How high is your soundstage?

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.

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.

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.

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!

Hi tbooe

I agree that its the speaker/room integration. Aside from playing with speaker placement, and on that point try the cardas.com method of placement, it helps to nullify problem nodes etc. Also, go to a home improvement store and buy a couple of those 4ft tall "bags" filled with sheets of unfaced pink insulation. About 14" diameter or whatever. They are about $40 bucks or so, but their return policies are pretty sweet. Just make sure there are no holes in the bags, or the insulation can get everywhere. Tape up the tops, and you're good to go.

One in each corner behind the spks should give you a good idea of how "bass traps" WILL improve things. I bet the spks are overloading your room and all those built up soundwaves are ruining your soundstaging potential, and just about every other aspect.

JonRisch over at audioasylum.com has alot of inexpensive advice on building your own bass traps/panel absorbers etc....Speaker room interaction is the most important variable. I built four bass traps, floor to ceiling, pretty much identical to those offered by asc, and built panel absorbers for the reflection points. Without them, my stereo sounds broken in comparison.

Hope that helps.