Good question. Don't know the 'scientific' answer.
I have traditionally set up my speakers (of all types) a minimum of 9ft apart and a listening distance of 10 feet, toeing in the speakers to minimize 1st reflection points from the side walls. Sort of got into a rut on this set up and compensated for room induced image shift by moving my listening position a few inches to the right and angling my chair so it pointed between the center and the right speaker.
On a boring, rainy, day I started moving the speakers about and brought them in to about 8ft apart (on speaker centers) and ultimately moved the listening position up to 9 ft. The speakers were pointed straight ahead as opposed to being toed in. Two things occurred. 1) The center image became very sharply focused center image, and I mean very sharply, it wasn't chopped liver before! 2)Apparent depth of image increased substantially, and both improvements came at no loss of stage width.
I called that 'nearfield' as that's about as close as you would want to sit to 4ft high floorstanders with 5 drivers and it seemed to take much of the room effect out of the mid/upper frequencies. I'm still working on it.....
I have traditionally set up my speakers (of all types) a minimum of 9ft apart and a listening distance of 10 feet, toeing in the speakers to minimize 1st reflection points from the side walls. Sort of got into a rut on this set up and compensated for room induced image shift by moving my listening position a few inches to the right and angling my chair so it pointed between the center and the right speaker.
On a boring, rainy, day I started moving the speakers about and brought them in to about 8ft apart (on speaker centers) and ultimately moved the listening position up to 9 ft. The speakers were pointed straight ahead as opposed to being toed in. Two things occurred. 1) The center image became very sharply focused center image, and I mean very sharply, it wasn't chopped liver before! 2)Apparent depth of image increased substantially, and both improvements came at no loss of stage width.
I called that 'nearfield' as that's about as close as you would want to sit to 4ft high floorstanders with 5 drivers and it seemed to take much of the room effect out of the mid/upper frequencies. I'm still working on it.....