Speakers too wide apart?

fihigh, thank you for the kind words. My speaker are about 5ft 9inches apart measured from the center line of each speaker.

tvad, I do know the mirror trick. My problem is that I cant do anything about the first reflection point anyway since my system resides in the living room. I am not allowed to put up room treatments. I hope to my system into a small den which may not be ideal for my large speakers but I figure I can throw a bunch of room treatments at it and have it sound better than my large living room with no treatments.

shadorne, what can I say, I am pretty dense. It takes a few hundred repititions but I eventually get it. :) I have been lazy in the past to move my speakers because they are so heavy.

After listening to my system all morning I thought I would share some of my thoughts on the differences I am hearing:

1. The bass seems to be deeper. I have always had tight, punchy bass, but now it is sounds like my speakers are going lower. It is as if I added a sub (almost).

2. I am hearing more low level detail, like the exhaling of the singer and the shimmer of cymbals. Notes are also lingering much longer. I have always been a bug believer that a system needs to retrieve all the available detail in order to accurately convey the ambiance of the music, thus making it sound as "live" as possible.

3. The music has more weight and solidity to it. There is a fleshiness and dimensionality that I never had before (dare I say warmth?). This creates a more intimate music setting. Since I listen to mostly small ensemble, acoustic vocalists the recreation of an intimate is exactly what I prefer.

All I can say is that I am very happy. I have been playing cds that I am familiar with all morning and enjoying how wonderful the music sounds. I did not realize how detrimental 1st reflection points are.

It's always nice to discover hidden performance in your gear so keep tweaking, next with toe in/out (as Tvad pointed out) which will help you maximize your soundstage width. This may already have improved when you moved the speakers closer together. Start by aiming the tweeters to intersect to a point on your listening chair right behind your head. You can use a level laser on the top of the speaker just over the tweeter and parallel to the speakers sides to help you aim it. This usually gives you a very tightly focused soundstage. Start towing them out equally little by little until you find the spot you like best. The sound stage will start to open up but will become more sensitive to small changes in speaker placement and the position of your head. If the center image falls to one side you'll need to adjust one of the speakers accordingly. Depending on room size, acoustics, etc. I like to start with equilateral distances between the tweeters and my listening position and be able to see just a little bit of the inner sides of each speaker cabinet - this depends on the width of the speaker cabinet - from the listening position. My speakers are actually just a bit closer to each other than to my listening position which is similar to Pryso's information. Different speakers have different dispersion patterns and room interactions so you need to experiment. You may then try moving the speakers incrementally in all directions again to try to squeeze a bit more out of them (like setting up a cartridge). It's a balancing act to find the best location. You've got a sweet system, it should sound great.

you might be able to use some kind of house plant for you first reflection. if that is permissable

The music has more weight and solidity to it

What you have done by placing the speakers further from side walls is to cut down on early reflections form the mid and treble - it allows your brain to process the primary signal before the reflections arrive - you hear more detail rather than a cluttered claustrophobic sound.

If you get the speakers away from the back wall (6 feet or so) and add bass traps you can extend the "solidity" into the lower midrange and bass (although you will lose some room bass boost). Bass frequencies below about 600 Hz go in all directions - so a speaker at two feet from the back wall will have reflected bass and lower mids being reflected back at the listener from the wall behind the speakers. It won't affect the soundstage as much as sidewall reflections of mid and treble sounds but you still lose a bit of solidity.