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What affects front to back depth in room/ system?

I've been moving speakers around for a while now trying to maximize their placement for a happy balance of soundstage width, focus of center image, vocal height, instrument placements, etc. I want to get the speaker placement settled before acoustically treating the room. The room is 15x20 with 8' ceilings. Speakers are setup along the 20' wall. I'm pretty happy with most aspects of the sound, but what I can't seem to figure out is how to improve the depth. Honestly, I'm not sure if what I'm after is attainable to begin with. Is it possible to have depth that reaches the listening position in a 2.2 channel sound system? The depth behind the speakers is great, just not much in front of them- unless it's one of those songs that has a part where it has that inverted phase trick. Then it washes over me. I want that all the time. Any feedback and advice is appreciated. 

veerossi

Showing 2 responses by benanders

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benanders
234 posts
 

Soundstage can be at least as much dependent on how a recording / track was mastered (or remastered) as it might be on speaker model / placement x room. Hard characteristic to change, but as already mentioned, DSP can help.

@veerossi if you find “truly great” systems to have a listen, either bring a USB stick with a few of the exact files you think have exemplary soundstage, or at least make sure the same streaming service tracks are available in a short time span. If you don’t use the same source file / master, any conclusions you make could be off-mark.

benanders's avatar
benanders
234 posts
 

 

tomic601

12,443 posts

u r chasing u tail….if your system can do it on a recording but not others….

This is correct (hence my previous comment about soundstage being largely recording- / master-dependent.

I’d find other well-performing systems to play my preferred files on for comparison before altering my system. If 90% of what you listen to has a soundstage you prefer on your system, I suspect you are near the lead of the audiophile curve. Some recordings just won’t permit it.

Plenty of anecdotal accounts where using DSP to focus stereo imaging had a reductive effect on soundstage size, just FYI.

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