soundstage

I say speakers 1st most important, room 2nd most important.

If your room is all up to snuff, and yer speakers arent, it aint gonna help much

Get better soundstage with great speakers and a crappy room than with crappy speakers and a great room.

Im probably gonna get pelted with rotton fruit on that one, but all the room accoustics in the world wont help a crappy system, however, an excellent system still sounds excellent in a crappy room, it might not "Shine" but still sounds excellent.

(excellent using relative termonology, im not talking about the best of the best of the cream of the crop. Ive always felt that somone who things a 20k system sounds bad, even in a bad enviornment, has lost touch with reality. it still sounds good, but may not live to its fullest potential, and if that is considered "bad" as in "Not good" then you need a break from this hobby to get things back in perspective ;)

tubes can sometimes offer more depth than solid state depending on what you have now and if your speakers can show it to begin with.

From my experience with a 300B SET amp and Klipsch La Scala horns, NOS tubes made a big difference with the soundstage. But nothing has made a bigger difference, particularly with the depth (front to back) of the soundstage, than putting a Michael Wolff carbon PC on my CD player. I know I'm going to start sounding like his pet monkey, but I cannot say enough about the immense difference this cord has had in expanding the sound, and making everything come off as being played live.

And as Warren said, bring out the speakers into the room, if possible. The music will fill in the space behind them.

Good luck!
Howard

Speaker placement (within your room, of course). That's where the "soundstageing comes from. It also comes from the recording & mastering -- but you can't do anything about that!

Try placing yr speakers further into the room and asymmetrically to the side walls -- i.e. at an angle to their back wall.

I have a bunch of speakers, I'd have to say you're not going to get a whole lot of spacial revelation with a big horn loaded speaker anyway.. I don't with mine. Plus I have to be listening absolutely on-axis down the throats of the horns for the best treble.