Another soundstage question


There are a couple of soundstage related threads running on the amp/preamp section and they reminded me of a question I’ve been meaning to ask without hijacking those threads. The speakers are Vandersteen 2Ci and the system along with their placement is giving me a real deep and relatively wide soundstage - but not much further to the sides, but I’d like the height of the soundstage be little higher. The speakers are on the sides of a bay window, about 10’ apart and with heavy drapes pulled on either side and about 2.5’ behind the speakers. Much lighter curtains cover the bay windows for privacy. In my seating position that is about 10’ away from each speaker the top of the soundstage is just about the top of the speakers, sort of like I’m sitting at the same level as the musicians. The depth is realistic but I think the height needs to higher to give a better feel for the height of the singer standing in the middle and the rest of the band scattered at different levels within the stage. So having said all this, is the soundstage height mostly a function of the electronics driving the speakers or its the size/shape of the speakers, e.g., speaker height, tilt, etc., the listening placement, or a combination of all of the above. Thanks.

128x128kalali

Showing 4 responses by wolf_garcia

I decouple my speakers from my wood floor, and have lifted them to get the tweeter to ear level…I have zero room treatment except the stuff in the room (furniture, rugs, a full sized stuffed Lama) as I simply like the sound of a room…it's a normal sound to me (side walls aren't close enough to be an issue) with a tall ceiling that slopes upwards from the front wall. I'm lucky…and note that the soundstage one might want is listener specific so, again, I simply recommend you move the speakers around until YOU like it, far enough into the room to sound good but not get knocked over by your drunk cousin Shirley.
Soundstage is recording specific, so it's a good idea to spend at least half of your listening time adjusting the speakers to the recording…I recommend jury rigging remote garage door openers to the speakers so you can move them around without leaving the chair, and attach the chair itself to rollers that lock into place once you get it right…note you may have to switch it all up for each track so there goes another bit of valuable listening time…but utterly worth it...
Note to self: Remember that parody doesn't always work among the often humorless residents of audio geekedom, although slipping the ridiculous into these forums does provide me with a bit of admittedly self indulgent joy.
He's right. Simply listening to your system to determine what it's doing is a path to the ear splitting ego crushing roar of a collapsing sound stage.