I actually just bought a tube preamp from Aric Audio - the Unlimited model, about a month or so ago and I'm finally enjoying the so called mid-range bloom that everyone talks about. It makes the soundstage seem noticeably more layered with more air around the vocals and instruments, particularly horns in smaller ensembles. The vocals just sound more live. The height element is very deceptive though since it is very content dependent and could very well be absent to begin with especially since the majority of the music is recorded in a studio setting. I don't know if it's even possible for the recording engineers to "add" height to the recording. They can add depth pretty good not so sure about relative height. Maybe someone can give some insight if that is indeed possible.
Another soundstage question
There are a couple of soundstage related threads running on the amp/preamp section and they reminded me of a question I’ve been meaning to ask without hijacking those threads. The speakers are Vandersteen 2Ci and the system along with their placement is giving me a real deep and relatively wide soundstage - but not much further to the sides, but I’d like the height of the soundstage be little higher. The speakers are on the sides of a bay window, about 10’ apart and with heavy drapes pulled on either side and about 2.5’ behind the speakers. Much lighter curtains cover the bay windows for privacy. In my seating position that is about 10’ away from each speaker the top of the soundstage is just about the top of the speakers, sort of like I’m sitting at the same level as the musicians. The depth is realistic but I think the height needs to higher to give a better feel for the height of the singer standing in the middle and the rest of the band scattered at different levels within the stage. So having said all this, is the soundstage height mostly a function of the electronics driving the speakers or its the size/shape of the speakers, e.g., speaker height, tilt, etc., the listening placement, or a combination of all of the above. Thanks.
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I got a bit fanatical about speaker placement geometry a couple of years ago after purchase of a pair of gently used Genesis 6.1s. These speakers are capable of sounding sublime with proper placement and associated gear but can sound horrible when poorly positioned. After about a year of trying new placement, footers, room tuning, etc., I was finally getting decent sound from them but no way close to my expectations for what a 10K speaker should do - still not even close to my 25 year-old Snell B's in the same system. The imaging was supposed to be the forte of these things, but I couldn't get the soundstage nearly as wide or deep as the venerable B's and briefly considered selling them. I was desperate for advice other than upgrade my amps, preamp and cabling (all of which I had already done) when I discovered a white-paper written by Gary Koh, the designer and top dog a genesis on speaker placement. It seems that Mr. Koh writes as well as he designs speaker systems. The link below will take you to "The Genesis Loudspeaker Setup Procedure". This paper discusses every facet of speaker placement and suggests actual musical pieces that he and his installers use to get their most expensive systems on song in just a day or two - much better than my year or more. It describes 10 steps to methodically establish the actual adjustments with musical selections tailored for each adjustment. Although meant originally for the Genesis product line, this paper can be used to systematically adjust each parameter while listening to the recommended track to spotlight the changes you make. It helped me to finally get my system sounding better than I had ever imagined I would hear in my own home. http://www.genesisloudspeakers.com/whitepaper/Genesis_Loudspeaker_Setup_Procedure.pdf |
tomic601: Impossible to say! I made so many changes to my system during the year before I got them sorted out that no comparison to the Snells can be made. I went from a hodge-podge of racking to a new Steve Blinn Super-wide rack that I modified with Herbie's Titanium gliders, Star Sound spikes and Herbies dots to replace the rubbery mini-balls provided by the maker. Then, I was in the right place at the right time when Tweek Geek broke off their distribution deal with Paul Kaplan's Waveform Fidelity and practically gave away his existing inventory of GSIII cables. I also got my phono stage a new set of NOS tubes to replace the factory gold lions, discovered Star Sound platforms, Symposium rollerblocks, upgraded my SACD/CD player from a stock OPPO 95 to a highly modified Sony SACD-1 that finally made digital sound good to me after 30 years of effort. Also, I remodeled the listening room to place the system on a better wall and finally sold the house and started over in an old farmhouse in a smaller but less boxy room. Now it has been a fine year for system mods as I dialed in the new room. I decided to start here in the smaller digs by reverting back to the Snells and so have not yet tried the Genesis speakers here yet. I have slightly modified the B’s by replacing the front woofers, repairing the surrounds on the midranges, replacing the driver screws with stainless steel (best $2.00 tweak I ever heard), Cardas Patented Binding posts and some aftermarket fuses. I also ditched the spikes in favor of Daedalus Audio’s new Speaker Dids. Every day I think about swapping out the Snells for the far newer and more expensive Genesis just to learn the answer to your question myself. No hurry, though. Getting back on topic, I did follow Gary Koh’s white paper to set up the Snells here, but it only took a couple of weeks to declare victory and start to just listen to music. |
Soundstage is recording specific, so it's a good idea to spend at least half of your listening time adjusting the speakers to the recording…I recommend jury rigging remote garage door openers to the speakers so you can move them around without leaving the chair, and attach the chair itself to rollers that lock into place once you get it right…note you may have to switch it all up for each track so there goes another bit of valuable listening time…but utterly worth it... |
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