Sound stage, front, middle, or behind your speaker

I prefer an image behind the speakers in an (ultimately futile) attempt to create the illusion of sitting in a concert hall, with the performers some distance away. I generally sit mid-way or 3/4 of the way back in a hall, and I want the performers to seem to be an appropriate distance from me.

It may be entirely psychoacoustic in nature, but I position my speakers about midway along the length of my room so there is a space behind them for the musicians to "occupy." I want my ears to tell my brain something that it is impossible for my eyes to tell my brain. Crazy, no? But it works for me, and it works with a variety of different speakers.
-Bob

Elizabeth... does that mean you switch your speaker cables depending on what recordings and types of music you're playing?

Both my amp and DAC feature polarity inversion on the fly, so I have no problem pushing a button on the remote to get the preferred presentation for a given recording. Too bad the majority of equipment manufacturers don't include the polarity invert feature as standard. They apparently think it's inconsequential, but I disagree based on listening to many recordings both ways.

Viridian, I've noticed quite a difference in sound stage in various venues. Sometimes different seats in the same venue can change the sound stage.

Huh, interesting. Completely unscientific, but just monkeying with my phase invert switch (which I have otherwise ignored) to more result than I suspected. Normal phase, my soundstage is generally centered 4-5 feet behind and 2-3 feet above the speakers (to the extent of "centered" bits, such as a centered vocal track), with lateral extension out to a couple of feet beyond the speakers (left/right), and identifiable depth separation range running about 4-5 feet(ish) (from the energy center of "centered" bits behind the speakers forward up to between the speakers, and then to a generally lesser extent, extending further back from the center track). On deeper and wider recordings, such as orchestral bits, often extends both deeper and wider, pretty much in a cone back from the listening position, although estimates gey impossibly more impressionistic and hazy very quickly. But, generally, mine lives up and back from the speakers (and listening position).

With the few tracks I just experimented with, phase inversion seemed to flatten any depth of the soundstage considerably, while at the same time moving it forward several feet, almost up to between the speakers. Speakers are generally very "laid back", but the phase inversion made them much more forward -- not a lot, mind you, but definitely more so.... Interesting.

The variable that seems to affect soundstage presentation the most significantly has been the recording it self. Quite a wide margin of differences.