good speaker with Sound stage behind????

Duke hit the nail on the head per usual.

definitely your sinus infection has an effect on how you hear. No joke.

Oops you did it again! Duke's advice rings true once again. I would also add that a scooped midrange gives depth or makes the stage/vocalists/lead guitar feel further away and less in your face. Look for a speaker with a dip in the upper midrange off axis (for example).

Shadrone, Man I wouldn't own those speakers if you paid me! A FR for a maggot's lunch! :-)

Seriously, and probably the subject for a different thread, but since its about a recessed stage - I have two amps which allow triode v pentode switching on the fly and all of the conversation about soundstageing and speakers reminds me of what I percieve as the biggest difference between the two modes. My Silverlines, for example, driven by a good push/pull ultralinear/pentode stage do not sound recessed at all. In triode the 'power' which brings the stage forward (sounds to me like its in the mids mostly) is MIA, and the sound is smooth but cool and recessed - in fact the entire sound stage is smaller. Don't know what they would sound like with SET's though.

Just goes to illustrate the importance of speaker/amp matching to get results, or not.

All the Vandersteens I have heard seem to be what your looking for.