Soundstage - when wide is too wide


Although I'm often not confident in my understanding of the meaning of audio terminology as used in many posts, I do have some feeling for what the term "soundstage" implies, at least to me. When listening to orchestral presentations I appreciate a "wide soundstage" with some sense of where the strings, brass, kettle drums, etc are located across a real stage. In some recordings of small jazz ensembles postioning of drums, say, are at stage right, especially in older recordings where stereophonic effect is often somewhat exaggerated.

Here's the issue. A lot of what I listen to is solo guitar so the way I'd rather hear it is as if the guitar was played directly across the room from my listening position with a soundstage, then, centered and only a couple of feet wide. That, however, is not the way I hear it especially since I recently made some significant changes to my system.

To set the scene, the two changes that I made include replacing my Martin Logan Odyssey speakers with The ML Ethos. The other is the inclusion of an Equalizer to compensate for personal hearing and room acoustics issues. I know from over 25 years of using curvilinear electrostatic speakers that postioning is a significant issue so I've paid attention to this factor. I'm still working on that and believe that it still may be a big part of the problem.
128x128broadstone
Buy mono recordings or a preamp that has mono switch...from your tastes and sonic preferences...mono recordings would be your cup of tea...strong center image without the severe L -R panning early stereo releases had...although not all mono recordings are equal. Beatles, Hendrix, Dylan come to mind.
You do not mention what EQ you are using, but the Behringer DEQ 2496 has a stereo width function that allows you to make the soundstage wider or narrower. For the most part, you are at the mercy of how the source material was recorded.
Play a mono recording of vocalist with sparse accompaniment. You will need to adjust your system to get a tight center image on the voice.

This is some of the best advice I have seen on this site for setting up the speakers to get good phasing and sweet spot.