Vdub: You really only notice the "bean" noise when you are stoned out of your mind. For those who have not "kept on trucking" (granted that they do not abuse Nutmeg) I can't imagine this being a problem. I could never get into the "bean bags", but do have a pair of the original "umbrella" chairs, which are lousy for listening due to the side wings. My "all time" favorite listening chair (in the near field as mentioned above) is a French Riviera folding wrought iron chair with a woven seat, fold up arm rests and a low heart shaped back (also woven). The only downside is that it is on the heavy side, but it is also extremely comfortable as well as acoustically correct for this application. I used to have a chair fetish, but moved on to vintage Kirby vacuum cleaners (the ones with thick aluminum housings and red bags:-).