I have a pair of Dali Spector 1. They're very small. I listen to them in the near field and it's great. I have them so close, I can close my eyes and move them to look for the sound I want. And another thing that is fantastic is you don't need to listen at high levels to get a lot of details.

Ahhhh, but near field listening with smaller bookshelves is glorious! Not very social, but glorious!

Great episode Andrew. Listening to my awesome M5HP’s at a distance with my Axiom subs in the corners.

I listen to music while working at the computer. On the desk, there are Dynaudio Special 40 speakers on the IsoAsoustics Aperta stands. The distance between them and me is approx. 110 cm. The columns disappear, the scene is clearly outlined, virtual sources are very well located. Probably with a wider setting and a greater distance to the listener, one could get better results, but I only have such conditions and I am satisfied with the results. Everyone on internet forums convinced me that in my conditions it made no sense and the only thing I can consider are near-field monitors. However, I wanted to get the best possible sound quality and tried with different loudspeakers. In practice, it turned out that the set I chose sounds best for me under these conditions and I am glad that I did not listen to what I was told and, contrary to the advice, I did not choose near field monitors, but I focused on "normal" loudspeakers, where I had more choice . Theory is important, but the most important thing is the listening session at the final location of the equipment.

Thank you for the great video. One point about this topic is may be a bit related to the history of our listening habits. In the very early days, people sat around their mono radio, so it was a bit more like near field. Since the 1950s and 1960s, hi-fi systems came along that filled the room and people sat further away. Since the 1970s, people have stereo in their cars, again near field. Since the 1990s, many people have a PC, another context where you hear nearfield from the left and right of the keyboard. That's quite interesting from my point of view. Because as you say, the sound is completely different whether it's nearfield or farther away. Different qualities of the music are illuminated. And all of them are important. That's why in a recording studio you usually need both. First nearfield, speaker on the mixing console for the correct placement of the sound sources/instruments, their reverb content, their volume in relation to each other and much more. Then later, the sound engineer hears the result from further away via large monitors. Only then can he correct the recording so that it blends well with the room and whether everything forms a beautiful sound coherence. I love both ways of listening and, like you say in this great video, the speakers have to match each task regarding their size and frequency response. BTW I listen mostly with my huge but single source vintage Tannoy coaxial driver/speakers so I can take them also for nearfield listening when I want to „learn“ a bit about the mix.

Great tip Andrew, trading the near field listening using bookshelf speakers instead of floor standing ones. I will put the bookshelves on top of the floor standing but inverting them so the tweeter (or is it twitter?) stays at ear level, even tilting some degrees those two in order for the driver to output directly my listening position. The issue here is the shift in sensibility, the crossover and overall response from a bookshelf compared to a floor standing piece. I shall make some frequency readings, some dB readings and writ'em down. I'll let you know about this interesting tip you put forward. Thanks again!

Andrew, always enjoy your commentary. I have large floor standers for my ONLY R&R listening. They are about 12' apart and listening from a triangle distance of about 15'. Room acoustics are GREAT, just lucky on that. On one of your videos, I have tried taking off the grills and have kept them off. Thank you. Prefer it that way. For what it's worth, listening levels of about 95 spl. Just seems to work. Thank you for taking the time to share your education. It is appreciated. Robert TN

A good rule of thumb is stay at least 7 times the c2c distance between the tweeter and the midrange for proper integration

Great topic. For me, near-field listening with bookshelf speakers is what I like. Another benefit is that you don't have to drive your amp into clipping, or overload your speakers to get decent sound output---a pair of properly engineered speakers that are rated at 50 watts rms is plenty. That's assuming that said speakers don't have an abysmall spl rating lol

I was just experimenting last month with driver integration you mentioned with some 2-way bookshelf speakers. It was fascinating how you can hear the individual drivers in the very near field.

Great info! So what is the optimal listening distance between the Axiom M5HP and M60?

I had a very bad room for bass. It seemed whenever I had my speakers located for the best imaging I was getting low frequency standing wave bass cancelation. If I repositioned closer for better bass the sound stage collapsed. I ended up spending a lot of money on acoustic foam and corner bass traps. I used the L.E.D.E. set up, and it helped. The solution in the end, ended up me having to purchase two subwoofers to even out the bass throughout the room. The I changed up my system and ended up buying a Wavelet pre-amp with DSP. I have to say that was the final solution and my system sounds fantastic with the equilateral triangle set up for the main listening position. Great imaging and bass. I probably could have done without all the acoustic foam and just got the Wavelet Pre-amp/DAC/X-over/DSP first. DSP made a HUGE difference, as did the two subwoofers.

Thanks Andrew. Interesting topic. I follow your rule of not sitting closer than the distance between the front speakers. I'd prefer to sit even further back but make the tradeoff for video immersion since I don't have a separate music listening room. I suspect people who listen too closely could likely benefit from a better set of speakers or perhaps better source material.

4:14 what i think is that yes what you have said is correct. From my personal experience over the years i have noticed that distance really matters quite a lot. I got a demanding pair of Sony bookshelf speakers 6 ohms can handle up to 180 watts (each) sound really great when i listen them from distance in compare to when i sit next to them is completely a different experience. But then again the power amplifier / av receiver is also a highly considerable factor , also a proper tuning including, bass, treble is crucial. I prefer a PC connected to the amplifier that allow me to fine tune and play my speakers loud and clear just like i am in a concert. They sound impeccable that way. Just love it.

I doubt most people have a dedicated home theater. So most people worldwide should use near field listening. Since worldwide most people should have shelf speakers which they put on the same desk as their tower PC, they all are for sure near field listeners. Near field listening should be the case for about at least 90% of the worldwide PC and laptop users. Near field listening is more often than we might think. Most dedicated powered speakers in the world are for sure an 2.0 system or 2.1 system. Even my 5.1 Logitech speaker system (which humms and hisses like crazy) I set up at the same table as my laptop is. So near field listening. My other 2 speakers, one an bookshelf Genius 2.0 and the other an Thonet & Vander 2.1 system are all near field speakers since they sit eighter on the same table as my monitor or as for now I put them spread apart 1 meter using some cardboard boxes for an speaker stand. That should be the most common set up worldwide since lots of people do not have enough furniture or space for an fancy room distribution where dogs will bite onto the speakers, children pull on the cables and stuff. So most people put their home theater speakers just on the same table as the monitor one speaker next to the other.

I live in an apartment. All rooms in my apartment are small. So for me I have Polk audio monitor 70 series 2 towers. they sound good for me. I did upgrade the crossover in both towers . With better caps , resistors , and inductors. The sound is great. now with Polk they said to point the speakers straight into the room. No toe-in. Of course I did both. It seems to me better imagining when straight into room. Far as near field not sure the measurements but have a 7.1 , room truly fit a 5.1 . lol I want all the sound. It sound great for me . little work and tweaking but worth it. I'm sitting in the middle of my room and with these towers , I will say they do need more space from front to back far as my room.

integration of drivers is easy : coax !

I intend to purchase the Graham ls 5/9 speakers which are large stand mount speakers (unless they are too big for my space in which case I would get the Graham ls 6 speakers). While the speakers will be in a large living room in an apartment, I will only be sitting approx. 8 ft. away and don’t care about the sound in the rest of the room. Is there any way you can give me any sense of the specs I should be looking for in an amplifier for those speakers in that setting? Thank you.

As far as near field listening 3 feet works best as in my 2.1 computer speakers with the sub at my feet. My stereo system speakers are 6.5 feet away with a toe in. My HT system floorstanding fronts are 6.5 feet away but the center channel and sub a are 7.5 feet. My other HT system I have the fronts, center and sub at a 7 foot distance. I think 7 feet is about average.

Will using Audacy help with those issues? I have it setup to my main seating position for music and movies.

yes

My 3 front speakers are slim on wall speakers

Great episode Andrew. Listening to my awesome M5HP’s at a distance with my Axiom subs in the corners.