How does soundstaging work? (1 Viewer)

[Joey_V]

What are the principles of soundstage reproduction?

Is it room placement?
Is it speaker fidelity?
Is it room colorations?

I am having a discussion with someone on another board and he believes that soundstaging is irrelevant of the speaker's fidelity (or acoustic capability) since if positioned correctly, ANY speaker will give ideal soundstage.

He doesnt buy my A/B of two speakers with the same equilateral triangle positioning and having the tweeters of both speakers at same height. I used the same amp for both (and at same volume). Also, the room was acoustically treated.

One speaker.... CLEARLY had better soundstaging... in a sense that it sounded even and not boxed in. The other didnt have as good a soundstage (both width and depth) and sounded relatively boxed-in.

The guy doesnt buy the fact that the first speaker provided a better soundstage... he says reposition the other speaker. However, how come all speaker comparos are done with the speakers IN the SAME positioning configuration??

 

[Chris Quinn]

It does sometimes take tweaking positioning to get the best imaging out of a speaker but not all speakers image equally.

 

[Tim Hoover]

I agree with Chris. A speaker's imaging and dispersion characteristics will definitely affect the soundstage reproduction.

Remember, for many modern recordings where individual instruments are tracked separately and combined into a 2-ch mix, there theoretically is no soundstage. It is created by the engineer with instrument panning, reverb depth, EQ, etc. The monitors used by the engineer in creating the recording, with their individual characteristics, will affect the soundstage created in the mixing room...and like every speaker, the monitors sound different.

 

[BrianWoerndle]

Everything in the system makes a difference. The source, the amp, the speakers, and the room. Anything along the way that alters the minute frequency/phase/amplitute ques will affect what you perceive the soundstage.

 

[John Garcia]

It's ALL of those things. The other person is mistaken. Two speakers, to exaggerate, of different quality, will NOT image exactly the same, even with perfect placement for each. It doesn't sound like the other person has experienced what a speaker with really good depth sounds like.

Due to that fact, using the exact same positioning will not work 100% of the time for comparison. Every speaker I've tried in my system required an adjustment to toe and width to get a good image, and it is clear which ones have the better soundstage. You can get a good stereo presentation, but not all speakers will be capable of reproducing the subtle cues well enough to recreate the depth in the recording (a good recording is assumed).

Ask him if Bose and Aerial will image the same with the correct positioning?

 

[John S]

To displell a little what the other guy is telling you....


Simply get out the DB meter and start barely toe'n various directions and observe the results on the meter. I have yet to find two differnt model speakers that have the same dispersion characteristics.

This is something you can easily see on a DB meter and is only one little part of the entire soundstage story of any given system.