2. misc-audio
  3. 1210854529

Soundstage wide and deep but not at all tall. . .

My system, like myself, is vertically challenged! This relates to another post I just made where I was considering adding a preamp. The shortcoming of my system is that vertically everything stays right at tweeter level at about 36" off the floor. The soundstage extends well beyond the speakers to the side, and depending on the recording extends 6-10" feet back. The speakers totally disappear, and imaging is quite solid. Everything else about the sound is so large and involving, but the "height restriction" reminds you that you are listening t recorded music. This seems to be the final frontier for a system that is otherwise very satisfactory.

System details: Cary 303/200 with internal volume control thru Harmonic Tech IC's direct into Spectron Musician II amplifier. Cardas Goden Cross bi-wires into Totem Forests. Recently upgrade both power cords to Fusion Audio Predators. Room is dedicated HT room with appropriate amount and type of room treatment.
jswarncke
cpk
190 posts
 
What type of HF response are you getting? How was the stage before the new pc's?
jswarncke OP
66 posts
 
Subjectively there is nothing lacking from the high frequencies. Plenty of air ad detail. The PCs did not change the stage, although they improved other areas. The background became quieter, which in turn seems to further highlight the location and separation of voices and instruments..
newbee
4,794 posts
 
Hi Benie,

A couple of things FWIW.

Firstly, you are, for the most part, 'right'. Everything is a matter of personal choice and you are certainly intitled to yours as I am mine. Absolutes are hard to find....

It would appear that we have similar goals except that I'm not intent on replicating a live performance. I've long since acepted the fact that I will never hear that in my home in my life time. So, I go for what I can get, a reasonably faithful replication of what is on the recording, warts and all.

If the recording has out of phase information that enhances the sense of width, highth, and depth that is what I want to hear.

If the recording has no out of phase information (or very little, often referred to as being 'dry') then I don't want to hear any.

Consider that out of phase information that creates a sense of spatiousness can exist not only because of its presence on the recording, it can also be present because of set up, and, not infrequently, by the design of the speakers themselves. When your system/set up creats unrecorded phase information it will not, IMHO, inhance the sound of a recording which has this information imbedded in the pits and grooves. To the contrary.....

I believe that speakers which are reasonably resolving and designed to be accurate, phase wise and otherwise, and are properly set up in a good room where its acoustics have been duly considered, you will come the closest to hearing the information that is in the recording. Some recordings have a very expanded sense of stage and some have a very narrow stage all of which is the result of the recording engineers techniques, desires and/or competence.

I also recognize that this relatively hair shirt approach is not universal. It would be wonderful if all of my recordings sounded 'live' or, in the alternative, that I could make myself believe that they did. They don't, I can't, and that is probably a major personal failing. :-)

More to discover