Why don't more recordings have soundstage outside of speakers

Too many possible reason and variables to list.

Try less or zero toe in too for wider soundstage. 
I find a lot of electronic music goes well outside the speakers

Mahgister, I can get to the tonal balance I want to hear by ear. But I can not get the system to image at its best by ear. The problem is you have to make the frequency response of both speakers exactly equal at all frequencies within 1 dB. In order to do this you have to able to measure exactly what each speaker is doing and have the ability to make 1/2 octave adjustments with variable Q. Doing this takes hours of listening to short sine sweeps, making changes and remeasuring. Sometime you can speed things up by doing the adjustments on the fly but it still takes hours. Why go through all the trouble? Because you go from the usual imaging that everyone is use to to something that is truly uncanny in a very good way. Characteristics of the image that you never knew were there become unmasked and you will hear details that were previously hidden. It is like getting a blurry image into focus. Two identical speakers will never have exactly the same frequency response, Then they occupy different locations in a room and  their response goes more astray. People are lucky if their speakers are within 5 dB of each other between 100 Hz and 10 kHz where it is critical. Location depends almost entirely on volume. If a speaker is louder at one point and softer at another then location cues of the instrument become broken up and the image blurs. Subtle characteristics become lost in the haze. It is something you have to experience. It is pretty special. 
But, in the end it is only important that you enjoy music on your own system. Rock and Roll!

Thanks mijostyn ,your explanation is very clear and very useful....

It make me realize why it is way simpler with my mechanical way....

Because i adressed the way the room response to the speakers, with a large bandwith instead of a narrow frequency, it is way more easier to correct the room responding to each specific volume of each speaker and correct this asymmetry of speaker by changing the room treatment but mainly the distribution of some pressure zone by modification of Helmotlz resonators, to reequilibrate and compensate for this difference in volume by each speaker....Each Helmoltz resonator is modified to enhance some frequencies and damping others...The location is important also....My speakers stay the same but the room adapt itself specifically for  each one for my ears...

Like you tough, it takes me 10 to 12 weeks of experiments but it was never frustrating , only fun, because it was almost always some relative improvement  each day and anyway easy to correct it when unsatisfied.... It is easy to correct the timbre of some instrument by feedback which is immediate in the instant of the listening experiment... The imaging i have is very good and i cannot attribute that to my average speakers even if they are good speakers ....i never have this imaging before acoustic control...especially the coupling of the imaging and of the soundstage...

You are right about the fact that imaging is related to volume but imaging is related in a no less important way to the precise timing thresholds linked to early and late reflections, and to the relation of the direct sound of the speakers and back reflection timing.... Not only volume....It is the timing and the way the resonators marked out the waving flow from each speakers for each separate ear that also play a major role.... Each resonator is a different possible pressure zone which is a buoy also for the brain hearing processing the 2 first wavefront for each ear... Anyway it is my experience and i am not acoustician but i read research papers about imaging that inspire my idea to use resonators....

Your explanation made me more fond and happy to have used my method which is very more efficient in my case than anything i could have done....


I am pretty sure that i would not have been able to do it by narrow frequency response and a comparative listening like you tried...

But like i said my method is not for most people with a system in a living room.... Our wife will divorce....mine sure....

Thanks for your very interesting post ....

My best to you....

If you serve a Big Mac on fine china, with candles, good wine, and soft music, it will no doubt be better. But it will still be a Big Mac.

Right. That's why I upgrade the flimsy patties to flame broiled 1/4 lb grass fed beef. The processed cheese food is upgraded with Tillamook medium cheddar. The shredded green stuff comes out, garden fresh tomato and lettuce goes in. Thus tweaked and modified it tastes so good it can be served on a paper plate and you will drool over it. I call it the Big MC.