too laid back, or deeper soundstage?

People usually are bothered when their usual soundstage changes. Why don't you keep it for some time first before you tweek some more? If you want to go the IG (instant gratification) route, I suggest you change the tubes to a more richer variety if your CJ is a tube pre/amp or try different power cables.

Hello Joe, I think what is happening is that as your system improves and you increase its resolution it resolves more of the venue in which the recording was made. This a "GOOD" thing. The idea is to transport you to where the recording was made not the other way around. The lowest level information on the source is the ambient and imaging clues, as your system improves and becomes more resolute the spatial information should increase. It's not that you're hearing less detail of the instruments or vocals, you should actually be hearing more details on the instrument in ? plus have a better insight into the actual space where the performers were recorded. I hope this explains to you what you are hearing as your system improves. Good luck, Tom

Joe, there are a number of test CDs out that you could use to test how accurately your system portrays depth. The test track usually has a person walking around a room talking and/or striking a percussion instrument. At different points in the room the speaker announces how far away he is from the microphone. XLO, Chesky and I think Stereophile have test discs with this type of track. As a rule of thumb, there are two types of audiophiles. The first type wants to know exactly what's on the disc. Their motto is accuracy. The other type of audiophile wants all the detail and nuances of the music, but they want to music to still sound "nice". A recessed soundstage can contribute to the nice sound. A true high end system will make some records sound very good and other very bad. There's a wide range of sound quality in recorded music. A good system should reveal these differences. Part of the reason there is a resurgence in single ended tube amps and high efficiency (horn) speakers is that some people want the immediacy, the in your face sound, back. It reads like you are really listening to your equipment and chanllenging what your hear. It's hard to go wrong with that method.