What Could Cause Center Image To Present Lower than Expected

OK. This is getting to be very frustrating. The first adjustment was reducing the tilt back. Or approached level. At first, I thought I noticed a slight change in image height; however, after further listening I can't confirm this change. So, I decided to move the speakers closer together. From 7' to just under 6' apart.

This, also, did not affect the level of the image, but it did negatively affect the soundstage. It was reduced in width but maybe deeper? But the strange thing was the image was affected too. And this is where it gets strange. The first time listening after the move, the image was not as centered.  I then thought about returning the tilt to the speaker. This did not seem to do anything. I decided to try something that I had read about and closed my eyes and things kind of came together but still no change in image height. 

Lost but not defeated.

Question - in a perfect world --- should it ever appear that an instrument is coming directly from the speaker in the soundstage? Or should everything be presented in an open space? I hope this question makes sense. 

Scott

You are tilting the wrong way.  You need the speaker to tilt back more OR sit further away OR sit lower 

FWIW some speakers sound much better at higher volumes, not so much at low volumes, especially imaging issues. Just for the fun of it, crank up your volume a bit an see what happens. Also, set up your speakers and chair in an equilateral triangle as an experiment just to see what your speakers can sound like in a more optimal position even though you may not be able to maintain this position for aesthetic reasons.  

Lost but not defeated

Very well said!  Put another way — YOU’RE LEARNING VERY VALUABLE INFORMATION!!!  Yes, what you’re doing now is hard and often very frustrating, but keep fighting the fight and you’ll get there!

Question - in a perfect world --- should it ever appear that an instrument is coming directly from the speaker in the soundstage? Or should everything be presented in an open space? I hope this question makes sense.

There are some recordings — oftentimes older recordings — where the sound of an instrument or singer will just be “stuck” to the speaker.  Nothing you can really do about that because it’s just baked in and can also be a function of the speaker design characteristics.  But, I find the better you get your speakers dialed in the less “sticky” they become and images tend to just float better in space.  This is the prime benefit of the effort you’re putting in now.  I’d forget about tilting the speakers back at this point because you’re just introducing another variable into the equation you really don’t need to deal with on top of all the other very important stuff you’re trying to figure out.  Keep experimenting with the basics — distance from back wall, distance between speakers, toe-in, etc. — and once you get that right, and you’ll know it when you do, then maybe mess with how far to tilt the speakers back if at all.  Keep in mind, your speakers were not designed to be tilted so just don’t do that until you have the other stuff right.  Just my $0.02 FWIW, and keep fighting the good fight!  It’ll pay off. 
 

In the description of your speaker on the company website they talk about it having adjustable rake angle so they obviously understand the importance of it in relationship to your seating distance, seating height and ear height.  Calculate the distance from your ear to the floor in a normal seating position and then adjust the rake angle of the speaker so that your ear is in the acoustical center of the speaker.  It may involve you asking the dealer or even Totem what the designer intended the acoustical center of this model to be. As the speaker is normally tilted backwards from the photos that will probably involve tilting the speaker forward a bit.  This has been a proponent of Vandersteen speaker set up for decades.