I have made an interesting and certainly NOT original discovery. In other threads the 'first watt' gang got me thinking. (danger-danger) Here is what I came up with. I get home late every work nite...like after midnite. I sit down between the speakers, maybe 3 feet in front of the line between them. I can nearly touch the inside edge of them; they are 6 feet apart. With the volume at about 3 clicks from off, the sound is amazing. Full, rich and almost surround. It is like wearing good headphones, without the distraction (for me) It is so quiet that if the refrigerator starts, the listening session is over. If I turn my stereo off at this point, the next morning, with all the normal noises, I can't even hear it.
Anyone else do stuff like this? Would this work in even small rooms?
A little harder to get to work the same with my monitors. I've been wanting to build a couple of low spiked platforms, and put my speakers right on the floor, tipped up....one just to my right, one to my left. I've read of people doing this to great effect but never gave it a go myself yet.
I'm building a couple of new speaker stands this weekend. If I have any extra Corian I might build the platforms and then give it a try. Can't hurt to try it.
Leo, yes, not exactly the same but yes. After everyone is sound asleep I turn the kit back on. It is low levels but everything is clear and crisp. I keep my same seating position, think triangle with the speakers.
A couple of thoughts as to why this works so well.
First, the TV in another part of the house is off as is conversation or anything else.
Second, there is no traffic, airplanes, cars, dog noises and such. Maybe an owl on occasion.
Last and maybe most signficant, power consumption in your grid is way down, leaving you perhaps less flucuations in voltage.
I would love to be able to do something like this. Unfortunately my house is very open concept, with the upstairs overlooking the living room (where my system is). Even at low volumes it would wake up the kids. My next house I would like to set up a dedicated listening room in the basement.
To my understanding, a big advantage of listening to music near field is that it solves a lot of room acoustics problems. When you're that up close and personal, you hear less of the room and more of the speakers. Some speakers are designed to be listened to this way, others are great with it, and some suck at it. Typically speaking, bigger speakers and speakers that need a good amount of spl and space to breathe to sound good (not inefficent) don't pull this off very well. B&W 700 series would fail miserably here.
Small monitors, particularly studio monitors, sound very good near field. Think PMC and Merlin. Not that these won't or can't sound equally good in a regular set up. Another speaker that I've heard near-field on many occasions is the Linn Kan. My local dealer uses a pair in his work/service area to assess components and diagnose problems.