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The illusion of soundstage.

What am I missing. Could someone explain why a speaker can produce a soundstage wider than the speakers drivers? We all talk about this as if it is  a defacto thing. I can understand depth being created but why the width?
veroman
newbee
4,794 posts
 
Out of phase information on the record/cd will appear to come from beyond the boundaries of the speakers. In phase information will appear only between the speakers - unless you are getting a lot of side wall reflections which can give the illusion of a wider soundfield (you also lose some fine resolution that exists without the reflected information added).

Some manufacturers have made or altered equipment by playing with the phase relationships to make the soundstage seem wider than it can appear in a properly set up system of traditional equipment. This can be accomplished in speakers as well as electronics.
vicweast's avatar
vicweast
150 posts
 
My understanding is that this is a complex question. Largely, the effect is a function of how the speaker interacts with the room. You can experiment with this by moving your setup around ...even into another room. Does it sound the same? Probably not. 

Toe-in of the speakers will narrow the soundstage, as will in my experience having the speakers too close to side walls. But, frankly I did not experiment much in this regard.

Have you shot your room with, say R.E.W.? That's a nice piece of freeware that runs on, say a laptop. You will also need a good quality microphone for this purpose ($50 or up), a microphone cable (usually a balanced cable with these mics) and an analog (balanced in) to digital (usb out) converter (I got one of several in the $200-500 realm. I think this is a very worthwhile thing for an audiophile to do unless you have far better ears than I have. You will thus have the tools to explore the invisible world of what your room does when it interacts to specific frequencies from your speakers. (I ended up moving speakers and pasting damping sobathane on the back of artwork, a mirror, the inside of a modern floor lamp,...)
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 

Depth was falsely created by the Poms (English) speaker manufactures back in the days (70’s-80’s) with their speakers, by a dip in the midrange by 3db, this gave a greater illusion of depth. As to width, that’s another art.


Cheers George

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