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Near Field Listneing

Hello all!

Aside from the obvious reason of space constraints, are there any other reasons where near field listening/speakers would be preferred versus how one usually listens to music?  IOW, with all things being equal, what would make a listener wish to have a near field setup versus a “traditional” one?

Thanks for any thoughts!

Arvin
128x128arvincastro
arvincastro's avatar
arvincastro OP
119 posts
 
@teajay 

Ah, got it...I didn’t think about eliminating the room as the primary benefit. Completely makes sense, thanks!

Arvin 
arvincastro's avatar
arvincastro OP
119 posts
 
@millercarbon 

Ha...well played, sir!

Arvin
soix
8,656 posts
 
Agree with all points above, but when I tried listening in the near field I lost a sense of openness and space compared to sitting in the far field — guess I was missing some of those room reflections.  I don’t have much by way of room problems, so on balance and in my room I prefer far-field listening, but as always YMMV.  
steakster
1,794 posts
 
Years ago, I listened to a near-field setup with MartinLogan e-stats. Since he lived in an apartment, he wanted to keep the volume down - to avoid disturbing the neighbors.

His solution was to have the speakers face each other about 30" apart with his head in-between - like gigantic headphones. It sounded amazing. A 3D space with notes floating all around - an audio version of a 360° planetarium. It worked because e-stats are a line source. The only deficiency was the deep bass. Still, it was very engaging.
tooblue
1,882 posts
 
Can’t answer your question of why someone would seek a near field setup but can relate my experiences with mine. First off, I have been in the hobby for around 50 years and it seems that due to room restraints I have always had my setup in near field, the system I live with now is an all tube system centered around a pair of Wilson Audio Sophias that are set up in a triangular setup at close to equal distances and there is definitely a sweet spot which is where I sit to listen, with that said I am lucky to have a good friend with the same speakers and equivalent tube gear in a dedicated room that is acoustically tuned and I have to say it is marvelous but when I listen to his system and then go back to mine, I can truthfully say I don’t miss anything and enjoy both systems. I have had the opportunity lately to change my system to a dedicated room and have chose not to because in my mind am getting it all in near field and am at the end of this journey and just want to listen to music without the hassle of trying to set up a room. I realize that I am in the minority on this but am just saying you can get there with near field. Enjoy the music
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