Dependent upon speakers, rest of system, toe in, room and room treatments, recording. But generally, I've heard center image vocals as mostly in or behind plane of speakers, only hard panned vocals sometimes extend in front of speaker. This has been a constant with box, open baffle and horn speakers.
The XLO disc is good for that image placement track. |
In the main it will vary with disparate speaker design, and in the recording itself as @erik_squires originally commented on, variations in room treatment may also play a influencing role. In a same hypothetical room you are going to illicit variation using say Harbeth 30.1 compared to Magneplaners to Duevel Sirius / Mbl’s |
The Stereophile test CDs also have good recordings of someone walking around the soundstage and stating his position. If your system isn't able to properly place him, something in your setup is off. Yes, more recordings than not will place vocals between or behind the line between the speakers, so that will be most commonly heard across recordings, but it shouldn't always be so. Great systems will place the vocals forward if that's what's on the recording. Cheers, Spencer |
