what is a good sound stage suppose to sound like?


In the proceses of doing my weekly house cleaning, I pulled my speakers about 2 ft. out further from the wall so I could vacuum. For no other reason then curiosity, I decided to play some Eric Clapton "Unplugged". It sounded like a whole new album. I only play music in my limited 2 ch. mode which is a dbx DX-5 CD player plugged directly into my dbx BX3 power amp. So there I was, totally amazed at the sound that was coming out of my Polk Audio RT-800i's. I decided to stop cleaning, pour myself a crown and coke and do some serious listening. While sitting there, I had to ask myself if this is what a good sound stage is suppose to sound like? Since I've never heard a hi end system with a supposed good sound stage other the what's in Ultimate electronic's, were the seat is about six feet away from the speakers and the room is acousticly treated.My room is about 20x25 with me sitting at the opposite end of the room from my speakers. I've never had the opportunity to hear a hi end system in someones home, which I would assume sounds somewhat different then in a store. What exactly makes up a good/great sound stage? How do you know when your there? Here's what I noticed when listening to Claptons "Unplugged".When I focussed on individual sounds, Claptons guitar and drums seemed to come from the left speaker, claptons voice was always in the center alone with any piano, the right speaker had the other guitar's and backup singer's voices.By the second crown & coke I couldn't make out individual sounds anymore, so I just kicked back and enjoyed the music. In a good sound stage would or would you not be able to distinguish the different instruments and voices coming from the left, right, and center like I was able to, or should everything come at you all at once kind of blended together. I'll watch a dvd next to see how that sounds with the speakers pulled out, unfortunatly I'll have to move them back because the wife said so. Thanks for any info in helping me get some kind of referrence to gauge my sytem by.
dbx
Thank's to everyone for the great examples of what to listen for in a good sound stage. I think that I'll ticker with my system like this more on cleaning day's. That way my wife won't get to upset since I'm still cleaning. I'll probably have to put my speakers on roller (joke) since I won't be able to keep them pulled out from the wall that far. I have some old 15ft. runs of some speaker cable, I wonder what they'd sound like in the middle of the room. Happy listening to all. Rick
I have a Primare 302 CD player with a Cairn 70wpc amp, and a set of Spendor S3/5's. I heard the Primare against the Cairn Fog, and the soundstage was WAY bigger, even though it's an older model. I always liked the idea of meaty electonics with a small speaker, but yet a simple set up. So I went for a soundstage+++ system, disregarding bass response, etc. and got those disappearing Spendors. I don't have much bass, no tube electronics, but notes are all over the room - and somtimes in the bathroom. Some sounds such as dry vocals, are right on your nose. But like I said, I have comprised in order to get the soundstage that I wanted...