Soundstage Width cannot extend beyond speakers

[tmtomh]

My system would, as far as I know, be considered modest but decent in the context of this forum and your typical audiophile discussion. It's also in a small room, approx 110 sq ft, with some asymmetries, with the speakers 5 feet apart (from vertical center of driver to vertical center of driver) and not quite as far from the side or rear walls as I'd ideally like (1.5 ft from side walls, 1 ft from rear wall).

 

I don't have special room treatments, but the room is "naturally" pretty good, as it has wall-to-wall carpet, an upholstered loveseat in the listening position, and a ceiling that's about 7'8" (in other words not the dreaded even 8') - in other words it's not acoustically dead, but it's not a problematically reflective room.

 

Even with this far from ideal setup, I regularly hear sounds coming from outside the width of the speakers. I don't hear it all the time. With some recordings my speakers are not "invisible" as I'd prefer, but I never feel like I'm listening to just two boxes, and with some recordings the stereo image absolutely floats in space independently of the speakers. I also sometimes hear enough soundstage depth where some sounds seem to be in a plane aligned more or less with the rear of the speakers, if not actually behind them.

 

I'm not an expert on psychoachoustics or even just acoustics. But based on my own experience - not to mention a few decades of hearing my father's various high-end systems and many systems in showrooms and such - it's possible, and not super-rare, for the stereo image to seem wider than the speakers.

 

In fact, I found the number-one, most significant improvement in stereo imaging - including image width - was to move my speakers closer to each other and farther from the side walls. In my experience, most people array their speakers too far apart for their listening distance, with the understandable but misguided idea that wider speaker placement must equal wider soundstage. In my experience that's not the case. Moving mine from 6 feet apart to 5 feet apart made a huge difference.

 

I haven't messed with my setup in recent months because I'll be moving into a new house, with a dedicated listening room, in 4-6 months, so I figure there's no point since my current setup already gives me daily enjoyment even if it's not perfect. I am looking forward to having a slightly larger, more symmetrical space in the future, though - i am hopeful that the new room will enable me to further enhance the soundstage performance of my current equipment

 

Finally, my secondary system is hyper-non-optimized. It's my TV system, and audio-wise it's a pair of those Pioneer BSLR22 speakers, on either side of a flat-screen TV. The speakers are not even 3 feet apart, and they rest on a bench-type piece of furniture. and they are backed by a partial wall, with the result that the L speaker has solid wall behind it but the R speaker only has part of a wall behind it. And the listening distance is barely 5 feet. And even with that, I regularly hear sounds coming from beyond the width of the speakers.

[tmtomh]

4 minutes ago, semente said:

 

Are these real stereo recordings made with a pair of mics?

 

Are you using valves anywhere in your system?

All solid state, and I'd also say a pretty darned neutral and detailed-sounding system. I have some two-mic/binaural recordings, but very few, so generally speaking, no, not "real" stereo recordings.

 

One thing I forgot to mention in my prior comment, which goes along with the "I'm not an expert" comment, is that I cannot claim that when I hear sounds outside the width of the speakers, I am hearing a 100% accurate or natural soundstage.