Sierra Towers w/ RAAL or Siera-2EX for (very) nearfield fronts?

I'm currently in the planning phase for a nearfield surround sound "entertainment center". After looking through several different threads, it seems my use case is a bit different from most people here. Hence, my situation.

This will be a desk configuration of sorts with a 49" 32:9 monitor taking the center piece.

Example image from the internet of what one looks like to give an idea of the scale of what I'm working with:

Attachment 1787

Exact dimensions of speaker placement and listening position are tentative (and therefore a bit flexible), but would still prefer to be in a certain range. Ideally, fronts will be placed 5' to 6' apart, tweeter to tweeter. Listening position, being one seat, would be 3' to 4' away from either speaker. I plan on moving out of my current home before setting up this whole thing, so rest assured that I will find a room where it will all be placed in the the center of the room where it can breathe. Not in the corner like the image above.

Gaming is my primary use case (which I know is pretty rare here), so imaging and soundstage are both quite important to me. But I also do critical music listening pretty often as well, and do watch movies occasionally and will marathon shows. So I do everything, but by and large gaming and music is my concern.

Crux of the situation is that, price being no object whatsoever, would the Towers or the Sierra-2 2EXs be better as fronts from that distance? I'm sure the Sierras would be just fine there, but my concern is that the Towers' drivers would align "behind my head" and that I wouldn't get the full experience of them at that distance. This would still be fine, as long as it still proved to be better than the Sierras in the same position. I also intend to use a Sierra Horizon as a center channel as well.

I'm fully committed to buying Ascend's. But again, price is no object for which on I'd choose; only which would perform best in this scenario. I'm a 'buy something once' kinda guy, so I'd rather invest in getting the best I can once instead of leaving things to uncertainty.

Would really like a response from Dave for obvious reasons, but I appreciate any help or expertise!

Thanks Guy for starting this thread. I'll be following it closely as I too am in the early stages of figuring out a desktop based 5.1 system. One concern I have that I haven't seen addressed is the limited vertical dispersion of ribbon type tweeters. In a mid or farfield situation it apparently is no problem, but if our heads are only 3 feet away does that mean we can't move up or down even a few inches without loosing some of the highs? I would love to know this as there are times I'm sitting up straight working and other times I'm kicked back, feet up on the desk enjoying the music. The difference in ear height is probably more than 6 inches. Any thoughts?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by doctors11

Thanks Guy for starting this thread. I'll be following it closely as I too am in the early stages of figuring out a desktop based 5.1 system. One concern I have that I haven't seen addressed is the limited vertical dispersion of ribbon type tweeters. In a mid or farfield situation it apparently is no problem, but if our heads are only 3 feet away does that mean we can't move up or down even a few inches without loosing some of the highs? I would love to know this as there are times I'm sitting up straight working and other times I'm kicked back, feet up on the desk enjoying the music. The difference in ear height is probably more than 6 inches. Any thoughts?

---

At 3 feet, 6 inches is less than 10 degrees of change. You may barely hear a difference.

FWIW, at 3 feet, 6 inches in any direction will throw off imaging with any set of speakers.

Thanks for responding, Curtis.

I wasn't too worried about the vertical dispersion by looking at the measurements, but it's nice to have confirmation nonetheless. Does that mean that I wouldn't lose any detail from the Towers at that distance as well, especially versus the Sierras? Not entirely sure how to know this information from just looking at the graphs and measurements.

Thanks for that Curtis. So does that mean people who listen nearfield have to keep their heads in almost an exact position? Would a speaker with a well designed wave guide be preferable?

Sorry to hi jack your thread That One Guy, but I find this info interesting and helpful.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by That One Guy

Thanks for responding, Curtis.

I wasn't too worried about the vertical dispersion by looking at the measurements, but it's nice to have confirmation nonetheless. Does that mean that I wouldn't lose any detail from the Towers at that distance as well, especially versus the Sierras? Not entirely sure how to know this information from just looking at the graphs and measurements.

---

Towers at 3 feet? Because of the number of drivers and their spacing, there would be more variance at 3 feet with Tower than the Sierra-1, 2, EX.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by doctors11

Thanks for that Curtis. So does that mean people who listen nearfield have to keep their heads in almost an exact position? Would a speaker with a well designed wave guide be preferable?

Sorry to hi jack your thread That One Guy, but I find this info interesting and helpful.

---

I am not sure how much a waveguide would help at that distance.

Just getting closer to a speaker changes the SPL balance. If I am closer the right speaker...the right speaker sounds louder. A waveguide is not going to help with that.

6 inches in any direction at 3 feet makes much more difference than at 10 feet.

BTW, I’d be concerned about reflections off of the desk more than the position of my head.

Not too worried about reflections since the monitor will be mounted on an adjustable arm, and I can move things around how I want. But you would say that the Sierra-2EXs are a better choice overall versus the Towers due to the multiple drivers?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by curtis

BTW, I’d be concerned about reflections off of the desk more than the position of my head.

---

Understood. I was thinking of something like Isoacoustics stands for the front L and R. The center presents a problem. Either on the desk angled up, using a flexible monitor mount as Guy has shown in the above picture, or a shelf above the monitor with the speaker angled down. I have no idea which would be better.