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How high is your soundstage?

I have been having a lot of trouble getting my soundstage to sound the way I like it. Almost all of the systems I have heard generates a soundstage that is 1-5ft above the speaker itself. I really like this as it helps to make the speakers disappear. Sound seems to come from behind and to the sides of the speakers. Everytime I hear my friend's setup, I go home frustrated. In my setup, the soundstage is right at the tweeter level. To me, too much music is coming directly from the speakers. I do not hear anything behind or to the sides of speakers. In other words, my soundstage is narrow and shallow! I have tried a lot of different speaker/sitting positions to no avail. Nothhing I do raises the soundstage. I am pretty sure its my room.

So out of curiosity, I would like to know how high is your soundstage? Is it at tweeter height or above? If above, how much above?
128x128tboooe
mauiaudioman
171 posts
 
Tboooe,
Microphones cannot hear height, left or right. They condense 3 dimensions into one: distance. It's like a pin-hole camera.
davt's avatar
davt
505 posts
 
The soundstage of my system improved dramatically when I moved and the system is now in a room with vaulted ceilings, much more room. I would say that the room is the primary issue.
cleaneduphippy
323 posts
 
Tboooe,

No doubt, that nook is causing the "soundstaging" problem. You might want to try placing your speakers outside of the nook and see what happens. Had a friend who used to play in a band, and in one of the places they used to play, the stage was built into a nook (which he described as playing inside a box). Consequently when they played there and put the PA on the sides of the stage they would have problems with the sound being distributed throughout the room. They somewhat solved the problem by placing the PA offstage and to the front and the far sides of the nook, thus minimizing the effect that the nook was causing to the sound.
larryi
4,085 posts
 
How much have you experimented with placement? Generally, the more you tip the speaker backwards so that the drivers are aimed upward, the higher the apparent soundstage. The amount of toe-in can also affect the height of the stage as well as the sense of the sound being bound in the speaker vs. floating free. The further one can get the speaker from all surfaces (side and back walls particularly, big hard pieces of furniture, tv set, etc.) the better the imaging.

Do some experimenting. I would start with tilting the speaker back a bit.
tboooe's avatar
tboooe OP
1,009 posts
 
Thanks to everyone for all of your great responses. I will see what I can do about moving the speakers out of the nook so that they have the full width of the room to breathe. I will also try some heavy blankets behind and to the sides of the speakers. Wish me luck!
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