[kixxit]

What I want are monitors for my living room that might sound decent beyong a 1sqf "sweet spot", that may just so happen to be active.

 

[Mauricio]

The term "nearfield" has a technical definition of sorts.  It is the distance from the speaker/monitor beyond which reflections exceed the direct sound from the speaker/monitor.  As you can see from the definition, the radius of the "nearfield" is largely a function of the listening room.  Keep in mind that nothing is free, and everything is a matter of tradeoffs, whether you are talking about passive speakers or active monitors.  If you want wide dispersion, the "nearfield" will have to be reduced in order to maintain the stereo soundstage.  Alternatively, the narrower the dispersion, the longer the "nearfield" can be potentially.  There still ain't no free lunch, passive speaker hype and misinformation and consumer ignorance notwithstanding.
 
Below is the horizontal directivity plot of a well-regarded, small two-way active monitor that sells at $1,500/pair:

 

[Chris J]

Do most active monitors have good off-axis dispersion?  I was always under the impression that they were fairly focused due to use in near field applications. 

I did watch the posted vid on the SE Electronics Egg 150 monitors, but their setup isn't much different than passive monitors - although I'm sure their amp is built specifically for the Eggs. I am wondering how scalable their setup is - 5.1, etc. 

Passive, active or powered has nothing to do with crearing a good off-axis response.
Not every active speaker was designed for use as a near field monitor.

 

[kixxit]

Any recommendations, or am i going to have to dredge thru spec sheets?  I'll probably do it anyway of course - just looking for a good place to start.

 

[Chris J]

Any recommendations, or am i going to have to dredge thru spec sheets?  I'll probably do it anyway of course - just looking for a good place to start.

The most important thing is to listen to the speaker before you buy it.
Sifting thru spec sheets helps, but ultimately, listen before you buy..........assuming that is possible?

 

[kixxit]

Music stores such as Guitar Center are great for auditioning.  They usually have all monitors set up in the same room and since you don't have to worry about separate amps etc, they're easy to compare.

 

[MorbidToaster]

I love GC for just this reason. I actually recently bought (after auditioning) a pair of QSC K12s from them.
 
Something I would definitely suggest though is calling first to make sure they have what you want to hear. There are 3 GC in my town and only 1 of them actually carried all the speakers I wanted to hear.
 
Depending on the size and foot traffic each store sees they might not carry what you're looking for.
 
For instance. I wanted to listen to the QSC K series along side the KW series (the next 'step up') the store closest to me only carried the K series so I had to drive about 30 minutes to hear the KW series.
 
Quote:

Music stores such as Guitar Center are great for auditioning.  They usually have all monitors set up in the same room and since you don't have to worry about separate amps etc, they're easy to compare.

 

[mcmalden]

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Do you want a speaker to spread sound in all unwanted and unintended directions thereby creating spurious reflections and destroying the stereo soundfield?

 
It has always been my believe that wide dispertion is a positive thing. Moreover, manufactures take great effort to achieve this. Having reflections is one of the main advantages speakers have over headphones. In other words: 'the band' is playing in your room. With bad off-axis response the reflections are actually different from the reflections a 'singer' or 'guitar' would create, messing op the imaging and the use of room-acoustics. Therefore speakers with good despertions have a wider and more precise stereo-image. And ofcourse you will have less of a  'sweet spot' nor trouble with turn-in. 
 
 
 

 
What I want are monitors for my living room that might sound decent beyong a 1sqf "sweet spot", that may just so happen to be active.

 
Band-tweeters, or membrane-tweeters, often have very good despertion characteristic. Active speakers with such a tweeter probably won't have much placing issues. That's a bit of a wild guess. ELAC has released a new active monitor which should be very suitable for music. I am bit of an ELAC fan myself so you should take that into consideration;P.

 

[kixxit]

Quote:

 
It has always been my believe that wide dispertion is a positive thing. Moreover, manufactures take great effort to achieve this. Having reflections is one of the main advantages speakers have over headphones. In other words: 'the band' is playing in your room. With bad off-axis response the reflections are actually different from the reflections a 'singer' or 'guitar' would create, messing op the imaging and the use of room-acoustics. Therefore speakers with good despertions have a wider and more precise stereo-image. And ofcourse you will have less of a  'sweet spot' nor trouble with turn-in. 
 
 
 
 
Band-tweeters, or membrane-tweeters, often have very good despertion characteristic. Active speakers with such a tweeter probably won't have much placing issues. That's a bit of a wild guess. ELAC has released a new active monitor which should be very suitable for music. I am bit of an ELAC fan myself so you should take that into consideration;P.

I really appreciate the input.  One of the great things about a stereo setup is the ability to share the music, and move around a bit while doing so.  I already have a HT setup - Deftech Mythos STS/Ten (center)/GemXL (surround) but no dedicated room so the actives will be for 2 channel listening only. Hitting the ELAC website now....
 
Ok...do you really need that many product lines?  Time to do so me research!

 

[mcmalden]

Quote:

I really appreciate the input.  One of the great things about a stereo setup is the ability to share the music, and move around a bit while doing so.  I already have a HT setup - Deftech Mythos STS/Ten (center)/GemXL (surround) but no dedicated room so the actives will be for 2 channel listening only. Hitting the ELAC website now....
 
Ok...do you really need that many product lines?  Time to do so me research!

 
There is a link in ''a new active monitor'' from my original post. My bad, should have said that. It's the AM180. ELAC is one of the biggest manufacturers I believe, so I guess they indead have many product lines.
 
I would choose stereo over surround anytime. The dept of a good stereo setup is more than enough for me. My dad's reciever sounds like crap, it's one of those new Yamaha's. Even with movies I wasn't very much impressed using my new and old speakers. Since sound is a wave, front and rear speakers will actually work against each other.

 

[Chris J]

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Since sound is a wave, front and rear speakers will actually work against each other.

 
Huh?
 
That's like saying the front left and front right are working against each other.

 

[liamstrain]

Depending on placement, timing, etc - opposed drivers FACING each other, could act like a push/pull system, and do some odd things. But that typically wouldn't be an issue across a room, and even 1 degree of toe in would eliminate any problems from that interaction entirely.

 

[Chris J]

Quote:

Depending on placement, timing, etc - opposed drivers FACING each other, could act like a push/pull system, and do some odd things. But that typically wouldn't be an issue across a room, and even 1 degree of toe in would eliminate any problems from that interaction entirely.

 
In other words, read the manual and set your surround sound system up properly. Position and angle the speakers as shown in the manual.
 
OTOH, my friend has a Yamaha surround sound receiver and Bose speakers.
It really sounds like dog excrement and someone really needs to poop and scoop his sound system into the dumpster.

 

[MorbidToaster]

Most surround sound set ups I've seen (set up guides anyway) tell you to have the back speakers actually above you and pointing down a bit if possible.

 

[mcmalden]

Quote:

 
Huh?
 
That's like saying the front left and front right are working against each other.

 
The same way active noise cancellation works. This problem also occures in a stereo setup. Though speakers facing each other interact more. 
 

 
This is 90% of the reason headphones show more detail than speakers. Moreover the fuss about the 'nearfield' has got everything to do with this. In the nearfield you'll get some of the detail which is lost at greater distances.