Cross-talk and distortion, chief soundstage contributors...

I am not of the opinion that the room accounts for the majority of the sound stage.  It may be one component but that is only part of the equation.  In building components, when I first brought my DHT DAC over to Audio Connection a number of years ago, John Rutan's reaction to me was wow this is like 4D.  He told me to name the DAC the Fun Box.  Same system he was listening to but the DAC changed the sound stage dramatically.  You can change the sound stage with different resistors - I know I keep saying the same thing over and over again.  Add an AC filter choke and you will have an impact on the sound stage for cheap also.

Happy Listening.

erik_squires8,583 posts04-19-2020 2:21pm

Answer my own questions then. Words matter!!!

If this was directed towards me, I am not obligated to reply to anyone. I often chose to reply to people who are nice and use complete sentences and make cogent arguments which leave open the possibility of a misunderstanding.

Best,
E

heaudio123367 posts04-19-2020 2:37pmI will take that as directed towards me ....
Channel separation is a measure of cross-talk between two complementary channels. Yes words matter. Understanding what those words mean is important too :-)
One source bleeding into another is also cross-talk. Tends not to be an issue in any competently designed product.

No guys I'm dence. It takes me a while to catch on, and figure it out.

But channel separation and crosstalk are two different things, when it comes to balance in a stereo. Crosstalk is the point where two channels cross and the communication between the two exist.

Channel separation is the point where there is not any communication between the two.  Two entirely different thing. 

I use to measure crosstalk, on a job site so I could get the best channel separation. Between wireless remotes. 

That why I didn't understand.

No finger pointing, thumbs pointed back. No ones obligated to answer, I'm just obligated to TRY to understand. Personal thing...

Regards

The "bleeding" of information from one channel to the other, is what I'm seeking to understand - how does this impact soundstage? I brought this up because I'm researching amplifiers, ad nauseam. Perhaps I should start a thread for dealing with the ad nauseam approach to buying new, expensive, sound-tech-trophies, or something. 

So, this subject, particularly the crosstalk element, arose in discussion with an amplifier manufacturer, who wrote the following: 

"Crosstalk is a measure of how much undesirable left signal is mixed with right output. Amplifiers all being one box are doing their best to be separate boxes one per channel, splitting apart the signals to ensure when it reaches the speakers, you can tell that the singer is standing slightly to the left of the stage and the violins towards the right. The more crosstalk there is, the harder it is to pick out the positions of the instruments as stereo separation is affected."

What do you make of this perspective???

@bigkidz can you speak to crosstalk within the amplifier's purview and how amplifier crosstalk alone influences soundstage? 

With respect to amp, there are some merits in term of reducing cross-talk improving soundstage. Everything else being equal, I found that dual monoblock amps tend to have a more stable soundstage and focus. Intuitively, the less interference between the leff-right channel will improve the soundstage focus.

And of course having a well treated room will improve the soundstage as well. Likewise, better DAC, better cables, and so on will help as well.

As for cross-talk, there is more than just left-right channel.  There are cross-talks between the woofer and tweeter as well.  That's why bi-amp will eliminate the woofer-tweeter cross-talk which will in turn improving the soundstage and image focus.