Optimum seat height for listening to big SDA's

trubluluc

It seems as though most tower speakers are made so that the tweeters are at about ear level when sitting in a chair of average height.
With the big SDA's being so freaking tall,
it seems that 3 of the tweeters, and 4 of the drivers are over head level.
Anyone tried using a taller chair to listen to them?
Yes, as in bar stool height?

-Luc

F1nut

Luc, you must be bored.

Dennis Gardner

Isn't the third tweeter from the top, the main signal in the SRS, 1.2 line?

It would be around ear level and most likely was part of the planning for the design.

Obituary reads: He died from a fall incurred when his Lazy Boy fell from its milk crate perch. What a way to go!

BlueMDPicker

This should work. :cool:

reeltrouble1

My teeth start to hurt just looking at that chair!!:D

RT1

trubluluc

Hey Mike......Send me the link.
I especiallly like what looks like a gear shift, though I'm sure it's for the hydraulics lol.

I dunno, seemed like a logical question, as we spend so much time and energy on speaker positioning.
Why not a little time and effort on getting our ears at the right elevation?

BTW, Reel, I think it's a barber chair, not a dentist chair.

-Luc

Originally posted by BlueMDPicker
This should work. :cool:

BlueMDPicker

Yeah, it's a barber chair I found on eBay -- just **** with you, Luc. But (light bulb flickers again), imagine it mounted on a garage door opener rail. You could adjust for perfect sweet spot in two planes!!

I don't notice a "zone" in my SDAs, large or small, whether sitting or standing. My MG-I maggies are very much made for sit down listening. As you rise from a seated position, the high/mids change drasticly.

masanz1

I actually noticed a difference in standing vs sitting. The SDA effect was better while standing

Larry Chanin

Originally posted by BlueMDPicker

I don't notice a "zone" in my SDAs, large or small, whether sitting or standing.

Hi,

I haven't noticed a difference with different heights either, and I've got my tweeters much higher than normal.

In my home theater I'm using SDA-1C's as mains. The top tweeter sits about 38" from bottom of the speaker and the lower tweeter is about 33" from the bottom. The ears of listeners in the first row of seating are about 43" off the floor.

However, I've also got my 1C's sitting on concrete block stands that are about 15" tall. The stands in turn are sitting on a stage which is about 8" tall. So the top tweeter sits 61" off the floor and the bottom tweeter sits 56" off the floor, or 18" and 13" respectively higher than the ears in the front row.


(NOTE: This was done to more realistically center the sonic image of the Mains vertically on the screen. Likewise, I use two SDA-CRS+'s to center the Center Channel sonic image vertically on the screen.)


For the rear row of seating I've got a 14" seating platform. This puts the top tweeter only 4" higher than the ears in the second row and the the bottom tweeter 1" lower than the listener's ears.



Anyway, despite the significant differences in ear height relative to the tweeters in the two rows of seating, I can't hear a difference in sound quality, and in both cases the sound is coming nicely from the center of the screen.

Larry

heiney9

If I remember correctly aren't the big SDA's with multiple tweets arranged in a cascading array?

It creates more of a "sound field" type dispersion rather that a direct point source. Height isn't as critical as say with the RTA line. The RTA line tweets are arranged in an MTM (mid-tweet-mid) arrangement. This limits the horizontal dispersion. Creates a point source dispersion pattern. That's why the sweet spot is very narrow and tweeter height is more critical to get the best sound characteristics.

H9

DarqueKnight

The center image of my SDA 1.2TL's remains fixed in space whether I am standing or sitting.

For example, when sitting, a vocalist or instrumentalist which is mixed to come from dead center of the soundstage will be heard coming from dead center at ear level or sometimes a foot above ear level. If I stand up, the sound remains fixed in space and I am then "looking down" on the center image sound.

During critical listening sessions, I use the attached diagram to record soundstage variations when switching between different cables, amps, and source components. I also use it to evaluate soundstage variations from different listening positions.

Larry Chanin

Originally posted by DarqueKnight

During critical listening sessions, I use the attached diagram to record soundstage variations when switching between different cables, amps, and source components. I also use it to evaluate soundstage variations from different listening positions.

Hi Raife,

I'm getting an invalid file message when I attempt to download your pdf file.

Larry

DarqueKnight

Larry, if you have an older version of Acrobat Reader (before ver. 6.0) integrated with your browser, it may not be able to read the file.

I checked and I was able to download/read the file successfully.

RuSsMaN

I can't open it either, says damaged file.

fredv

I have acroread 5.0 and was able to display in firefox. In case you are able to download the attachment, I uploaded it to my
AOL MyStorage. You can download it from http://members.aol.com/fvu168/stage_eval.pdf

BobMcG

Hummm, I just had to try it and I didn't have a problem opening and reading it.

I've experimented with it and never found seat height to be an issue with my big SDAs. They sound great to me anywhere from a "normal" couch or chair seated height to standing up.

DarqueKnight

Thanks Fred.

Russ and Larry, if it still does not display in your browser, try right clicking the link and downloading the file.