Component contributions to “sound stage”

I'm going with placement of speakers in your room. If you lack symmetry in my experience you can save yourself some money but going after stage too hard. If you have symmetry you need space to let the speakers reflect, breath, integrate into the room. If you are trying to shoehorn your stuff in the pantry, save yourself some money and go nearfield. 

Treatment, source, pre, amp and cables. In my experience you have spend serious money if you want to get this to be excellent. Not so serious to be good and have fun.  

@knownothing - without a doubt the "component" that improved my imaging are the cables.

It wasn't until I started building my own cables that I discovered this.

• i had tried many different components - amps, streamers, phono stages etc in the search for an amazing image
• I had tried sound absorbing materials and duffusers around the room
• I had tried hundreds of different speaker positions

Then I tried some pretty good cables and things started to fall into place.

I then tried making my own cables from scratch using a geometry that made sense to me and things inproved once again

Next I tried high quality wire - silver, OCC copper and OCC Silver and these made a huge improvements 

Finally I tried a unique approach to insulation which made the biggest improvement in the space of the image - to the point where I now have an exceptional 3D soundstage/image way beyond the confines of my room

If you want to make some for yourself - take a look at https://image99.net/blog/

If you want to know if they actually work then take a look members comments at this thread

• https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/duelund-conversion-to-diy-helix-geometry-cabling

If you are not into DIY then I would recommend either of these two stellar brands

• Audio Envy
• Zavfino
• and if your wallet is deep enough - HIJIRI

Turns out that even the most affordable components actually have the ablity to reproduce a great image

• e.g. I tried these cables on the $350 mini system with amazing results
• I gave a pair of interconencts and speaker cables to my nephew fpr his VERY MODEST system and they blew his mind.

So to most people cables are pretty simple - right?

• it;s a piece of wire with plugs on the ends and comes in a variety of colours and prices

WRONG !

• the geometry of the cables reduces the noise floor of the cable and  allows micro details to be conveyed
• the metal wire provides improved dynamic perofrmance 
• the insulation reduces the noise generated within the insulation as the signal passes through the wire - even more clarity
• Take a read of this thread for more info
  • What Makes A Good Cable

Getting the right combination of these factors is the key

So don't ignore your cables

Regards - Steve

@williewonka I will check out those links.  Thanks.

kn

Hi. Unfortunate amount of drivel on this. Correct answer. Your front end component is the key. Period. It either provides or it doesn't. Front end is your key. 

for me, this was an obvious answer.  bought a used CJ PV-12 and wow!  soundstage and not just LR but depth (if only we'd had MQA, I could add height -joking).  EVERYTHING else same- speakers, placement, room acoustics, DAC, amp, cables, home wiring... and any recording was impacted positively.

I no longer have the CJ and have upgraded every component including house wiring.  still trying to find that magic (had 3 very different amps in that setup.  Perreaux- sterile, Adcom warm, then Rotel full in a good way. B&W 683) all benefited.  
for another post...
next to test- using the preamp outs from Rogue Cronus Magnus 3 integrated with the Rotel and ML ESL-X.  might trade in the integrated for their tube pre.  I feel like the magic was in the tube preamp. (tube integrated was a compromise one chassis, better value)