My speakers don't "dissapear"

I'm afraid the only change the candidates are looking for is in my pocket.

"Are your speakers wired out of phase?" Years ago, I had a pair of Rectilinear III's that came from the factory that were in fact, wired out of phase. I simply wired them out of phase from my amplifier and the problem was solved, but the take home point is that this CAN and DOES happen. (Just my 2 cents, FWIW). Happy Listening

If two speakers are out of relative phase, the sound seems to be coming from everywhere (or nowhere in particular), but, usually not straight out of the speaker. But, an incorrectly wired speaker could be an issue. If the drivers are incorrectly wired in one speaker, this could damage imaging while not obviously being out of phase (I've seen speakers with such internal wiring issues).

Still, my bet is that it is a speaker placement issue. IT sometimes takes a whole lot of experimentation to find a good spot. I've seen a few rooms where a really good spot just did not seem to be available, but even there, persistence at least yielded the best of a bad situation.

That combo should disappear nicely. I've heard it happen impressively with my own ears with the 400xi and Focal Profile series and decent Audioquest cables.

Are the speakers too close to the rear or side walls perhaps? Also, what kind of ICs and speaker cables used? Clean power is another consideration. Do you use/need power conditioning? What is the room like? Is it extremely dead acoustically perhaps?

I had the same problem with my Mini Utopias. I tried everything, but still couldn't get it right. The Focals can be a bit on the shrill side, so that might have had something to do with it. I bought a pair of SP Tech Timepiece 3.0's and I wouldn't even know they were there if I couldn't see them. All I hear now is music pure music. I'd look into the Timepiece Mini's if I were you.