3-D Imaging: How??


I'm finally satisfied with my current system, except for one thing: it is absolutely 2 dimensional except with a few discs in which you get a little depth. I have: Rega Planet, CJ PV11L, McCormack DNA.5, B&W Nautilus 805s. Interconnects are TARA Labs Master Gen 2, speaker cable is Audioquest SA-40 (hyper pure silver) on top, CV-4 on bottom(the CV-4 actually compares well to other cables I have tried) All equipment sits on marble slabs that are "tip-toed" to the concrete below my carpet. I'm using an Isobar Surge protector on the CD and Preamp, with a Sonic Horizons Daybreak power cord directly into the wall on the amp. The room is about 12" by 13", but I have a totally dedicated room with a good nearfield setup. Why is my sound 2-D?? Thanks guys!!
gthirteen
As I have upgraded my system I noticed a lot of the better components push the image back "deeper". This seems to be desired by most listeners that post here and I am told is a more accurate reproduction of the recording venue. However the deeper the image the smaller it gets. This is natural, the further you sit from a performance, the smaller the image. Unfortunately, all the other dimensions suffer. Your components are of good quality. I have a feeling what you miss is the recreation of the performers in your room... like me. But then again... I can be wrong! I haven't heard too many systems that can image great. I heard the Virgo's with CJ's and they did a good job. And FYI I have old Spica's and they can do the image thing.(but are inferior in other ways). I have heard the B&W's many times and they "soundstage", but I never heard them throw an image.
As I have upgraded my system I noticed a lot of the better components push the image back "deeper". This seems to be desired by most listeners that post here and I am told is a more accurate reproduction of the recording venue. However the deeper the image the smaller it gets. This is natural, the further you sit from a performance, the smaller the image. Unfortunately, all the other dimensions suffer. Your components are of good quality. I have a feeling what you miss is the recreation of the performers in your room... like me. But then again... I can be wrong! I haven't heard too many systems that can image great. I heard the Virgo's with CJ's and they did a good job. And FYI I have old Spica's and they can do the image thing.(but are inferior in other ways). I have heard the B&W's many times and they "soundstage", but I never heard them throw an image.
I follow Sedond recommendation and also check ceiling, side walls and floor. Don't get me wrong but consider the check list: floor (carpeted spiked stand?, blue tack fixing speakers to stands. In my case which is totally different the better (solid coupling) the stands and speakers are (one on top of the other and to the floor) the best response. How about components rack position in 100 HZ tone null point in my room has worked the best..... Gthirteen if you have the foam, test use it in side walls and reinforcement of your bamboo blind (might be not the best) to find out improvement sites. I have a large TV cabinet between my speakers (4' behind it and in spite of that I get a nice presentation but have tweaked my way up to where I am....
G-teen, you fail to mention what music you are using to judge your system's depth capabilities. Both XLO and Chesky sell test CDs that have specific tracks for depth reproduction. As the above post detail, attention must be paid to room acoustics. However, it is also very possible that the music you are listening to has no depth. Only a small minority of popular music (both rock and classical)releases have any real sense of acoustic space. Even on records that were recorded using analog tape rely upon digital reverb units to supply depth. If your system is accurately reproducing the audio signals feed into it, then on most pop recordings there will be little depth. Personally, I love a deep soundscape and I have set up my speakers such that they are 18 feet from the rear wall. The resulting soundstage is very deep when the music contains depth information, PLUS it give a sense of depth to most other music. This is a distortion, but a pleasant distortion that works quite well on what is typically aggresively recorded pop/rock music. With audiophile type minimalist records the sound losses some of its immediacy. Nothing's perfect.
Thanks for the help, guys!! I was hoping (NOT hoping, actually) to get equipment recommendations, i.e. "I've had the Rega Planet, and it sucked compared to the Widget 3000". I'm going to build some Argent Roomlens clones, in addition to trying my Profoam on the front and rear walls. (side walls are not coming into play) The music I listen to, I realize, might not have the depth info that I am looking for. However, WHat I did not reveal beforehand, is that in my last apartment, I had a much larger listening room, with a pair of Hales Rev 3s. WHile tonally, the Hales are quite similar to the Nautilus 805s, in that they both sound really natural and fairly neutral (805's lack of lowest octave noted). The soundstage is soooo much better, as is the top end, with the Nautilus. However, in the big room, I got TONS of depth, the speakers were about the same distance from the front wall, but the listening position was about 6 feet further from the plane of the speakers. THIS is what I believe to be the problem, but I didn't want to suggest this initially. Being in research (professionally), I didnt want to "corrupt" my "data". Any of you getting lots of depth in a small room???