soundstage

[Nikos]

Hi, I need some help...

I would like to know the "position" of your soundstage.
is it...
a)in front of the speakers
b)between the speakers
c)between and behind the speakers
d)behind the speakers

please post the distance from the front wall as well.

I will start...

the soundstage is between the speaker when they are placed 2feet from the wall, using HF absorbers behind the speakers.
the soundstage is behind the speakers when they are placed 5feet from the wall without any room treatment.

thanks
Nikos

 

[JonFo]

Hi Nikos,

good question.

I'll start out by sharing my experience in my setup:

The soundstage is highly dependent on the recording, but in general it extends well beyond the speakers (and the room) if that's what the recording calls for.
The soundstage can't be localized to the speakers.

Even on stereo, I sometimes have to go check the surround settings are off in the preamp, as the soundfield is so enveloping in my room.

But note that it's taken years of endless tweaking in a room dedicated and designed for these speakers to achieve this result.

If I may offer some ideas as to why your soundfield changes so much based on placement:

At 2 ft from the wall, with absorption, you are primarily hearing the front wave launch of the speaker, so it’s more like a traditional speaker, the imaging will be between the speaker set (again recording dependent).

At 5 ft from the untreated wall, you are getting two relatively equal strength signals. One from the front of the speaker, the other from the rear as reflected by the front wall.

The reason it sounds like the soundstage is behind the speakers is that the rear wave, now delayed by over 10ms (5’ to wall + 5’ from wall to speaker) is ‘pulling’ the soundstage behind the plane of the speakers.

What you have in that case is analogous to taking two pairs of monopole speakers in an anechoic chamber and placing one at the distances your ML’s are at, and the other set 10’ further behind them.

Makes sense then that the soundstage would seem to come from some point between the two speaker sets.

 

[Nikos]

At 2 ft from the wall, with absorption, you are primarily hearing the front wave launch of the speaker, so it’s more like a traditional speaker, the imaging will be between the speaker set (again recording dependent).

At 5 ft from the untreated wall, you are getting two relatively equal strength signals. One from the front of the speaker, the other from the rear as reflected by the front wall.

The reason it sounds like the soundstage is behind the speakers is that the rear wave, now delayed by over 10ms (5’ to wall + 5’ from wall to speaker) is ‘pulling’ the soundstage behind the plane of the speakers.

Hi JonFo,
As usual great answer... :bowdown:
I know that a lot of people here propose the 5' distance as the optimum speaker placement for a panel. It is not only that the soundstage is behind the speakers, it is the depth of that soundstage that extend far behind the speakers. in 2' with absorbers there is no depth in the soundstage.
I prefer the 5' but my wife is crazy. She doesn't like the speakers in the middle of our livingroom. I don't know why....