[Vince NC]

I would like to know what effects sitting in the near field has on the sound. I want to use the LS-9 for the fronts and surrounds in my system. I will be at about 13 feet for the fronts. I will only be about 7 feet from the rears. I will be building a new room/ theater in a couple of years so I will be OK then. I want to get all the speakers built or bought from AV123 at the same time so the veneers will match. I don't want them to sound like crap until I build the new room. I would be thankful for any insight. P.S. I will be using alot of room treatment from real traps.

[Vince NC]

I can't believe no one has any thoughts on this.

[Frihed91]

13 feet is not near-field.  In general, near field listening applies to 2 channel.  I have never heard anything about it with reference to multi-channel listening.

With my monitors pulled away from all 3 walls more than 1 M, i hear a nice wide soundstage and have a very large sweet spot that radiates out in all directions and still maintains some soundstage, even at 90 - 270 degrees from the front listening position.

I don't have a multi-channel set up.

[TRADERXFAN]

The line source sound propagation behaves differently than the point source type most everyone has.
I believe that Danny did discuss the nearfield limits a bit during the question and answer as the LS-6's were being developed.

"There is a bass management system built into the LS-6 that will allow some flexibility in tuning the speaker to a particular room. Changing the resistance value can add or take away bottom end centered in the 70 to 100Hz range. This will allow them to be used in a room that might otherwise be overloaded. Still I wouldn't recommend them for small bedroom sized rooms. Recommended listening distance from them is 9 to 10 feet or more. You can get away with an 8 foot distance or less but you are starting to get to far into the near field. "

Also, someone else who had them setup and acheived great performance said this about spacing:
"I've found about 12' is best in my room, which is a bit larger room than Danny's, no comb effects here.  I have them about 7' from the back wall and 5' from the side walls. "

For more, try looking back to this thread...
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=34105.0

Hope that helps

[Danny Richie]

Good morning from Vancouver, WA.

Vince, I think the guys already gave you some great responses.

I sit about 13 feet away from my LS-9's in my room. No problems there. You are a little close for the rears but you can always dial them back in output to match the mains. I think you'll be fine across the board.

Oh yea, the LS-9's have a lot of adjustment to the bottom end as well. The bass management system offers a lot of flexability.

[Vince NC]

Thanks for the help everyone. I know about the bass management system. I don't know that much about line source speakers. I may not have explained what I want to know correctly. I want to know if I will hear combing from the line array. I also want to know if the sound will blend (not the right term I know) that close. I have read some papers on line source speakers and from what I understand is that you get a beaming affect when you are within the length of the array. I may be wrong but that is the way I understood it. Again I May be wrong but, I took that as saying the highs and lows would sound like two separate sounds that were coming from two different locations instead of one unified sound. Anyway thanks again for all the help