I think this is where "we" can carry it to far. If you will be more comfortable with an ottoman, you may enjoy the music that much more, sonically or not!! Get the ottoman, kick back and enjoy! |
Be sure to get the one with pure silver nails and upholstery tacks, they sound sooooo much better. |
Don't worry about it. You won't hear a difference. Just buy a good comfortable scandanavian recliner and matching ottoman and sit back and enjoy. |
It might have a sonic impact, but I couldn't say for sure until I know what kind of CD transport you are using and which cables you have in your system. Just kidding - hey lighten up and get an ottoman. I have a leather ottoman with my chair, and although the leather is probably reflective, I don't think it matters. |
Metaphysics:....Got one of them there 25k combos;rated 10/10 for sure /5 years old/ but practically NIB/with packing;and the "ALL IMPORTANT" manual.Yes, this is the "pure silver nail model" 'Don't get much better than this.A steal at only 7.5k(half price for you math majors) : COD,money order. Prominent bridges, and quality Florida locations are our usual fair,but we also do pyramid investments.Send us your $$$ we'll put it to work for you.Then you can really enjoy that chair/combo. |
Interestingly enough, there was company in Italy about 5 years ago who started selling decorative area rugs "specifically designed" for listening rooms. Never saw or "heard" one..but I'm sure some people bought them. |
The real issue is--you would be pointing the bottom of your feet toward your stereo system. In the Middle East and many parts of Asia it is a profound insult to let someone sitting across from you see the bottom of your feet. Now, if you have any Japanese components.... |
I used to have a coffee table in front with a glass top to put my feet on. I believe it significantly affected the sound. I now have a dedicated room so I now have a rectangular chrome and glass coffee table, but with no glass in it, just a frame, which does not affect the sound, and works fine as a foot rest. I just hope nobody tries to put a drink on it! |
To be purrfectly honest, I have a case of snakes fed through tiny peepholes. When I am in an analog/LP mood, guests often ask, "Why does your stereo hiss so badly?"
I can simply blame it on the snakes and go back to enjoying the music. Of course the room is now empty except for my wife. She understands me entirely too well. |
Are we going to start worrying about the sonic effect of eyeglasses now?After all they are closer to our ears than our feet and contain glass. |
Hey, I will test that Elwood! I will listen with and w/o for the affects. Of course I do have ultra thin lenses, so it may not be theat same for those with thicker lens. |
A new meaning for Blind Listening is being born. Single blind listening could be done with monocles. We could even switch eyes. Double blind with the simple removal of spectacles or even contacts. Don"t you just love science!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let us all report back. With the number of trials a group our size can perform we could develope a sample large enough to use statistics.The significance is mind boggling. |
Elwood: Eyeglasses do change the sound considerably (not for the better, IMO). I always take mine off when doing other than casual listening. Think about it, you are creating two areas of reflection two or three inches from the ears (depending on how fat the head is) and they (the areas of reflection) are between the speakers and the ears. No kidding. |
I have Apogeen Mini-Grands, and my leather Ottoman is very detrimental to the sound. I would think that would be true with any planar or planar-hybrid speaker. It does not severely compromise my Von Schwiekerts, but the drivers are not nearly as close to the floor. It really depends on the type of speakers and how close the ottoman is to the speaker. Obviously if you listen in the nearfield and the ottoman is blocking a driver it would be very bad. Just put a box where the ottoman would go and have a listen for yourself |
........actually, the effects of wearing glasses on listening to music was written up in Stereophile several years ago-- don't remember if was tongue-in-cheek or not, or the effects. It seems to me Dick Olsher, a tube man, was involved-- that was back in the days when Stereophile was a good mag. Craig |
I used to use a small ottoman in front of my listening chair, it had a tube frame consisting of a circular base and a single straight tube, with a leather top portion. The accompanying chair had a similar tube frame and circular tube base. Without or without the ottoman, I could not notice much of a difference.
Recently, I replaced the 'tubed' furniture with a 'solid state' recliner, a massive thing which much more comfy. It has a higher back, and something in the combination of the high back and more solid chair made a difference in the sound. Overall, the 'solid state' solution is more comfortable than the 'tubed' one.
(Sorry, just couldn'r resist...) |
the s'phile author who wrote of the tweek of removing your glasses was none other than that epitome of tweek-geekness, jonathan scull. re: having an ottoman in front of ewe, it wery vell *could* have a detrimental efect, but i'd tink not, if it were small-n-low enuff. any coffee table i've seen in front of a listening position has *always* had a wery noticeable effect on the sound, & it's always been bad. on more than one occasion, i've gone to a friends' house, spied the coffee-table in front of the *sweet-spot*, immediately proceeded to remove said coffee table to the consternation of my friend, only to have him, w/in minutes, agree that there was a noticeable improvement in soundstaging/imaging w/said offending coffee-table removed. i've often wondered about the possibility of making a table w/different widths of slats, similar those rpg diffusors, to break up the reflections... doug s. |
Nothing. Is it unconfortable without anything to rest your legs on? Sure. Did I try an ottoman an found it sucked up enogh freq to effect soundstahe and ambience? You bet. In fact, I have found out the best listening chair type is the beach chiar with couple of pillows to bring your ears to the tweeter height. Beach chair is open underneath, sides and behind your ears. The later feature especially very very important if you want really open sound. If you guys have been listening with comfy closed-in high back chair, just once try a beach type chair and you will thank me for it. Meta, Try first with bunch of pillows . |
A director's chair works well unless you are, like me, er..gravitationally challenged (hence the "elgordo"). And yes, glasses make a difference as does one's nose! This is why Michael Jackson took Quincy Jones' advice and had all that plastic surgery done. That surgeon's mask he wears was actually designed by Michael Green and is filled with Sonex. See, Jackson isn't weird he's an audiophile. Wait a minute...what's the difference ;>) |
Rhljazz made the comment "Just buy a good comfortable scandanavian recliner and matching ottoman and sit back and enjoy." Bear in mind that if you do this, your system will sound different at each position of the recliner. Sitting straight up, your head will be higher (maybe not a bad thing!) than if you have the chair reclined. What's more, in the reclined position, your head is closer to the back wall, and sound can dance off your feet, so to speak. Even the angle of your outer ear in relation to the drivers will change. EVERYTHING makes a difference! I have a ceiling fan in my listening room, and even though I turn it off before I listen, I'm sure my system sounds different from one session to the next depending upon the orientation of the blades in relation to the speakers and my ears. What's an audiophile to do? Construct Sonex sleeves to slip over the fan blades before listening? Years ago an audiophile friend of mine had little pencil marks on the edge of the shelf his components were on, next to his listening chair. In retrospect, having the nice, shiny, hard, reflective components on his right side and open air on his left was not a good arrangment, but the fact is, he actually used those pencil marks as a guide for the positioning of his head in order to achieve differing results while listening. No wonder he gave up the hobby and took up computers. Now, THERE'S a hobby you don't have to be neurotic about. Right. |
How about a barber chair on a motorized base? One could pull the lever to adjust the height, drive it around the room until the ideal spot was located and then retract the "landing gear" to set it on either spikes or Sorbothane feet! |
Everybody above is extremely funny...
Guys, I don't mean to upset anybody's senssssityvity (OOPS the metal tweeter is acting up again), but it seems to me that the simple fact that somebody is concerned with that much of a difference in sound makes me wonder if any of us actually LISTEN TO THE MUSIC, AND NOT THE SOUND OF OUR STEREOS, excuse me - our SYSTEMS.
Just my 0.02 |
Lighten up, Val. A little levity (or levitation) never hurts. I'm sure we all take this seriously but it's also FUN. |
I like the barber chair idea. Mine (my barber) is just a block away and perhaps I could talk him into cutting my hair in the living room. That way I could listen to music in between snips. In regard to the nose, mine is pretty big and I also have a large mole on the left side of it, that possibly effects the sound stage. I like it though (the mole) as it gives me something to look at when I am bored. I also agree with the beach chair. When I use our butterfly chair I have to lean forward (away from the wings) to get a good sound. When I use a folding canvas low backed chair (that is the property of one of our cats - Elliot's chair) I can just relax and enjoy the music. My favorite most comfortable chair is a folding wrought iron French Riviera one that has a heart shaped back, but it weighs a ton and I rarely use it anymore. Anything in between my chair and the speakers (other than rugs (over carpet) on the floor) seems to change/degrade the sound and I don't think that it's silly to be concerned about it. Afterall, it's a free tweak that's easy to remedy. My wife just asks that I don't barricade the front door with the stuff that I move, in the event that there is a fire. |
Gee, I'm not sure how to take all of the responses to my query. Some are quite humorous. However, the main reason that I asked the question is because I removed a glass top coffee table that DID have a negative effect on my system WHILE I WAS ENJOYING IT!!! For those that were less than humorous or thought that I had gone too far, I feel that I must be one of the true audiophiles just for asking such a "silly" question. At least three of the responders had given some thought to the furniture at the listening position. MANY of us pay >$10k for the cables in our system due to their effects, why is it not reasonable to be concerned with what we place 4 ft in front of the speakers. Finally, as for carpet, I suggest a wool oriental carpet because the fibers are all different lengths and diameters. A synthetic carpet has identical fibers which can cause preferential reflection and absorption at certain frequencies. So it's not all necessarily hocus-pocus. I do enjoy the music and my system, but I enjoy it more when it sounds better. |
As for the carpet fibers, i agree. I have also had great results with synthetic carpets loaded with various amounts of dirt. Extensive experimentation has shown that clay put down in Size 10 1/2 footprints results in excellent bass imaging that makes the music come to life. Motor oil in similar patterns makes the system sound too slick. Sand deposited at the edge of the carpet result in more grainy highs. I was perhaps most surprised by some ketchup put on the corners on the rugs, contrary to what I expected there was very little coloration, at least when used with the black rugs. About the only thing I would really not recommend trying is crushed cookies in the rugs; with this tweak installed the system sounded really crummy. |
Metaphysics, now for a serious answer. The coffee table obviously made a difference, as you noted. The surface of the table is most likely an almost perfect reflector. The ottoman would probably have more shape to it, and be made from another material than glass, so it would probably reflect less sound. If you take a ligt orroman, maybe something with a tube frame like I described earlier, you may find that the effect is not too noticeable. |
Anybody tried hanging a hammock from the listening room ceiling yet? ;) |
Hammock? Humm, It would cost a fortune for the cables! |
Brianmgrarcom 6" thick Sonex for the hammock material. ...but which wires, and what gauge? ...Silver, copper and what termination? ...Maybe Stevemj could loan us some of his zip-cord? ;) |
Njonker...TOO funny! Bravo.
Am also looking at the possibility of a footrest/low ottoman, predominantly to get comfortable enough so that I don't cross my legs all the time, which aggravates my arthritic knees. Whereas I'm fully aware of the reflective problems with hard surfaces, I would hope that a cloth-cushioned LOW footrest wouldn't have sonic attribute, unless maybe it's too near a low port?...or an electrostat?
Sorry I'm not continuing the humorous bent of the thread...well perhaps a joke: why do Scotsman wear kilts? |
