I am Looking for That Elusive 3 Dimensional Room Filling Soundstage
The sound stage you desire is less a function of the equipment and more a function of how you set things up. Your room is problematic in several ways, but I would suggest the following (which worked great in a 13x15 ft room I once had). Place rack in the middle of the front wall and seated position against the middle of the back wall. Bring speakers nearly half way out into the room , a couple feet off the sidewalls forming an equilateral triangle with your listening position. A pair of 6 1/2" monitors with a soft dome tweeter should be plenty. Avoid speakers with a shelved up top end--pick a smoothly voiced speaker and you will be shocked at the huge sound stage you can achieve! |
Either single ended triode amps, 300b, 45 tube based, or low powered class A solid state amps. Pass First Watt. They are all low power, so I pair them with mini monitors, with an active tube crossover with subwoofers. Speakers are either ither Proac 1sc, or currently, Infinity Infinitessimal V.1, that have been modded with upgraded crossover components, and rewired for bi-wiring. I like your analogy. That listening experience is number 1 on my list too. |
These should be a slam-dunk improvement over the Paradigms, silly good for the $$$$: https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lis9h141-jean-marie-reynaud-bliss-silver-full-range Just be sure to buy the stands also if you go that route. I'd avoid floorstanders - there's a good possibility they'd overload a room that size, and the ones in your budget range tend to have noisy cabinets that will worsen rather than improve the soundstage. Speakers aside, I agree with others that room treatments are probably your best bet. But there are no hard rules as to what should be placed where. I find that I don't like any absorption or diffusion behind the speakers but I do like it between the speakers. However, if your speakers are close to a wall, you might want some diffusion behind them as otherwise, the reflected waves would be too near in time to the initial waves. If indeed your speakers are near the forward wall, try moving them out a couple feet. |
Without a perfect replica of the performance space, - i.e. a lot of careful sound treatment in your listening room, you probably won't get close to a 3D experience using two speakers. If you must have more than what you are getting, either invest in considerable room treatment, or consider a 7 or 9 channel AV surround system. The problem with that is that I have yet to hear an AV system that has components that match the sound quality of really good high end audio-only gear. |
