Creating a Large Sound Stage


What creates a large sound stage beyond the speaker edges? The amplifier?

jimbennet

So you want a large soundstage? Get a pair of DCM Time Windows. They measure as well 90° off-axis as direct. I have a pair in use as my main speakers. 

'Tube power supply for the turntable…ya just can’t be careless hoping a SEMIconductor will oblige free passage'……

Older op amps are not good, but the Muses02 should create a large sound stage.

Speaker design and placement...

I've had a pair of Polk l800 SDA designs sitting around in storage for a while (not for sale however). You could put any trash recording on it and it will create soundstage sprawl and envelopment.

Big horns...especially some higher end pro audio designs from guys who know their stuff will tend to do that...the sprawl and envelopment..

Guys who say it is all "recording dependent" will usually have unintelligent boring speakers and goofy rooms.

The amp...well...don't get some stage depth flattener like a unintelligent Bosemcintosh or something else that's gimping your intelligent speaker...and so on...

The dac..well...some tricks can be played here.... Even some "purist" dacs have certain processing "enhancements" built in for such purposes (that you just didn't know of).....and so on.

Hope that helps...

Or finish your undergraduate stereo degree and go to multichannel audio graduate school (like 360 reality,  atmos and so on....) soundstage sprawl and envelopment for days...

While most everything matters, the preamp usually provides the soundstage IMO.  We recently had a pair of Vandersteen Quatros up against a wall and we were getting 4D soundstage with the tube preamp used. No room treatments, used so it can be hard to say what will work in your room and system.

 

Happy Listening.