Ordered Jim Smiths book, it's on the way. In the meantime I adjusted the tilt a few degrees on the Vandy's...........that did lift the sound stage somewhat, perhaps more is needed. When I have some time to play I'll see what I can do to fine tune my setup........tilt, placement, toe in, room treatment, etc..
Don't hate me qdrone, but I can't for the life of me understand why most of the vaunted AC treatment up front should make any difference to the sound. I've always thought and perhaps I'm wrong, that the level of equipment that most of us have is designed to filter out any birdies, bogeys or what have you from the wall socket well before the audio chain. A properly designed, filtered and regulated power supply should be immune to all but the worst AC.Â
That said, I have not personally played with these types of tweaks, nor have I had the opportunity to experience them in someone else's system, so I'm merely expressing an opinion based on no actual experience..................If you got a significant difference and improvement in your gear, then obviously it did SOMETHING useful.
I never question anyone else's experience, but sometimes I do have trouble getting my head around it from a technical perspective.............Why, for instance should a $100 ultra wall outlet make any difference at all to your gear? All it has to do is transfer the AC to your power cord(s)........It either does that, or it doesn't. If the outlet is worn out and the plugs are loose you could conceivably get arcing and heating from a high resistance connection.............and burn your house down........Aside from that I cannot imagine why a Hubbel outlet should be any better..........sonically.......... than a $5 Leviton from Home Depot. People buy em, people swear by em, I don't question their experience.
Many things in audio seem to defy technical logic, yet people swear by them and spend serious money on them.............My experience has been largely limited to my own gear and I'm not much of a tweaker, so perhaps I'm missing out :).......Ignorance is bliss..........I'm here to learn from others.....regardless of whether what works for them makes any sense to me.
Sorry, kinda got off topic there.......thanks for the inputs :)