Listening Off-Axis

[Infiniteloop]

I was working from home today and decided I'd have a bit of music on in the background. I fired up my Valve-based system and streamed Gil Shaham: J.S. Bach: Sonatas & Partitas. My Valve system is upstairs and I was working dowstairs. The effect of the music drifting through the house was just glorious. It really did sound as if the music was live.

To my ears, acoustic, string-based classical music is generally sublime through the combination of 845 Valves and Sonus Fabers, but this went to another level altogether.

Not sure why I'm sharing this really, other than I wondered if anyone likes to listen off-axis. I guess we get so focussed on what our system is doing that we only tend to listen directly in front of the speakers. Todays experience taught me that listening to the effect of great music can happen in unexpected, not-usually-recommended-in-HiFi-circles' ways (apologies for the dodgy grammar).

I suppose it's a bit like hearing live music, even when you're not actually at the event, but just outside it. The effect of the music has its own magic.

 

[DCC]

Music playing downstairs, me working up. Love it. I can drift in and out of the sounds without effort and it's rarely ever a distraction.

 

[plastic penguin]

I was working from home today and decided I'd have a bit of music on in the background. I fired up my Valve-based system and streamed Gil Shaham: J.S. Bach: Sonatas & Partitas. My Valve system is upstairs and I was working dowstairs. The effect of the music drifting through the house was just glorious. It really did sound as if the music was live.

To my ears, acoustic, string-based classical music is generally sublime through the combination of 845 Valves and Sonus Fabers, but this went to another level altogether.

Not sure why I'm sharing this really, other than I wondered if anyone likes to listen off-axis. I guess we get so focussed on what our system is doing that we only tend to listen directly in front of the speakers. Todays experience taught me that listening to the effect of great music can happen in unexpected, not-usually-recommended-in-HiFi-circles' ways (apologies for the dodgy grammar).

I suppose it's a bit like hearing live music, even when you're not actually at the event, but just outside it. The effect of the music has its own magic.

Yes, I remember from my old house of having the hi-fi on upstairs why I was busy downstairs. Basically, the room it's playing in is acting like a huge speaker cabinet.

As we now live in a bungalow this avenue has been taken away.

 

[Vladimir]

Most of my listening is done off axis. There are few meditative moments when I really sit in the sweet spot and dive deep.

Performance off-axis is as important if not more than on-axis listening according to findings by Harman labs. Certanly something to look for when auditioning.

 

[Al ears]

Pleasantly different I have found, and tend to listen quite a bit this way (music is also upstairs). Perhaps I should have bought a mono system.