Soundstage - Too much?

You are right that the speaker is recreating the recoreded sound stage. I think though that it does it through perposly useing reflection points.

perfectimage, while ewe may be right that *some* speaker mfr's try to recreate the pre-recorded soundstage by purposely using reflection-points, i think that the vast majority of speaker mfr's try to voice their speakers *without* using reflection points.

i believe it was acoustic research that produced a speaker designed to use a rooms' sidewalls as reflectors (was the model called the magic?). it actually had a side-firing driver, angled, so as to bounce sound off the side-walls. but, i believe that designs such as these are in the minority - it wood be nearly impossible for a designer to try & determine yust *where* the reflection-point wood be in such a vast array of differing end-user room-possibilities. better to design for *no* reflection point, & if an end user *has* these unwanted reflection-points, due to small room, or other unknown variables, then that user can reduce its impact w/proper sound-treatment.

yust my opinion, doug

I really think this is an excellent thread and posts. I didn't know how to rate all the "good stuff", so I decided to just give everyone a +1 for content and a +1 for delivery. I got about 1/3 of the way through the posts, and the "system" wouldn't accept any more ratings by me. I suppose a question for Agon?? But thanks to all for content and delivery-- I think this is what this forum was meant to be. I can contribute a question. On several occasions (with component, PC, and tube changes) I have gotten a huge, forward, diffuse, very airy, and IMO, a very unnatural soundstage. This was caused when using (1) ML 331 amp, (2) SF Line 3 pre-amp, (3) API power cord on McCormack DNA-2DX amp, (4) ESP Essence PC on DNA2 amp, (5) putting NOS Amperex 7308 tubes in 2 positions in my standard SF Line 2 pre-amp. The "normal" image in my system is very solidly behind and between my Vand. 3As with soundstaging depending on CD, eg Lucinda Williams "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" soundstages wall to wall, and a few others do this as well, but in my case most soundstaging is just between speakers. My 3As are on a short wall of my 14 X 22 room. Center to center about 80" apart and about 3 feet from sidewalls, and 4.5 ft. from front wall. I definitely do prefer this laid back presentation, but have really wondered about the huge, forward, diffuse soundstage with equipment changes. It absolutely amazed me that a single PC or tube change could do this. It seemed more possible with a major component change, ie the amp and pre-amp noted. Any thoughts, comments? Seems like this question fits this thread. Thanks. Craig

.....false alarm about the voting/rating thing on my part. At some point I just didn't close "the window". I completed rating each post-- must have taken 10 minutes. Cheers. Craig.

Craig, your room and set-up is very similiar to mine. I'm 1 foot shorter, (always behind the big guys) I have been playing around with different powercords and footers lately. Each time I do anything the presentation changes. The past 2 weeks my system has been perfect!!!!! So in the true audiophile manner I had to try a different cone on my tube pre-amp. I lost the magic that fast. So I put the others back, but I cann't quite find the same point they hit the pre-amps bottom plate. It's close but not quite, so I came out to play computer. The point is, even the finest adjustment on a high resolution system like we both share will alter the presentation. Speaker placement we all are aware of, location is critical to success. It's the tweeks that create the magic, not a new amp. Keep trying suttle alterations, maybe go back to a base point, old powercord, new tubes or whatever. I'm sure it's as suttle as a cone moving 4mm. Good luck, keep us posted. Your continuing the high value of this post with your input. J.D.