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How to add depth for classical music

While listening to classical music, especially the orchestral pieces (e.g. Beethoven Piano/Violin Concertos, Symphonies), I find that my system is not giving me the depth, such as layers of instruments etc.   My listening environment is not ideal.  I have hard wood floor and tray ceiling.  On one side, I have windows and on the other side, I have a long corridor.  

Here's my system:
  • Parasound P5 & A23
  • Sonus Faber Venere 3.0
  • Bluesound Node2i
  • Chord Qutest

Would a new preamp/amp or integrated amp help?   I've auditioned Moon (SimAudio) 340iX and thought it's more opened than my Parasound.   But for some strange reason, I didn't really like the sound.   Maybe I need to audition again.  

Would room treatment help?  But my options are limited because of my room.

Love to hear your thoughts.
pc_audio
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,217 posts
 
Are you sure your classical recordings have "layered depth"?  If they weren't recorded for true stereo, then nothing you can do on the playback side can correct that.  Try some test recordings specifically made to test for depth reproduction.  There are several.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
roberjerman
Depth perception exists in the recording.

>>>> +1 The acoustic space is captured on the recording. In the old days digital time delay like Audio Pulse Model One created a synthetic soundstage with multiple amps and multiple speakers. But as systems and methods and tweaks improved a purer, more realistic soundstage could be generated with two channel stereo.
tweak1
3,657 posts
 
I owned the P-5 and A23, but only used them in balanced mode. Replacing the P-5 is a good place to start
petg60
1,486 posts
 
Hi,
room effects are critical but positioning of your speakers has the greatest effect. Try to position them further apart and close your listening distance, then toe in. Height of listening plays a good role also. True in some recordings the depth and ambience is not so great but the holographic experience should be audible.
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,318 posts
 

I'll echo others in saying that if you want to spend your money wisely, ignore any advice from millercarbon.

Image depth is almost always dependent on how far out your speakers are from the front wall (the wall behind them).  The further out, the deeper the soundstage.

I endorse many other comments on room treatment.

The SF Venere's were an entry-level product from SF and frankly not up to the standard of some of SF's costlier designs.  I auditioned the 3.0's years ago.  In a brief in-store audition they were initially impressive, but then I came to realize that that was because of what I called a technicolor sonic presentation, which will tire over time.  Kind of like the way TVs are demo'd in stores, with all the settings maxed out.  But I think a lot of what you are experiencing can be tamed with room treatment.

Remember, too--there are several threads on this subject--that a full-scale symphony orchestra is, by far, the hardest kind of music to reproduce convincingly in a domestic space, so it's never going to be as satisfying, mutatis mutandis, as, say, a well-recorded jazz trio.

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