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A More Forward Sound Stage/ Cables the answer?

Cables and ICs can help position the sound stage, as I understand it. Amps, speakers and other gear more so? My modest small bedroom set up is: Music Fidelity A3.2 integrated amp, Modded Sony Sacd c222 changer, Revel m20's, and soon to be replaced budget cables and ICs.The speakers are as far forward as possible, about 4 ft from the front wall, 5ft apart ( limited by furniture ) and 8 ft from my ears which are against the bed headboard and the back wall.
The problem is that the sound stage is all behind the speakers. I would like to bring it more forward. The amp presents, what the reviewers called a " laid back" or "tenth row" presentation of the sound stage. Being a former classical musician, I yearn for a closer sound stage and imaging ( presently good but not what I enviously read about ) that puts me more "inside" the ensemble. Finances being what they are, I'm reluctant, but am seriously considering changing the amp. Meantime, with cables and ICs, can I pull the sound stage forward and maintain or even improve imaging? Or is this only a minor tweak with my amp ( and/or speakers? ) presenting the major obstacle to my quest? As a budget restricted newbie, I've looked through many of the threads, and there's lots on "wider and deeper" but I don't find this issue of forward sound stage positioning addressed much. A-gon has been revelatory and a real service. Thanks in advance for your input.
jeffkonicek

Showing 2 responses by audphile1

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,443 posts
 
By having speakers as far as possible from the front wall you are actually increasing the soundstage depth.
you can bring the stage forward a bit by reducing the distance between the speakers and the wall, if that's possible.

Also, by getting cables that are detailed you can bring the stage closer once again.
I recommend silver interconnects from cd to integrated.
Try Acoustic Zen Silver Reference MkII. You should still have depth to the soundstage, but detailed as this cable is, it will bring you closer to the stage.

Good luck.
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,443 posts
 
AZ Matrix Ref II will be around 85% performance of the Silver Ref II. Detailed, brings the mids out and excellent separation of instruments. Matrix II should be really good with Satori speaker cables. I had this combo and it was very nice. In the same price range, say up to $300 used for ICs, I'd go for AZ Matrix II. You most likely won't get anything that comes close to it from Virtual Dynamics in this price range. Virtual Dynamics Master series is excellent but it is a lot more money. JMO.
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