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In Reply to: Re: thanks guys, another couple of questions posted by David Aiken on March 4, 2007 at 12:38:26:
There is one small problem I noticed with the nearfield listening. Some tracks of certain CDs[ e.g 6th track of "Raven" from Rebecca Pidgeon] have music coming from the location of speakers instead of the soundstage behind the speakers.
Follow Ups:
We tend to think about sound being localised at the speaker as not being desirable but if you've got a soundstage extending from outside the left speaker to outside the right speaker, and also from just in front of the plane of the speakers to a fair distance behind them, as I have on many recordings, then you have to accept that it's possible on occasion that the 'correct' place in that soundstage for a performer will, on occasion, fall where the speaker is. Soundstages really don't come like swiss cheese, but with the holes conveniently placed where the speakers are located.There's definitely a problem if there is always sound localised at one or both speakers, regardless of recording. If it happens only occasionally on some particular records, and never on others, then I think it's just the way things were placed when the particular record concerned was mastered. It happens with my system occasionally but it's not an issue on most recordings. I'm satisfied that it's just the way that particular recording is.
Chesky discs often throw a wide soundstage on my system and the wider the soundstage is, the more likely I think this is to happen. I also have discs which throw a very narrow soundstage with all performers placed very close to centre. There are some things which simply boil down to a choice by the engineer in the studio, and soundstage width and performer location within that soundstage are two of those things.
I find that the sound comes from the woofer in such recordings and when you sit close it is somewhat annoying (particularly when you are spoiled by speakers disappearing act). Nevertheless I prefer the long-wall placement well away from the sidewalls.
The Chesky recording I referred to is puzzling to me since the soundstage there has plenty of space to place the instrument behind the speakers.
"The Chesky recording I referred to is puzzling to me since the soundstage there has plenty of space to place the instrument behind the speakers."Well, different components and systems throw different size soundstages. Image placement tends to be set relative to soundstage boundaries. The outer images will be further from the centre if the soundstage is wider, and closer if the soundstage is narrower. Dittto for front to back depth of images.
Perhaps those images aren't located at the speaker position in Chesky's studio. They may not be located at the speakers in some of your friend's systems. What you're noticing could well just be an artifact of your particular system and/or room.
I changed CDPs from a Thule CD150 to an Arcam FMJ CD33 a couple of years back. The soundstage and imaging changed quite noticeably when that occurred, even dramatically on some tracks. The positions at which particular performers were imaged changed with the change in soundstage size. Should I blame the recording because I prefer where something images with one player over where it images with the other? Is it likely that one of them produces exactly the imaging that the engineer heard in Chesky's studio?
I repeat, if something is imaged at the speaker at all times, there's probably something wrong. If it happens only occasionally on a few records, I don't think there's a problem or that anything is wrong.
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