Speakers "Disappearing"

@kosst_amojan

The two biggest factors in whether a speaker images well are how inert the cabinet is and the space around it.

I’ve heard speakers from the "let the cabinet resonate" school do excellent disappearing acts.

In fact I once had the Shun Mook Bella Voce speakers, a paradigm of thinner walled, incorporate speaker resonance approach, and few speakers I’ve heard soundstaged and "disappeared" like those ones.

Guitars or voices etc hard panned to one speaker would still "float" behind or around the speaker as if it weren’t coming from that speaker.

The Harbeths I had did a pretty good job of disappearing as well. Not as well as my Thiels, but still impressive.

Most speakers will disappear better if you:

1.  Pull them well out from the rear wall.
2. Get closer to nearfield listening (7 feet or closer)
3. Spread them wider apart (provided they have decent dispersion to keep center fill).
4. Reduce toe in, hence angle them more straight forward.  Toeing out tends to make for larger image sizes, with a less "tight to the speakers" sound, more spaciousness and warmer tone.

@edstrelow,


That's one reason why I generally dislike exposed speaker drivers in speakers.  When I see precisely what is generating the sound, my mind struggles to not "see" the sound coming from them.  E.g. I hear drum cymbals and think "well, that's a nice tweeter."   Speakers with grills on always do a much better job of seeming independent of the music happening around them. 

I have also very often listened with a light over my listening sofa, but lights off over the speakers, which also helps the magic of musicians appearing in front of me, without distraction.

For similar reasons I covered my home theater speakers with black velvet so they completely disappear from view with the lights out.  Only seeing the projected image and not the speakers helps the mind map the sound on to the image better in my experience.

Interestingly enough, I've also found a similar effect at my local drive in movie theater (yes we still have one!).    The soundtrack is piped through the car stereo system.  But I don't see any speakers, and in the dark we are just sitting in the car, hearing sound and seeing the giant picture.  And yet our minds effortlessly map the sound in the car as coming from the giant screen hundreds of feet away! 

I remember also playing with the subjective aspect of imaging when I was listening to my small Thiel 02 speakers.  Those old speakers came with a pair of low-rise wire stands, which simply raised them a few inches off the floor, but angled them up towards the seated listener.
When looking at the speakers the soundstage tended to seem low, hovering above the ground in the plain of the speakers.  But I closed my eyes and simply imagined I was now listening to a pair of tall floor standing speakers.  Amazingly enough I could "hear" the images of the singer and musicians slowly rise up until it seemed to be projected from a floor standing speaker.  

So with all these different experiences I've always paid lots of attention to how seemingly peripheral elements affect the listening experience.