Sound Stage

[Mr Peabody]

Sound stage is an important factor to me. I like to be fooled, as close as possible, I'm at the show or in the recording studio. This discussion may be more relevant to those who listen in the dark or not distracted by visuals when listening.

Sometimes no matter how good the sound is I can be not so engaged by overly large sound stages. Cymbals shouldn't be way up in the sky or a piano stretched across the front of the room. I realize some aspects are destroyed in the original engineering. Like one cymbal in the right and another in left channel or similar oddities. Like as in the piano example a drum kit shouldn't stretch across the room or be spread out, arms are only so long, LOL

I have a problem as well with overly condensed and/or compressed sound stages. Probably why I'm not a big fan of mono. I also don't like some older recordings due to the tone but that's another discussion.

Just wondering if I'm alone in being particular with sound stage?

 

[Mike]

Sound stage to me is extremely important. Setup is crucial to achieving optimum sound staging. Jim taught me well in this regard. We learned to use specific recordings and where exactly the voices and instruments should be. If they don’t, you aren’t setup properly.

I have a friend who cannot stand to have speakers even remotely into the room. Not sure why. He thinks the drivers may fly out at him or something. It’s difficult to get any soundstaging like this.

 

[Porsche]

SS is extremely important, that's the art of dialing in the speakers and matching the gear

 

[Dizzie]

I focus on a good center image. I am surprised at the number of expensive systems I have heard that have no solid center.

 

[crwilli]

Sound stage is the magic of the hobby and something that can take some patience to perfect on your room. It’s where minor movements of the speakers can payoff big!

 

[ptman]

Imaging and Soundstage often go hand-in-hand with folks. I believe when most people get their introduction to the high-end, it's through imaging with the firm center image, and being able to point to where the individuals are playing. It's also a key "judgement" factor employed by attendees at an audio show. Likely this is also where lots of folks stop with their speaker positioning. Some extra work to focus on Soundstage (as in Jim Smith's work/book that Mike referenced earlier) to bring that extra bit of front-back, height and width goes the extra mile in increasing the emotional engagement.

 

[JDC]

Sound stage to me is extremely important. Setup is crucial to achieving optimum sound staging. Jim taught me well in this regard. We learned to use specific recordings and where exactly the voices and instruments should be. If they don’t, you aren’t setup properly.

I have a friend who cannot stand to have speakers even remotely into the room. Not sure why. He thinks the drivers may fly out at him or something. It’s difficult to get any soundstaging like this.

I just watched a video of Jim talking about 83%. So I'd be sitting INSIDE an equilateral triangle?
EDIT: Duh. I get it now. (It's been a while since algebra 1...) If my tweeters are 8' apart, my ears should be about 9.65 feet away. I think that's about where my ears are. Cool.