Lack of depth problem

Hello Vett93: I've used the VT-231(IF it's the bottom getter tube from the 40's), and it is an excellent tube with regard to clarity, imaging, dynamics, etc. Actually I'm saving them for back-ups now. I did find more depth of stage with the Sylvania 6SN7W(tall bottle), but the champ for depth is the TungSol JAN CTL/6SN7GT(round plate). The back wall seems to receed about 4-5ft further with that than the VT231(in my modded Carys). All three of those tubes possess the same clarity/slam/imaging/extension/definition/lack of any grain or colorations. If the MOS-FETs of your amp were replaced with bi-polars, that could also affect your depth negatively, as they don't seem to pass ambience info as well(and much less than tubed outputs do). How long ago was the amp modded, and with what caps? Is it completely "burned in"(some caps, ie: V-Caps, take much longer to adjust themselves than others)? Any chance of borrowing a tubed output amp for a sound stage experiment? I would also say(from a distance) that your room is fine, all except for the TV between the speakers. I would, however, be certain to set up the speakers in such a way as to place your listening position a distance equal to(or just slightly greater than) the distance of the speakers, one to another. Then aim the tweeters just outboard of directly at you ears.

Better make those "your" ears!

However, I do hear vocal moved to the back and drummer to the front as Shardone pointed out. Good catch!

Then you can do several things.

1. Speakers closer together and away from side walls.
2. Sit much closer to the speakers (or bring the speakers closer to you)
3. Toe them in as you have done (this reduces reflections and increases primary signal)
4) Use a PEQ or tone control to cut or roll off slightly from 5K upwards (this will place percussion further back)
5) Heavy room treatments to absorb more high frequencies.
6) If none of this is suitable then you may need to change the speakers (although JMLabs are exceptional - so this is not an easy task) - but basically it is possible that these speakers do not suit your room/listening/far-field placement. Look for speakers with a very even horizontal dispersion right across the entire frequency range (no dip in the upper midrange) - these will most likely give you more of the depth that is actually intended on the recording. You can see this on the speaker dispersion plots. I suggest a three way with one or two small 3 inch midrange woofers would work best for your far-field listening setup.

FYI: All large 6 inch woofers are simply not suitable for far-field listening as they all roll off around 1 Khz - well before a dome tweeter can take over. Some manufacturers use a phase plug to help improve dispersion. ATC get round this problem by grafting a midrange dome onto a 6" woofer for their two ways. Others will crossover the tweeter very low but this usually results in compression at high output levels needed for farfield. Others go to a horn design on the tweeter to get more output (which tends to narrow dispersion also).

they all roll off around 1 Khz - well before a dome tweeter can take over

What I meant to say is that the horizontal dispersion rolls off. (this is caused by beaming)

Another way round this is to use cones that flex allowing the centre part of the cone to decouple from the outer edge - this is called controlled breakup and you can see it on some woofers with "rings" although you do not have to have rings to exploit cone flexure - it has drawbacks in temrms of added distortion and an uneven frequency response.

I had a similar problem. I had given up and concluded that my speakers were incapable of producing depth. On a lark I purchased a DIY power cable from VH-Audio - Flavor 4 with the Furutech connectors. I wasn't looking for a fix here, just curiosity and was hopeful for even greater spatial cues and detail. After inserting said power cable everything changed. My speakers took on a character they NEVER possessed. This was especially true in soundstage depth. Just a thought..