3-D Imaging: How??

Are your 805s positioned too close to the front wall because you need to fill in the bottom octave and tame their too-hot tweeters? Sorry if I'm being presumptuous, but I tried the Nautilus (803/4s) series and found the tweeter way too hot (especially off- and above-axis), and had to sit very far away from them, which flattened the stage. I have a 24x14 room and sit in a 7.5' triangle, my monitors about 8' from the front wall. The stage is spectacularly layered, even with a 7' Steinway slightly behind the speaker plane. I found, however, that this setup works only with speakers that are utterly resolved and smooth in the upper octaves. The tizziness of the Nautilus tweeter (and the lower mid "honk" of the 805) did NOT work in my nearfield setup, although, interestingly the sound was satisfactory from an adjacent room! So: are your speakers pulled out from the walls enough to develop a 3D stage, and are they timbrally acceptable that way? If "yes" to both then I'm puzzled, too. I've no experience with the Planet or your pre, but I'd look at the preamp/amp stages next. Good luck!

I agree with Subaruguru that if your speakers are properly set up, the problem is with your equipment. Not that the equipment you're using isn't of high quality. However, some components have a deeper soundstage than others. If you're looking for improved depth in your soundstage, look no further than the Pass Labs Aleph line of amplifiers. I used to own the little Aleph 3 and it had the deepest soundstage I've ever heard in my system. Deeper than my old Aragon 4004 Mk II, deeper than my Classe CA-300, and deeper than my current BAT VK-500. I found the Aleph 3 (30 wpc, class A) lacking in the power and bass department--which was why I sold it--but the Aleph 5 (60 wpc) might work out well in your system. If you need more power and have the money, the Aleph 2 mono blocks offer 100 wpc. Recently there was a pair for sale here for $2,500--best price I've ever seen for them. Good luck.

Gthirteen: You have a very good quality system that I'm sure should be able to provide a good soundstage including front to back layering. The same question arises in my mind on how close to front wall do you have them. A friend of mine has 805's and has them 8 feet from front wall with good results (larger room though), and yours? What about toe-in? Second is accoustics do you have racks or anything between the speakers? Have you treated accoustically the front wall? Share more details