From whence does Sound Stage come?

@bolong Looks like my usage wasn’t so bad after all, thank you for your contribution.

@dz13 I agree with your clear and cogent analysis. The issue for me is with reproducing the sound stage in the room. The speakers upstairs work very differently from the speakers downstairs. I’m going to work with the test records and CDs I have on hand and that I expect to arrive soon to get an objective handle on what’s going on in the different rooms with the different speakers.

@noromance I hope someday to get my system to a point where I can hear the differences between the tweaks you mention. I’m especially concerned to stabilize the system upstairs; I can leave the downstairs system free for experimentation. 

@williewonka Wow! That is quite a conversation on Helix Cabling! I’m interested, I’ll have to look into it further. Where would you start in the chain? —Speaker cables, —Power Cables, —Interconnects: source to preamp to amp; or, preamp to amp, then source to preamp?

@oldrooney - I would start with speaker, then interconnect, then power.

Starting with the speaker cables allows you to hear the fine details provided the other cables

For Interconnects, build the source to pre amp first, you should hear a significant improvement. Then build the Pe to main amp IC

For power  cables, start with source components, you'll hear significant improvements, and as you proceed to the main amp you will start to hear the fine details of the Vemue acoustics

Ive found the biggest improvement with my source components. Especially my more budget oriented Bluesound Node 2, 

My Simaudio Moon L5,3 phono stage revealed significantly more fine details and produces a larger and more detailed image

My main amp is a Bryston B135 integrated amo adn the speakers are Gershman Acoustics Sonogram, which are very detailed and now "invisible"

My room is quite large, but with a low ceiling (7.5 ft), so I have very little in the way of sound treatments, just furniture and broadloom, but the image is stuning

Regards, steve

@rodman99999

Well the Chesky CD arrived today, it came from the San Francisco Public Library via eBay. In my case, it seems the question, ‘From Whence comes Sound Stage?” is answered “Whither goes the Stereo Image!” That is to say, both of my systems completely failed the very first test, and thus all following tests, with the exception of the Bong and Test Tones. Both rooms have issues on the left side; for different reasons, both rooms have a heavier accumulation of reflective surfaces on the left side, and again, for different reasons, are more open on the right side. The net effect is that the image tracks perfectly as the speaker walks toward the right, even coming in loud and clear beyond the right speaker; but I never hear him speaking from left of center, the entire left half of the test sounds like he is talking just inside the right speaker. There is no a discernible’Up’ or ‘lateral,’ even though I can tell from the VU meters that the signal is coming from the left side, I hear it on the right.

The downstairs system is more resolving (the speakers are a bit more sensitive, and I have a balance control available to me downstairs (actually two ways of balancing left and right), but the balance has no appreciable effect on the stereographic image, to my ears.

I’m not sure where to go from here. Upstairs, I think the acoustics were affected when my son stowed several boxes of CDs & DVDs on the floor behind the couch on the left side of the room. The room could also be about ten ft wider, the sound doesn’t want to travel beyond the left and right speakers. (But then again, they may not have been designed to do so to begin with.)

Downstairs, I can move the storage shelves from the left side of the room and treat window in the door to the right. I can also clear out the boxes and bookshelf at the rear of the room to try and give myself greater than the current 54” between the speaker and my listening position, but the greatest distance I can imagine is about 8 ft from ear to driver if I slam them to the front wall.

Thanks again for recommending a tool that really helped me zero in on the problem.

Edit: @stuartk I tried moving the speakers quite a few times downstairs, but experienced no appreciable difference. When I’m not so disappointed, I’ll give it another try with PS Audio’s CD. 

@oldrooney

Perhaps they are already dialed in... or you need to play with them, more... ;o)

In my case, I played around with them a lot before the "eureka" moment. In fact, I became rather doubtful along the way that it could actually make much difference. But I kept at it and was rewarded in the end. Sound-stage depth is a wonderful thing!