The Art of Near-field, Desktop listening

Thanks buddy will give it a crack in due course.

The Luxman tuner sounds great. Warm and full-bodied. Nice analogue sound.
 
So I ended up buying a pair of Usher S520 on a whim again.

I've once had them before. So this would probably be a short stint.

My impression of these babies remain. But for the lack of good mid-range, these speakers have decent extensions both ends. The bass is impressive especially but with the lack of the mid it sounds somewhat unnatural. I can again see why quite a good number of modern fans prefer these over likes of Quad and Wharfedale entry monitors.

Good fun it is listening to them. Not too sure if I should just keep them for being exotic!

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Well, I recently reconfigured my office and now, not only do I have a nearfield listening setup using S-F Venere 1.5's, I also have a nice nearfield HT system :D
Are the S-F working well as nearfield? That's still something I'm a little vague on.... what speakers work and what speakers are meant for (and need) more distance from the listener.
 
what speakers work and what speakers are meant for (and need) more distance from the listener.

Nothing is absolute in audio. For me, however, bookshelf speakers always fail to present the scale I require for my main rig.

However, for near-field rigs and especially on a desktop, bookshelf speakers work great and you get some true high-end SQ for a relatively small sum of money since their bigger counterpart speakers are so much more expensive.

And yes too much scale can be a little overwhelming, which means for a desktop rig oftentimes smaller bookshelf speakers work better than larger bookshelf speakers.

The result is that I get to swap speakers more regularly, and the physical size enables the swapping a lot easier.
 
University setup so it's not ideal (found the speakers on the curb), but it's good enough for me and infinitely better than most of my friends' setups (eg they have none)

I prefer far field (or maybe medium) though because I enjoy sitting in a recliner or on a couch and listening, whereas in a nearfield setup, I generally have to use my desk chair which isn't very ideal

I'm moving to a new place in September, and while the place itself will be larger (apartment to condo), my room will be smaller.. maybe I can convince/force my room mates to let me put a setup in the living room or basement

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Interesting topic and right in line with something I just completed.

I recently decided to upgrade my desktop listening environment. As a programmer I spend a significant amount of time in front of my computer and my existing Logitech 2.1 system just wasn't cutting it anymore.

I decided to tackle 2 birds with one stone. I've always wanted to attempt to build my own speakers and I was also curious about full range wide band speakers. As a result I ended up building the LGK 1.0 desktop speakers from GR-Research...

http://gr-research.com/lgk10kit.aspx

I wanted to keep costs down while at the same at least exploring a somewhat high fidelity solution. So, I also purchased an SMSL SA-36A mini amp and an SMSL Sanskrit 1955+ DAC. Total cost of the components and the materials for the build was about $350.

What I ended up with literally knocked my socks off. The detail, clarity and almost holographic imaging when playing lossless audio was something I thought would cost $1000's. I was very pleasantly surprised. When I started researching why this worked out so well I came across the concept of near field audio. Turns out the layout of the speakers, the proximity I'm sitting at and the equilateral triangle it forms all contributed.

I've attached a pic of my setup. As you can see I don't have much room. Not much I can do about that giant reflective surface between the speakers but it's a necessary evil. Even so, I'm thoroughly enjoying the setup.

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-Curtiss
 

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Interesting topic and right in line with something I just completed... I've always wanted to attempt to build my own speakers and I was also curious about full range wide band speakers. As a result I ended up building the LGK 1.0 desktop speakers from GR-Research...

http://gr-research.com/lgk10kit.aspx

I wanted to keep costs down while at the same at least exploring a somewhat high fidelity solution. So, I also purchased an SMSL SA-36A mini amp and an SMSL Sanskrit 1955+ DAC. Total cost of the components and the materials for the build was about $350.
Now this is an intriguing idea.... I've already got the stereo and the DAC in place. Just need the speakers.!!
What I ended up with literally knocked my socks off.
Sorry, but I watched Mythbusters prove that this couldn't be done..... :lmao:
When I started researching why this worked out so well I came across the concept of near field audio. Turns out the layout of the speakers, the proximity I'm sitting at and the equilateral triangle it forms all contributed.
so what of the "magic" that couldn't knock your socks off is due to the quality of the speaker, and what's due to the nearfield?

Thanks for showing this!!
 
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Sorry, but I watched Mythbusters prove that this couldn't be done..... :lmao:

I saw that episode too. I still think it's plausible.

so what of the "magic" that couldn't knock your socks off is due to the quality of the speaker, and what's due to the nearfield?]

I might have a hard time quantifying that. Since there were so may changes made at once I think everything simply came together "just right". I have no doubt the speaker is well designed and stands on it's own. Being designed as a desktop monitor I would expect it to perform well in that role and the designer seems to have a lot of "street cred" on other forums.

The fact is I went from an off the shelf 2.1 active system that was far too "boomy" in the bass department using the on board Realtek audio of my computer to using a discrete DAC, digital amp and superior speakers. That will all contribute to audio quality improvement.

This is also my first full range speaker. In the past I've always believe you needed at least a 2 way speaker to achieve any semblance of audio quality. I stand corrected because the bass and treble both surprised me and the mid range is superior. The speaker placement (both corner and about 8 inches from the back wall) definitely helps the bass since the speaker is rear ported.

As for the near field; relatively low volume listening with the speakers at ear level, 28 inches from center to center and 28 inches from my nose combined with an amp the appears to perform well at low levels and a single driver speaker all seem to be advantages for near field listening. This just happened to work out as it wasn't planned.

The sound stage extends beyond the speakers and they appear to disappear with vocals coming from dead center and behind the computer monitor and I feel enveloped in the music instead of just hearing it emanate from the speakers.

You should take my opinions with a grain of salt. I've never spent 10's of thousands of dollars on audio equipment. I've probably got maybe $10,000 in my home theater setup including the video side but that is a whole different beast and although ok for listening to music it has no where near the imaging I'm getting at my desktop and a prefer not to run my music through a DSP for 7.1 channel audio.

-Curtiss
 
The more I read the more interesting it seems. But I'm not sure I want to mess with the assembly of everything......
 
I was driving to work and spotted some of these Ikea speaker stands out on the curb

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I decided to turn around and grab them as my Kanspeas are pretty light and $free.99 is a pretty solid price. They are actually a good fit with my desk setup and enabled me to get the speakers higher and pointed straight ahead rather than up as they are on the Audioengine stands.

The big plus is with the stands I can get them several inches further back which is helping a lot. I no longer feel like the speakers are going to take my head off with their forwardness. With a little balance control adjustment (cheap pot and bad right ear combo) soundstage is pretty damn nice. I'd almost given up on this setup, but now it is considerably nicer to listen to.
 
For their size and price ($349/pr when on sale), nothing IME can touch a pair of these. Wireless, bi-amped (with TPA-3116), DSP corrected, and now room correction. For my tiny, cramped home office, they're the perfect solution.

Great sound with unbelievably good bass considering that they're smaller than Minimus 7s; no comparison in SQ vs the Rat Shacks. A very good example of intelligent engineering.

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