Trying to get Sound Stage with Klipsch Tower Speakers


I have Klipsch RP-8000F speakers and do not get decent soundstage.  The vocals seem well-located between the speakers.  I have paired subwoofers for bass, and therefore no problem.  Piano, violin, brass seem to emanate from either the right or left speaker.  I've tried toe-in and varying speaker position without success.  In my other system I use KEF LS50 Meta's and the superiority of soundstage is stunning.  I would appreciate all helpful suggestions.
aeschwartz

Showing 1 response by mahlman

How are both the speakers placed? identical corners and same toe in and distance from walls? I find that pointing Klipsch speakers to a point behind where I am sitting yields the best definition. Do you have a DB meter to measure actual output? When dialing systems in it always seems a bit surprising to me how the sound stage can be off whack when HF has too much overall gain or too much in one channel.

There is another method that can carry over to any speaker you will ever own in the future. Get a UMike and download Room Equalizer Wizard (REW). For under $100 dollars (assuming you have a laptop to load REW on) you get a free software program and a calibrated measuring mike and once you learn to use it you never have to guess again. All you might need for your system is to measure what you have in your room and get a basic EQ with gain settings. Tame the offending frequencies or balance the output and that might be all you need.

You can tinker with this and that and a gazzilion "remedies" but why not take a deep breath and learn to just measure WHAT the problem really is and then fix that.

If your HF is too high in output you can balance this with an L-Pad which will not effect fidelity. It’s not rocket science but it is analytical tools and remedies based on those that will give much better results than the 100 try this and try that stuff offered up here so often.
Did you listen to these speakers somewhere in a similar environment to yours before purchasing or get them based on a review?