Listening chair

canuckaudiog

On a quest for high fidelity
Hey AK,

So I have to change my listening chair. Reason being the loveseat I am using right now is going to go into the living room, and the couch that's in the living room is being tossed out. The wife wants to put an exercise bike in the living room and frankly I don't watch enough TV to care.. so I'm good with it.

This means I need to get a new listening chair. I'm wondering what you guys thought about it, I know the chair isn't critical except for comfort, but I know it does make a difference with how you hear sound in the room.

Here's what I'm considering:

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Looks great, comfortable, good price, but is something like this going to be less than ideal? I've got lots of time to look around so I'm good with waiting until I find the right thing. But basically I wanted to see what you guys are using and if anyone has any experience with chairs making a difference in terms of sonics.

Thanks.
 
The Ikea Poang is a comfortable chair, especially when paired with the matching ottoman. It would e hard to do better for the price IMO, unless you were to find a deal on something else.

I used to use a Poang but my two listening chairs now are a Eames lounge chair knockoff in the music room and an Ekornes Orion StressLess upstairs for headphone listening.

Bill
 
I prefer a chair that does not extend up behind my head. It has always made my room sound as though I am sitting against the back wall with aggressive sound treatments on the wall. My current chair(s) are low-back and allow the sound waves to come at my head from every angle and hear the music/system/room better. (I sit away from the back wall at least 3 or 4 feet.)

There was a thread recently on some ridiculous "audiophile" chair for $11k. It was poo-pooed pretty bad here in the forums, but it was the first (and only, I think) chair I've ever seen that had a very small headrest designed to not interfere with sound wave propagation around one's head, yet still provide support.

I have sat in the Ikea Poang at a local's house at a few SMAC meets. I liked it (a lot) as a sitting chair, but not so much as a listening chair.
 
That chair makes me hurt just looking at it. You might find it comfortable, you might have fewer bad disks in your back than I do (I had 4 cervical disks fused in January).
 
I have that chair, it is very comfortable especially with the ottoman (as mentioned above), except for the elbows. Your elbows sit on that hard wood and after a while it starts to hurt. I glued computer keyboard wrist rests onto each wood armrest and it helped a lot.
I'd rather have my head resting on a head rest than no headrest, even if it (maybe, possibly) sounds better with no head rest.
 
You could do a lot worse! Those Poang chairs are pretty comfortable IMO. If I had the money, I'd buy a Stressless by Ekornes - those seem like an ideal music chair. But at it's cost, it would be worth multiples of my equipment :yes:
 
About the Stressless...you have to consider the model. Some have integrated headrests of varying heights and others, like my Orion, have adjustable headrests. At it's lowest position it comes to the middle of my neck. It's M size and I'm 5'10".

Bill
 
Thanks for the comments guys, this is helpful. I'll look around to see what else I can find, who knows, maybe I'll find something really special. If not this is still a good option.
 
There was a thread recently on some ridiculous "audiophile" chair for $11k. It was poo-pooed pretty bad here in the forums, but it was the first (and only, I think) chair I've ever seen that had a very small headrest designed to not interfere with sound wave propagation around one's head, yet still provide support.

This the one?

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Best audio chair I ever had was a Honda Accord leather bucket mounted on a heavy duty base from an office executive swivel/tilt chair. Very comfortable, narrow headrest area, and even shiatsu massage, adjustable lumbar support, and heat with the addition of a 12v power supply. Biggest advantage was being able to skootch into the sweet spot. Only thing I missed was armrests. Not sure why I ever got rid of that.

This here is what I'm currently running for the prime spot.

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Swivels, reclines, and rocks so I can boogie with the beat. Only problem is it's not all that heavy and tends to go into hover mode and walk around the room a bit when I'm cranking it. One of these days I'll have to add some spikes to the bottom of the ring to lock it to the carpet. Only mod so far is I added an AirHawk pad under the seat. Bun-tastic!

PS ... the OP's chair actually looks quite comfortable. Looks like a free floating frame, so I imagine the seat flexes a lot letting you really rock wit da rock ... I'd probably splinter it trying to keep up with Gavin Harrison on one of his solos where conservative toe tapping just won't do it.
 
Killer chair ...

Almost quite literally ... totaled mine listening to Stevie Ray ... :D

The pedestal punched right thru the bottom and shredded the wooden shell. You might want to check it every now and then for stress cracks ... I was thinking a square of plywood on top of the base and a square of steel under the pad would have spread the load a whole lot better.
 
I'm a floor person as well. I do have a Poang for listening, I like that too. Someday I'll get a Eames style chair I think, but for now, this is fine.
 
Hey ... Poing boing boing makes a swivel version!

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I did not know that ...

Unfortunately, the nearest Ikea is a couple hundred miles. Can't see it holding up to Riverside's Anno Domini anyway ...

Worth mentioning - there's two schools of thought on the perfect chair - the flexibility of a swivel rocker recliner is one thing, but due to the construction they can limit the bass transmission from the room. For a while, I had a big overstuffed heavy frame chair you could sink right into that was a real butt thumper ...

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Eames style knockoff but man is it ever comfortable....

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Totally amazing! I have a $50 Walmart leather office chair on wheels for desktop listening and a great 3-seater couch made by Flexsteel I got at a thrift store in perfect shape with a really nice (blue/green/gray) Southwestern pattern for $80 (originally from Sears for $650!). I love them both.
 

Crummy posture notwithstanding, note how there is no headrest on this chair, allowing for the sound (read: music) to surround the listener's head. :)




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Well guys based on all the advice here I decided to go with the Ikea Poang. I sat in it and it was so comfortable, and in awesome shape. For $25 I figured this was the deal to go for. Here's a pic:

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I think it'll do me just fine :) I'll post about the difference between it and the loveseat I'm using, which I think this will make a welcome difference in how I hear the sound.
 
Please report back on the Poang after you have a chance for a few long listening sessions.

I wanted to add my vote for the Ekornes Stressless chairs (I own 4 of them), but only for the low-backed models and used ones, at that -- new they are crazy expensive.
 
@canuckaudiog

Try to grab an ottoman...makes it a lot more comfortable. Congrats on your new chair!

Bill
 
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