From whence does Sound Stage come?

@stuartk @rodman99999 @edisoncarter

Moving my head a few inches to the left certainly helps me on the upstairs system. I moved the boxes off the left wall and stood up to make sure my ears were centered between the two speakers: Wow, what a difference! I passed the first test on the CD —the Stereographic Imaging Test; the left side was back in the frame! I still have issues with the LEDR tests, I can tell the image is shifting, but I find it difficult to tell how far it is shifting, and sometimes in what direction. The depth test went well, though. I suspect the XRT tweeter columns are defeating the vertical placement of the tones. I will have to rearrange the furniture 🪑 (again) to get my head in the right place upstairs. I think I’ll wait on the downstairs system until it is permanently installed (in another room).

I would never have thought that 3” in head placement would cause the entire left half of the sound stage to ‘drop off a cliff,’ as it were.

Many thanks to everyone who helped me sort out this rather elemental issue. 

David Fabrikant is the owner of Ascend Acoustics. He has many,many years of speaker design and development.

He was asked what are the 10 most  important parts or aspects of an audio system. 
He responded.” 1 thru 8 the speakers, number 9 the room, number 10 everything else.”

I am a firm believer in this. Quality speakers, speaker placement and room acoustics have always returned better sound for me then cables, isolaters,power cords,etc then anything else under the stars. Followed up with decent equipment.

@medialies  I agree with you and David. Nevertheless, getting it all sorted out is proving to be a challenge. Also, while quality speakers are definitely a priority, there is more than one way to design a speaker, and each type of design has its own quality as well. So we can talk about quality speakers as well as speaker qualities. 

In my case, sometimes I feel like a monitor; sometimes I don’t. As much as I like my B&W 801 Series 2, after about two hours, I’m ready for something else. With my McIntosh XRT20s, I love their lush sound, but when I send the same source to my new Sony AN1000 Home Theater AV Receiver output through some really inexpensive Left, Right, Center, and Sub—wow— so much more clarity and depth of field, texture, and volume. I’m really scratching my head now. 

At least two factors come to mind. When I was an arrogant youth, I thought I knew everything and was loath to question myself; now that I am older, I realize (after making a few) that I can make mistakes (although, again, I am loathe to admit it). Second, my ears aren’t what they used to be. A third factor may be lack of focus. When I was young, I was clear about what I wanted— I wanted to play rock music louder! Now that I am older and listened to, and enjoyed, many types of music, I want to hear the fingers on the strings of a folk guitar, the gentle decay of a clear piano note, the depth of a double bass  and the shimmer of a high-hat cymbal— not all on the same recording but on the same system: my system.

Whence means “from where”? so saying “from whence” is like saying “from from where”.  Just sayin.  Pedant out.  

Good point, alanhuth.  I wish I had a dollar in my pocket for every post that I couldn't understand: poor grammar, spelling, failure to define terms, etc.  And then there are those general questions (or situations) that make no sense at all, to me.  

I know these problems are probably unique to me.  A solution is not to read the responses, or, read them to see how the "confusion" spirals further out of control.  Sometimes they even beat tv news interviews.