The sweet spot is a term used by

audiophile An audiophile is a person who is enthusiastic about high-fidelity sound reproduction. An audiophile seeks to reproduce the sound of a piece of recorded music or a live musical performance, typically inside closed headphones, In-ear monitors, open ...

s and recording engineers to describe the focal point between two speakers, where an individual is fully capable of hearing the stereo audio mix the way it was intended to be heard by the mixer. The sweet spot is the location which creates an

equilateral triangle In geometry, an equilateral triangle is a triangle in which all three sides have the same length. In the familiar Euclidean geometry, an equilateral triangle is also equiangular; that is, all three internal angles are also congruent to each othe ...

together with the stereo loudspeakers, the stereo triangle. In the case of

surround sound Surround sound is a technique for enriching the fidelity and depth of sound reproduction by using multiple audio channels from speakers that surround the listener ( surround channels). Its first application was in movie theaters. Prior to sur ...

, this is the focal point between four or more speakers, i.e., the location at which all wave fronts arrive simultaneously. In international recommendations the sweet spot is referred to as ''reference listening point''. Different static methods exist to broaden the area of the ''sweet spot''. A discussion of methods and their benefits can be found in Merchel ''et al.'' By means of such methods more than one listener can enjoy the sound experience as intended by the audio engineer, including the desired phantom source locations, spectral and spatial balance and degree of immersion. Alternatively, the ''sweet spot'' can be adjusted dynamically to the actual position of the listener. Therefore, a correct phantom source localization is possible over the whole listening area. This approach is implemented in the

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

project SweetSpotter. Massive multi-channel audio systems that apply

wave field synthesis Wave field synthesis (WFS) is a spatial audio rendering technique, characterized by creation of virtual acoustic space, acoustic environments. It produces ''artificial'' wavefronts synthesized by a large number of individually driven loudspeake ...

or higher order ambisonics exhibit an extended optimal listening area instead of a sweet spot. Sound engineers also refer to the ''sweet spot'' of any noise-producing body that may be captured with a microphone. Every individual instrument has its own sweet spot, the perfect location to place the microphone or microphones, in order to obtain the best sound.

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Further reading