Speakers "Disappearing"

@michaelgreenaudio ... OK, I’ll bite. How does one tune in a "Recorded Code?"

The easiest way is to get a pair of Martin Logans or other ESL or Planar speaker (I haven’t tried the other ESLs or Planars but I’m assuming they can do this). Mine are not positioned symmetrically within the room or within 1/16th of an inch of their ideal position. I just start the music and the sound appears between, behind and outside the speakers with no indication that the speakers are where the music is coming from. They do need some space from the side and back walls, though. It’s a lot harder to do with box speakers.

I first heard this effect when I bought a pair of Apogee Slant 6s years ago. I could stand between them and it would not sound like the music was coming from the speakers.

Big planers do a good job, but I'm not completely sold on that approach having used large dipoles AMTs. The sound is certainly spacious and less localized, but big radiating surfaces have odd artifacts and I feel that the reflected sound can lend some blurring to detail. I'm not sure their less sensitive to placement. 

When I think of an excellent imaging speaker I think of exactly what I'm hearing right now with my Focals. NOTHING seems to come from the actual speakers unless the sound is very forward and in one channel. The sound stage is distinctly behind the speakers and generally extends back for yards. Objects are clearly positioned forward and back, top to bottom, and side to side beyond the boundary of the speakers. These things aren't positioned according to some hocus-pocus formula. They're within 3/4 of an inch the same distance from the front wall. I've never even measured the side walls. And I toe them by eye, kicking the right one out ever so slightly more. I don't know why, but it cures a slight wandering in the midrange. The treatment to the walls and ceiling has done a LOT more than a few inches of positioning ever has for imaging. You NEED to keep sound from rattling around the room like marbles in a can. That jazz destroys imaging. The room should be distinctly more dead to echo than other rooms in your home. Not totally dead, but clapping shouldn't yield defined slap-back. 

@georgehifi Hi, can you pls advise if the "audiophile" test albums are very helpful in testing a system's capabilities and help with setup?  I came across these two on HDtracks and was wondering if they're worth buying:

http://www.hdtracks.com/audiophile-hi-res-system-test?___store=default&nosto=nosto-page-category...

http://www.hdtracks.com/audiophile-speaker-set-up?___store=default&nosto=nosto-page-category1

The Chesky one I mentioned was the only one I’ve come across that centred on getting imagining and depth right with your speaker positioning.
Let me say right now though if you have all your audio gear on racks in between your speakers, say goodbye to your depth of image.
The best is nothing between the speakers and as back as far as you can, a speaker guru Neville Thiele (rip) told me this, who with his mate Richard Small invented the Thiele and Small T/S speaker parameters , and I’ve never looked back.
http://www.content-technology.com/peopleasia/?p=355

Cheers George