Soundstage there/gone/moves - poor current ????

It's the incoming power which contains all sorts of nasties.
Power conditioners, dedicated lines, fancy outlets, etc., all make an improvement. Also, the time of day, your mood, humidity, you name it, all have effect of how we preceive things. Right now, you're stressed out over this. Relax a little. Also, changing IC's, components around has a detrimental effect on one's system. Takes awhile for things to settle down and start sounding good again. Mark, you need to concentrate on other matters in the bedroom! Hope things work out for the better. Bill

Can you provide a clearer idea of what is going on? (you yourself may know but aren't describing it). Do you mean that you take the same track at the same volume and get all this variability in its playback from hour to hour? Do you live in the center of a city where you are subject to a lot of vibration from traffic? Have you charted your line voltage to see how stable it is over a 24 hour period. Is there a time of day when the sound is consistently best (e.g. late at night) Do you live in an old apartment building with substandard a/c. High RFI area? Sounds silly to say, but are the door and windows always open/closed? Room acoustics are big factors in imaging, and hallways have major effects.

By the way, have you also checked your ic's, sc's and pc's?

With untreated a/c, the standard issues are smearing, coloration, and poor resolution, but not the sort of large scale variability you are describing. If it were my situation and I believed it to be a/c related, I'd do basic measurements on my a/c (check the amperage of current loops and what else is on each of them, what appliances share the same phase as your audio, grounding quality, voltage variability over the day, line integrity). This is good info anyway, but if nothing checks out obviously badly, then I'd borrow a good line filter for the front end and preamp and investigate whether it stabilizes your sound problems.

I agree with Bill. The fact that your soundstage can be perfect, though sporadic, leads me to believe you have some electrical stuff going on. I'm a firm believer in quality power conditioning, dedicated lines, and good power cables. I am a big Audio Magic fan. Have gone from the Stealth, to the Matrix, and now, the Eclipse. Dedicated lines are a good start, but garbage in is garbage out. I've seen used Stealth Minis on the 'gon as well as Matrixes at great prices. Give one a listen. I love mine. Keep us posted. Happy listening....peace warren

P.S. what kind of power cords are you using?

This kind of stuff happens to me too and when it does i use cognac.Images will solidify right away,the instruments will have lots of air around them and you'll be able to hear singers amd musicians lick their chops and smack their lips as if asking you to pour some.Cheers.

Thanks for the responses.

flex:
I live in a house on a slab in the west part of the city. My a/c is coming from the bottom breaker on the right. The heater, living room, kitchen, garage are all above it. So I am getting the worst of the a/c I suppose. The listening is with the same music and volume. It can change within the cd that is playing. I do use stock power cords. I did not want to change the cords until I could get the system to be consistent so I could actually see what the cord can do. I will check into power conditioners. Has anyone had this sort of problem and a power conditioner fix it? Also, I am trying to relax a little. This hobby can be very frustrating.

Mark