Soundstage wider than speaker placement?

Check out discs on Labels from Chesky, Mapleshade,and Opus 3. Most of the newer stuff will image like that.

One of the best ever: the Roger Waters "Amused to Death" It is all over your living room.

Definitely Amused To Death as Avguygeorge says. Also Madonna- The Immaculate Collection. Both of these were mastered using the Q Sound process.

My setup produces a sound stage that is wider than the speakers on almost all of the source material that I own. The only exception that I can think of it an old Nat King Cole CD. The gear is not expensive but the speaker placement is a little different than what I have tried before in an 18 x 22 room. The stand mounted speakers are 20" out from the wall and the distance between the tweeters is 5.5'. The distance to the side walls is 6' on one side and 7.5' on the other and the seating area is 10-11 feet from the speakers (in the middle of the room), the speakers are not towed in. When I use the inexpensive Homegrown Super Silver IC's it becomes even wider than with a pair of HT Truthlinks. There is a phase switch on my Bel Canto DAC that really widens the stage when it is left out (which is then in phase on the analog side, I think). I sometimes reverse the phase switch on the DAC (for small groups) as the soundstage is too wide for the size of the instruments that the speakers project. I have had the same results with three different sets of speakers (that I own) and auditioned ones as well. You could say that the system is not set up optimaly for imaging (which was not my intention as I pay more attention to tonality) but it sure does have a wide soundstage). One evening I moved the speakers out from the wall (2 more feet or so) in order to blast (reduce the bass) on the Eagles "Hell" CD and the depth and imaging improved somewhat, but the balance was not to my likeing at lower volume levels, the sounstage remained wide in either case. The wall behind the speakers is all books, floor to ceiling, which may contribute to this effect but I can't see why. I also wonder if it is the room itself.

Dekay, I've been to friends'houses and listened to lesser equipment;and drooled over the "room".Even tho imaging, and depth within the room killed what I hear in my room, I, like you, care more about what it sounds like;than where it's coming from.Books behind the speaker?? That's about as good as it gets. They don't absorb;they diffuse(ideal).The same diffuse thing works well at the first reflection pionts /side/and above. Ever been to Brooks Berdan in Monrovia? Not one tube trap.Pretty good guy too.

Avguygeorge: No I have never heard of Brooks Berdan, but will make note of it. I am really keen on the thrift shops in and around Monrovia and may be able to convince my wife to make the drive with me. My room is also horseshoe shaped with the speakers at the solid part of the "U" firing towards both the Living room and the narrow and long Kitchen (though they are in the living room) which should sound awful, but it doesn't. My favorite rooms in the past have had the old spanish "slap" plastered walls and domed ceilings, but our current place is modern 60's.

PS: The right wall is all books as well and the left one is almost solid paintings for the length of the room, including the doors. The wall that the speakers fire towars is 1/3 books all along the bottem with sculpted fabric drapes above that. Maybe that's why. I have never had a listening room of books before. I wonder what a real library would sound like?