Speaker Imaging - Do you hear a line, or do you hear an arc??

Tom :

Thanks so much for remembering me. I think you are the third person who ever took any of my advice! Getting good sound with minimal effort and cost is a goal I have for myself and like to share. I'm glad I could help you.


I could make things better here, I'm just ... settling. I had plans to donate furniture, and make a lot more space in the living room, turning the stereo around and re-positioning the 5 panels and 2 bass traps.


Unfortunately the Vet's org won't take furniture this big, and most want me to pay to ship to them, so I'm probably going to junk some big pieces as I downsize, and just thinking of that wears me out. :)


I should make it a priority and reward myself with a nice new rack from Butcher Block Acoustics.


Best,
E

I have a pretty big room....10' ceilings....12,000 cubic feet.  Speakers are Salk Veracity STs...9' apart and 30" out from the rear wall.  No room treatments...lots of glass, ceramic tile, and drywall...with a few area rugs and furniture....normal listening volume around 80db...max peaks of 85db.


As of now, I don't stream...only CDs.  Almost never is the soundstage for a whole CD an arc...but almost every CD has at least one song that has lots of depth and could be described as an arc.

Here are just two "arc" examples from some really old CDs...Al Stewart, "On the Border - Live Version"  and Steppenwolf, "Hoochie Coochie Man".

Or, a little more recent....Josh Turner, "Long Black Train"

Mostly, I would describe the overall sound as sitting at one of the front tables at a medium size club...you can perceive/recognize depth, width and height and occasionally when the song was mixed with a lot of ambience, it almost seems like immersion. 

@ieales- thank you!
@erik_squires - hope you finish it soon, and do reward yourself!

Tom

 With a good recording,I would say more like a bubble. Height,width,and depth. Images expanding beyond physical boundaries. That's the stuff that makes me love this hobby.

You’re close, very close. It’s a hemisphere, half a bubble. If it was a sphere we’d hear things below the boundary of the floor. 😬 The soundstage is also defined by the density, transparency, gestalt/organization of the images, solidity of the images and accuracy of the shape of the images. Just when you think you have a good soundstage along comes a guy like my customer no. 1 who has completely REDEFINED what is possible for a soundstage. Everyone else, sadly perhaps, is at least two paradigms behind the power curve.