Technically, what causes "laid-back" or "up-front"

Often times it will be the speaker placement that effects this. It can also be cables, amps and front end. So the easy answer is everything. I've changed my system with footwers and cables to adjust the presentation.

In human males, my guess would be age. In speakers, I would say the basic design, basically. Placement is a very good second guess. So one can try altering the placement and room acoustics, but it may not change the fundamental characteristics of the speakers' presentation. One thing that I notice between speakers is the great difference between how high the music appears to be off the ground, so to speak. Some speakers give me the distinct impression that I am close to the stage looking up, whereas others make me feel I am further out into the hall level with or looking down on the performance. Any thoughts on that? Good day.

I don't think placement had anything significant to do with the difference between these Avantgardes and the Avalons that were almost in the same spot. I really feel that there is something about the speakers that causes this.

I have often wondered the same thing as pbb - just HOW is it that some speakers have a considerable difference in image height? It's easy to understand the psychoacoustics of typical left-to-right imaging: if the sound comes soley from the left channel, it shows up over there, and similarly from the right. If the sound comes from both, it's easy to understand how the image would originate in between them. But how about image depth? Or height? These are clearly palpable things, and it's hard to mistake them. And how is it that on most high-end systems, the image clearly forms outside the angle of the speakers?

Something that the reproduction system is doing is fooling our brains into thinking that the image is *SO*, but what?

Related question: anyone know how the old Carver Sonic Hologram Generator worked? I'm sure it's related. For those that don't remember, this processor was inserted into the signal path and it basically added a small amount of cancellation to each channel and dramatically opened the soundstage. I used this up until my most recent upgrade, at which time the pure 2-channel electronics and speakers became capable of doing the same thing unassisted, but it produced a pretty good facsimile of a high-end image for distinctly mid-fi investment for over 18 years in my living room.