How high should I sit?

[tboooe]

I was just curiious what other members' thoughts regarding how high one should sit to achieve optimum sound? By how high I mean where should my ears be vertically? Should it be at the same height as the tweeters or below or above or???

Last night I played around a bit and found that by putting my ears at the same height as the tweeters (I usually sit well below the tweeter height), the sound became more "alive". The highs were more clear and the soundstage seemed to spread out a bit.

Anyway, looking forward to everyone's comments.

[jim777]

In theory I guess it would be tweeter height, but I also love the sound I get from sitting on the floor.

[Race Car Driver]

I usually sit on my butt......







below tweeter height.

[Eliav]

Hi
IMO it's a matter of personal taste. i have tried different hights with my 803s , I personally did not like the direct hit of the tweeters, it made the soundstage more straight in my face. Experiencing the "same level" illusion with the music was something i disliked ( personal taste obviously), too much of an " attack".
personally, I liked the lower seat position where the soundstage presented taller and more "sapced", it made me feel as if I was sitting in front of a live stage. I found my self screwing the spikes as far down as I can so that the tweeters will be as tall as can be. again, this was my experience with the 803s driven by Classe monos, it may be quite a different story with diamond tweeters(802d) and different amps.
regards
Eliav

[dknightd]

It varies more than I would like! Probably my room needs more treatment of vertical modes, or maybe I need to put my "floorstanding" speakers on stands. I tend to enjoy my music more sitting on the floor or laying on the couch. Except when I want to dance. . . In my room I get better frequency responce when below the tweeters, but I enjoy it more when I'm moving around. Still an unresolved issue for me so am curious what gets posted here. My older home built speakers were better in this regard, but I'm not sure why.

[BTB]

Tweeters at ear height, or as close as possible seems the accepted practice, unless (as some have stated) for reasons of personal preference this is not enjoyable.

Far as I understand, treble is more directional than bass. Not trying to sound all technical or clever here... Put simply, you need to be as close as you can to "on-axis" (with your tweeters), too far off (either way) and fine detail, staging etc. will be compromised.

So, tboooe... seems your findings are consistent with what I've stated above.

[Karma]

HI,
Ideally, one should sit at mid-tweeter height. Tweeters are typically very directional, as mentioned above, and the speakers are voiced for that height.

However, different circumstances may produce better sound with the tweeters somewhat off axis to cool off the highs or change the room reflection patterns. Go with what sounds best but on axis is a good starting point.

Sparky

[Jesse111]

I'll tell you exactly how high to sit with a pair of brand new 800D's in about a week.

:T

[JudyLou]

How high should I sit?

Yup - found testing, listening, moving, testing, listening the best thing to do. It very much depends on the listening distance from your main speakers as well.
Like on my 603's, sitting at about 5meters, I've put them on plinths (low stands) and turned out the front and in the reaar spikes to tild them slightly back - now they sound magic.

[PewterTA]

I've always placed my height so that my ears are about half way between the mid driver and tweeter (in a vertical alignment on the speaker). To me this give the best mix of everything the speaker has to offer. Sitting at exactly tweeter height (ear wise) to me gives the mids a slight bit thinner sound to them. Going at or lower than the mid driver seems to loose a lot of higher detail. So that's how I've come around to my "comfort zone" in listening.