Lack of depth problem

Let me state my setup more and start with electronics first.

CD: ModWright Denon 3910 player with Bendix 6900s and Mullard Blackburn 5AR4
Preamp: BAT VK-3iX with Sixpak and Superpak upgrades
Power amp: Counterpoint NP100 hybrid power amp and voiced to SET amp sonics

The speakers are about 9' apart center-to-center, and 2 3/4' to the side walls (from center of each speaker).

One speaker has a big tall bookcase full of books behind it. The other speaker has a thick area rug hanging on the wall behind it and a bass trap panel on the corner behind that speaker.

One side of wall has a large area rug hanging on the wall and a sound panel hanging at the corner (of ceiling and side wall). The other side has three 3'X5' windows covered with wood blinds. It also has a sound panel hanging at the wall/ceiling corner. All sound panels are RealTraps.

The floor has thick carpet throughout. Chairs also have thick fabric.

I am starting to think the problem may be the 61" rear projection TV in the center of wall behind speakers. I have covered the screen with blanket though.

My previous speakers are Acoustic Zen Adagio and JAS Orsus. They both lacked depth too, in my setup at least.

The sound image is very good and crisp. Two of my audiophile friends came over and both observed the same things.

I went to their listening rooms in the past. Their setups have more depth than mine.

If the problem is indeed my TV, what can I do about it? Other than removing it... LOL....

Thanks all for the advices!

Thanks all again. Let me talk about my room first, then to my electronics, and then speaker placement.

I think my room is damped just about right. The clap test shows just a tiny bit of echo. I have invited two high-end audio store owners to my house in the past. Both of them liked my room. They didn't like my TV being in the center though.

I also think my amp and preamp have sufficient power supplies. The amp has a 400VA Plitron transformer, which should be sufficient for a 100WX2 amp. Note that this Counterpoint NP100 amp is all brand new. The old one is called SA100. Basically, I sent my SA100 to Mike Elliott and he replaced everything inside. The preamp has the Superpak upgrade which doubled the capacitors.

This NP100 has 6SN7 tubes. I use a pair of Sylvania VT-231s. I do have a tube power amp, a pair of KT88 monoblocks. They are for my bedroom. Will tube power amps increase depth?

I like wide sound stage though. So it is not a good trade to me. But I moved them forward about 8" and toe in towards my ears. I would say 30 degrees toe-in. This seems improves the depth somewhat. However, I do hear vocal moved to the back and drummer to the front as Shardone pointed out. Good catch!

I also hear a hump in the upper bass. I used a Rives Test CD to do a low freq sweep and found a hump around 100Hz. The height of the room is 9', which explains it. Hanging some bass traps on the ceiling may help. But it will look real ugly!

What else is in the room? It has two 15" subwoofers and other electronics for the home theater.

Did I miss anything?

The coupling caps in the NP100 are Jensen oil caps and have been there for 6 months. So I think they should have broken in already. V-caps do take a long time to break in. I have a pair of V-caps in my 300B SET amp and they took 400 hours to break in. The first 200 hours were simply horrible....

I'll test my other tube amp over the weekend. One subwoofer is at an right angle to a speaker. I'll adjust it too and see (or hear) how it sounds.

I'll also keep moving the speakers forward and increasing the toe in.

The power cord for my NP100 is already a VH Flavor-4 PC! It is a fine power cord. It replaced a Shunyata Copperhead PC, which rolled off on the highs. Maybe I should put it back as a PEQ that Shadorne suggested?

This high-end audio hobby is expensive but interesting. There are so many things to learn! I built my first radio more than 30 years ago and built many amps as a teenager. At that time, I played violin, guitar, and trumpet. So I have pretty good ears for music. Then I went to college and got all my degrees in EE. But I am still learning many new things. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences.

Thanks all. I did more research, upgrade, and experiments. I like my current setup now. :-)

The following are the changes:

1. I moved speakers forward and they are 9 feet to the rear wall. I also moved them closer to the side walls, about 2 1/2 ft away. The toe-in is in the middle between beaming straight and directly towards ears.

2. I sent my amp back to the designer for more upgrades. He upgrades all the resistors to "naked" Vishay and some caps to Blackgates. It is faster and more punchy than before.

I found my Alto Utopias are not easy speakers to drive. Even though they are 91dB and 8 ohm nominal resistance. They drop to 3.2ohms for lower frequencies. My other amp, a pair of KT88 monoblocks at 50Wpc, did not work well with them.

By moving the speakers forward, they are away from the TV. I can hear more sound behind the speakers. So the depth is improved!

Yes, 2.5ft is indeed very close to the side walls. I had boomy bass first. Then I put a bass trap panel along the long side of the wall next to one speaker. The bass is clean now.

Regarding Mezzo vs. Alto Utopia, I think JMlab upgraded the tweeters to BE tweeters. The highs are mega powerful!

The only problem I see in my setup is that my rear wall should have been more reflective. Then I will get a more spacious sound stage.

Roberts, how far away are your speakers to the rear wall and to you?