Which speakers do best sounstaging ?

[Sheva]

If there’s one thing that I’d like more of in my current setup, it would be soundstaging. Don’t get me wrong, its not that there isn’t any, its ok between the speakers with good imaging, but there’s little depth.

Speaker reviews often talk of sound well outside the speakers, with drums out in the back garden, and vocals thrown well forward. I appreciate that the electronics are a contributory factor, but I guess that the dominant influence is the dispersion characteristic of the speakers.

Are there any brands in particular which do this big-time, particularly for standmounters sub £1000. Some threads have mentioned ProAc’s, and Sonus Faber Cremona Auditors (higher price bracket) : are these the best?

And for those with good soundstaging, is it at the expense of some other aspect of the music?

 

[Guest]

Don't think there is any definitive, depends on other kit, room, and even the discs you play, sorry thats not much help, for general small standmounts image easier than speakers with large baffle, but narrow baffle have other problems.

 

[PAG]

audio physic tend to dissappear the most with 3d soundstaging due to their very slim fronts.its a bit weird at first, some will love the presentaion, some won`t, especially the flat earth brigade

all imo though of course.

Out of trying myriads of `speakers, audio physic where the best in producing a 3d soundstage.a lot depends on the amp and source though too, as well as the room.

So my advice is to demo some at home if you can.

 

[murray johnson]

Hardly a recommendation, I don't think you'll find any of these, but without doubt the best 'soundstaging' speakers I've ever heard were the Beveridge System 2.

I think these were the type of speakers Frank Sinatra used to have!

http://www.bevaudio.com/System2.htm

some history here

http://www.bevaudio.com/Beveridge_History.htm

I quite like the fact that the founder of Sony, Akio Morita wanted to buy all of the rights to these but Mr Beveridge refused!

They had other faults but you really could walk right around the singer placed in the middle of the room. The speakers were placed on each side of the room and were fired at each other.

 

[Boxer]

As already stated, at that price point, small boxes (eg ProAc, Neat, AE, etc) are the way to go, obviously depending on CD/LP, other kit, positioning, room, etc. Above that electrostatics, but they bring a whole host of other positioning/room interaction issues.

Boxer

 

[kennyk]

I've found that monoblocking amps will increase the 3d effect of the soundstage. from what I can gather, crosstalk in the PSU may be a contributory factor here. obviously it will depend on the amp(s) in question and with everything else, your mileage may vary...

 

[boseman]

kennyk wrote:

I've found that monoblocking amps will increase the 3d effect of the soundstage.

I agree.

 

[Sastusbulbas]

I think size helps but aint perfect, I much prefer a full range system with decent low end performance, this helps give a sense of scale , depth and abience which I find small speakers lack. As long as the baffle is narrow, or mid/treble drivers placed in a smaller enclosure or seperate all is usualy just as good as a small stand mount.

Room size layout and shape also plays a big part, in my old location the depth width and height of image was outstanding, it was far outside the speakers far behind the speakers , in front of the speakers and around and behind the listening position, quite fun to look out the window at where the sound seemed to be coming from, It was very difficult to pinpoint speaker location.

In this location it all depends on positioning, far into the room, almost within touchng distance (Audio Physic style set up) and they disappear well, but at the .5m from rear wall as in the old location width is more restricted, and certain poor recordings make the treble drivers noticable at times, though I found Russ Andrews focus rings help this.

 

[Mr Coherent]

Some suggestions for you, Audio Physics, JM labs, Meadowlarks, and the Neat standmounts are all pretty good at disappearing, as to are the WB Arc's.

 

[TIU]

Hi Mr C,

Slightly off topic but related in a way: I've gone back to shotgunning my speakers with same cable jumpers as you advised and first impressions are very favourable. The first thing I got from the left speaker was a crackle but it's settled down now. I'm also using my Ringmat again over the felt mat and seem to have better behaved bass. With the felt mat it seemed that the bass was a bit wayward, also my speakers seem to have more impact. Does that make sense?

Rgds,

TIU.

 

[Guest]

Mr Coherent wrote:

Some suggestions for you, Audio Physics, JM labs, Meadowlarks, and the Neat standmounts are all pretty good at disappearing, as to are the WB Arc's.

Arcs are circa £1600 second hand but worth every penny in my opinion.

 

[Micke Y]

Hmm

I tend to think that two mayor factors make soundstaging good:

1 Speaker placement

Far to many don´t spend enough time on finding the right placement for their speakers and in my view thats mostly why some have problems with soundstaging.

2 Reducing reflections

If you have a lively room you will have problems regarless of speaker choise. That a bit hard but its my experience.

If you reduce the reflection (first -side-minimum) you'll a better chance of getting the stageing you'll want.

cheers

Michael