What should you hear?


I'm new to the hobby and curious what type of imaging sound stage you should hear.  I have a pair of Vandersteen 2ce signatures and they sound great.  What I find however is that the imaging, sound stage is very dependent on the recording.   

Norah Jones?  She sounds like she's sitting right in the room.  It's amazing.  

One I'm particularly interested in learning more about is Brubek's Take Five.   The saxophone images great.  Sounds dead center.  The piano however is clearly coming from the right hand speaker and the drums are clearly coming from the left.  Is this typical? 

Thanks for your input and tolerating a "newbie" question. 
mvrooman1526
Play with some room treatments. I have 2CE Sigs, and that helped out the soundstage and imaging a lot, even on recordings that were mastered in an extreme R&L way, as was unfortunately typical for some early stereo recordings, such as your old Brubeck. Even more extreme are early Charlie Parker recordings, John Coltrane, Miles, or the worst, the early Beatles recordings. Some of this extreme separation you just have to live with. So yes, as already stated, much is how the music was recorded and mastered. Newer music typically does not have the same issue as older recordings, and the center image is almost always ‘spot on’. But you want, if at all possible, the sound eminating from ‘the stage’ the same way the musicians were in the recording (unfortunately much modern music was never recorded this way in the first place, as a ‘live performance’, as it was all recorded at different times). The ‘live stage’ effect is the ideal so the instruments don’t sound like they are coming directly from the speaker face, but more side to side. A good recording helps, and more poorly recordings can be helped with speaker placement and acoustical treatments. The 2CE’s are very finicky about placement to achieve this goal. Been there, done that.

Begin playing with some acoustical treatment. I find in my case, the 2CE’s are benefited more from diffusion vs absorption, have both, but that may just be my room. You can do this cheaply by getting some foam or rigid insulation and tape panels of it temporarily in various locations to find what may work best in your room. There is basic info available to this as well all over the internet or on YouTube. As far as diffusion panels, that is tougher to to get something cheap to temporarily use. I actually found some sculpted 18”x18” architectural ‘Tiles’, taped them together behind, and then applied them to my walls with 2 sided foam 3M ‘tape’.
@mvrooman1526 - That particular Brubeck recording is likely supposed to sound that way. It is the way the stereo mix was mastered. It is referred to as hard panning. This means a particular instrument was mixed only (hard) to the left speaker or only (hard) to the right speaker. Another instrument (or vocalist) could be mixed equally in the left and the right channels, creating an image centered between the speakers.

The hard panning of Brubeck's piano is actually mentioned in a thread on the Steve Hoffman site. Here's a link. Read the whole thread if you have the time, but the Brubeck mention is in post # 28:

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/stereo-hard-panning-love-it-or-hate-it.123731/

Enjoy your new hobby. 
Whenever a question arises, regarding sound stage and imaging; I make this suggestion: The following provide tests, with which one may determine whether their system actually images, or reproduces a sound stage, as recorded.       ie: On the Chesky sampler/test CD; David explains in detail, his position on the stage and distance from the mics, as he strikes a tambourine(Depth Test).        The LEDR test tells what to expect, if your system performs well, before each segment.        The Chesky CD contains a number of tests, in addition to the LEDR.            (https://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_ledr.php )      and: (https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/2818064?ev=rb)      An article, in Stereophile, on the subject: (https://www.stereophile.com/features/772/index.html)
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Toms should also stretch from your right to your left in descending tone on newer recordings, mimicking what you'd hear if you were watching a right-handed drummer on stage.