What causes imaging or the lack of it

I think your friends panels are not playing right. Every thing that everybody has all ready mentioned is going to make a difference in sound but not to the point of extreme that you are telling us. Your image is there and your friends image doesn't exsist at all. There are some differences between components but NOT to the sum of making such a difference that your dac and amp between the difference of your friend's dac and amp should NOT make such a drastic difference... NOW as we all know the ROOM has a PROFOUND effect on the sound but still your friend should be getting a similiar sonic signature from both having the same speakers and components of somewhat equal performance... It seems to me that your friends's panels may have a problem... Now like the others have mentioned about the PHASE... If your friends system is out of phase THERE can be the difference in a nut shell... SOMETHING IS NOT WORKING PROPERLY be it the speakers or maybe a component.. You have different cross overs,,,, Sean has the answer for you,,,, start swapping out the components one at a time and you should be able to figure it out. It can take some work and time but by listening to Sean and trying to swap out pieces you should be able to come to your own conclusion... If you do find the reason please do come back and let us all know. Every body gave a reasonable possible explaination.. To find out real fast,,, just swap out the speakers... I have a feeling that the problem is going to follow the speakers/crossover themselves... Being that those speakers are not easy to transport around and also being speakers that are also not inexpensive I think it would be in your friends best interest to take the TROUBLE of bringing his speakers over to your place TO MAKE SURE that his speakers ARE NOT DAMAGED/FLAWED/WORKING IMPROPERLY.. mike

Hey,,, I'm back,,, LOOK AT THE DIFFERENCES IN THE AMPLIFIERS THAT YOU ARE USING.... mike again

Before you go crazy switching and moving gear around, have your friend check the outlets in his listening room to see if the circuit wires have a reversed hot/neutral. I'm not an expert in ES speakers, but if the speaker (or gear) power polarity is reversed, I believe it screws things up.

There are two kinds of phase problems. Relative phase where one channel has a switched phase relative to the other. This is where you need to check all your connections. The other is absolute phase. This is where the channels are the same but the drivers move in the wrong direction at the onset of a signal (inward rather than outward). Some equipment inverts absolute phase (e.g., AES AE-3 preamp). To check this, you can switch the speaker cable + and - at the amp for both speakers and see if the imaging appears. You can also buy the XLO test CD (Amazon and other places) that has songs in and out of absolute phase for checking the problem before switching cables.

If after playing around like the posts above doesn't do anything, have him bring his speakers to your house and plug into your system and see what happens. That should really tell the tale.