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Imaging/Soundstaging - Does room size matter?

Hi guys,

I have a great little system in a pretty small room, 17 x 13 x 10. The center image is perfect. On vocals, the speakers totally dissappear, and all I hear is the singer chillin' in between the two channels. But most things that aren't supposed to be completely centered don't image very well. Instead of simply coming from one side or the other, they always seem to come directly from the drivers. Is there something that room acoustics or speaker position can do about that, or is it just going to be that way because of the size of the room?

Thanks!
omains
joekras
60 posts
 
yep. height. without question.
jond's avatar
jond
5,778 posts
 
Looking at the photo of your system setup your speaker positioning seems like it should give you pretty good imaging. It might be time to look at your gear also, though speaker placement is the number one factor in imaging I think some gear just images better than others. So it may just be that your ss integrated just doesn't do the imaging thing that well. Also keep in mind that some recordings, especialy vintage jazz, is often recorded with a hard left-right pan that keeps the sounds stuck to your drivers. So keep experimenting, but try some different recordings and see if maybe a buddy had another amp he could bring over, particularly one that is tubed.
warrenh's avatar
warrenh
2,299 posts
 
Height? I ain't gonna argue wit cha...so you hear your cymbals, violins, brushes on cymbals, etc., on the ceiling? Since those tweeter of yours are 360 degrees: ya hear the same coming from the floor? beats me...
prpixel
876 posts
 
A tweeter radiate 360 degrees in the plane of the front baffle of the speaker unless there is some kind of damping or impediment. Yes, I hear sounds coming from above the speakers. Remember, there is a reflection point on the ceiling also. However, because I have carpet, I don't hear HF sounds coming from the floor.
joekras
60 posts
 
I agree with Jond. Speaker placement and of course recordings. And I think just swapping components to get it right is the ultimate answer. My experience is limited so I am in part sharing it to also get an answer to the imaging question. So take the following in that context:
I have had two amps an Adcom and now a CJ11. When I switched to to the CJ the soundstage depth greatly increased. You seem to hear more "atmosphere" or venue. However this did seem to reduce the width of the stage-though on most recordings it was more realistic. It is more like actually being in the club as opposed to having the musicians playing in your room.
To clarify- I guess you can say it is like sitting close or sitting far. The further you are... the smaller the image.
Make sense?
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