Soundstage - Too much?


Is there such a thing as too much soundstage? Should the width of the stage extend to the side walls in your listening room? How would you compare the soundstage in your system to live music?
jtinn

Showing 2 responses by dan2112

A wide and deep soundstage is important. You can have too much of a good thing if you get a wide deep soundstage at the expense of placement/timbre accuracy in the soundstage. On a good recording on a good system the instruments should have weight and presence and be placed accurately in 3 dimensions. If the instruments are blurred or seem to have a “haze” around them then you might want to start tweaking. Most, if not all, live music I have heard were not set up with soundstage in mind at all. Cheers - Dan
PerfectImage ... This maybe a little late but here goes. To get a better handle on what reflections really mean in the sound space take a look at what F.Alton Everst says later in his book. Start on page 298 in Chapter 16 "Sound Reflections in enclosed Spaces" and also again in Chapter 19 starting on page 343 through the end of the chapter. Pay particular attention to Table 19-2 and the formula for calculating the reflection level and the delay. Use this information in conjunction with Figure 16-4 and 19-6 from research conducted by Olive and Toole and I think things will become much clearer – no pun intended. The information in scattered a little in his book, but it is worth digging for – Cheers, Dan