging.

- also because of the close distance, I think the sensitivity requirement can be relaxed somewhat. So I am considering quite insensitive speakers too.

- since the speakers will be very close to the wall, I think the bass response could be reinforced. Does it mean that speakers with a low-end frequency rolloff at 80Hz or even 100Hz should be OK?

- I am not sure whether a port-reflex or tight cabinet is better?

I would try to do audition if possible, but I would also like to hear what you think about this. At the moment, Dynaudio, B&W, KEF, ATC, Linn, Sonus Faber are some of the brands I am considering.

Thanks
Patrick
payip

Showing 2 responses by sean

sean
6,231 posts
 
Your thoughts on the Kef co-axial design was good thinking. Here are some other design attributes that i would look for in speakers given your intended use:

1) Spacing of drivers should be located very close together i.e. minimal space between them. The farther that the drivers are spaced apart, the more likely that comb filtering will take. Sitting so close to the speakers would make this more evident. You would hear the sound eminate from each driver rather than as a point souce. As such, a widely spaced design wouldn't have time to "blend together" as it would sitting further away from the speaker, producing a less cohesive presentation.

2) Look for a speaker that has smooth bass response with minimal peaking at resonance(s). Due to being both nearfield and factoring in room gain due to close wall proximity AND being in a corner, non-linear bass output would become overpowering rather quickly. Then again, one can somewhat fine-tune "peaky" output in the bass by altering the amount and density of sound damping material in the cabinet.

3) A speaker with limited vertical dispersion may come in handy. This will reduce the tendency for the sound to reflect off of your desk. If you go with such a design ( vertical MTM aka mid-tweeter-mid or "D'Appolito" ), tweeter / ear height becomes more critical.

This approach allows you to use two smaller drivers for better upper midrange response while providing lower mass for quicker transient response. Surface area is not hurt either as you have two drivers sharing the load rather than one larger driver. On top of that, efficiency can be increased by using multiple drivers, power handling can be increased by sharing the load and the amp, if properly designed, should provide measurably more power output into the lower impedance of the multiple drivers.

The wider horizontal dispersion of this type of a design shouldn't provide too much of a problem as the books located on each side of them will act as natural diffusers, especially if you stagger the depths of their bindings here and there.

4) While it would be a matter of personal preference, i would look for something with a soft dome tweeter. The thought of sitting on top of speakers with metal dome's blaring directly in my face already has my ears bleeding...

Hope this helps... Sean
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sean
6,231 posts
 
Payip: Many recording studios and mastering facilities have taken to using "audiophile grade" speakers and left the "commercial grade monitors" behind. The repurcussions that such a move has on the finished product has the makings of an entirely different thread on that subject, so i'll leave that alone.

As far as some of the other comments made, i agree that a single driver or co-axially mounted drivers could work quite well here. As to my suggestion of a small vertical MTM array, even though i suggested multiple drivers, the acoustic center of such a design is actually quite compact. In some cases, it will be smaller than a two way running an 7" or 8" and a dome.

By physically sandwiching the drivers together in a vertical array, the cabinet size is reduced and imaging is improved. If using a dome with two 5 1/4" drivers, the center to center distance from woofer to woofer with the tweeter in the middle would only be about 8" - 10" or so. As you can see, the spacing between drivers is quite limited, so the sound appears to come from one larger driver. Using 6 1/2" drivers would give you a center to center spacing of the woofers of about 10" - 12" or so. The figures quoted take into account various basket sizes on the mid-woofers and that some tweeters use quite a bit bigger faceplates than other designs. While some 1/2" to 1" domes use faceplates as small as 2", others have faceplates that are 4" or larger.

Given that some of the speakers mentioned here use fewer drivers with wider vertical spacing, this type of design for this application is not as far fetched as it sounds. Remember, the wider the spacing between drivers, the further back you have to sit. Sitting appr 3' away from such an array would allow plenty of time & space for the signal to blend together. This is especially true since the two drivers "sandwiching" the tweeter tends to act as a waveguide. This gives us better blending of multiple drivers AND controls the dispersion. Whether or not that you can find something like this that suits your sonic preferences and / or price range may be another matter all-together though. I'm just offering food for thought : ) Sean
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