Two channel audio: How high is your chair?

[Staxxx]

OK. I have gotten used to sitting fairly high up with my floorstanders and recently placed my chair on an 8 inch platform. This brings my ears about in line with the tweeters, while in my normal sitting position my ears are somewhat in line with the bottom of the midrange driver. I am not sure how the speaker was designed to be heard, but regardless, I always trust my ears on such matters. As these are large floorstanders I think if one is sitting far enough from them then a normal sitting height is probably appropriate. I am about 9 feet away and for the size of the speakers (given the room constraints) this is probably not enough. Hence the adjustment and it works (for me)!
I prefer the treble energy generated by this position and also the feeling of looking level or in some cases slightly down at the soundstage.
Out of curiousity: anyone tried adjusting their sitting height? What results have you had?

 

[ranjeetrain]

I just change the chair to get the best height or move it to get the best distance. Lately I haven't had a high end 2-channel that would demand precision seating, but even medium fidelity systems do make a lot of difference when the seating is changed. Frequency variations etc. In due course of time I have learned to use gear to their strength and weaknesses. One of my bookshelves has a good tonal balance so I like it. But it's highs are not the smoothest. So, in the music where top gets a bit heavy, I just bring my chair a bit closer, so that the hf response falls off.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I like to have my ears* lower than the tweater, especially when closer to the speakers.

Thus, sitting on the floor, for me, is good for "normal" floorstanders. There may well be other factors, though, eg, when sitting on the floor with one's back against the sofa, the sofa is helping to prevent reflections from behind.



*but my ears are bad these days anyway.

 

[kuruvilajacob]

For stereo speakers, I used to keep the tweeters in line with my ears. When I got new stands, the tweeters were a little above the ear level an I feel it has improved the balance of tonal quality. I understand this is the ideal position especially if you are sitting at a near field position

 

[jls001]

Very pertinent and relevant topic. Thanks for thinking this up, Staxx.

My severely limited understanding is that the ear should be mid way between the tweeter and mid driver levels. Fortuituously, my chair height (and my frame) affords me exaxctly this.

I have tried putting and extra cushion to raise myself to listen at tweeter level but I didn't like it in my setup.

On a large panel speaker, I have seen that listening distance is very, very critical to hearing proper image height. Width and depth are easy.

On another system with an excellent tweeter with crazily wide dispersion, it didn't matter too much if one's ears were well below the tweeter level.

I am guessing it all boils down to the dispersion of the tweeter?

 

[corElement]

Looks around 18", my ears are at the top end of the speaker, tweeter about 2" below ear and woofer about 4"

On my previous floorstander positioning was very important but on my present concert 8's off axis dispersion is quite good. I can be at the very edge of the angle of attack and the sound still dosnt change much.

 

[Staxxx]

Thanks for the excellent responses. It looks like it matters to all of us and something that anyone setting up a system should think about too.

 

[square_wave]

I have always used 2 way speakers. The ear at tweeter level always worked well. I do know how it should be for 3 ways. One thing I realized with speakers with sloped baffle is that, the tweeter can be slightly below ear level if the listener is seated far away. The slope will make sure that the tweeter is slightly pointed upwards towards the ear although the function of a sloped baffle is slightly different

I have never liked it when the tweeters are above ear level. But this observation is only with 2 ways. In a properly designed two way, when the tweeters are at ear level, the tweeter disappears and A-L-L sounds will appear to be coming from the middle of the mid-bass unit.

 

[hydra]

I sit (uh, recline) with the tweeters at about the same height as my ears. It definitely sounds better to me this way.

When I don't push the recliner back, my ears are a bit higher than the tweeter position and I think it sounds less better that way.

My old couch used to be low, and the tweeters were about 3-4 inches higher than my ears and things sounded reasonably fine. I do prefer my current listening position, though.