Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Soundstage aka Holy Crap !

So I found some of my missing soundstage.

Around the same time I switched from receiver-as-preamp to tubedac-as-preamp I also did one more comparison between M5HPs and M60v4s. I still like the M5HPs better (and one day I hope to have time to finish that $%%# switch box so I can describe the difference better) but that's not the point. The point is that after finishing the testing I moved one of the M60s well away from the listening area but didn't have room for the other so turned it sidewards and left it between the M5HPs, close to the right speaker, back at least 6" from the fronts of the speakers.

After switching to the tubedac as pre-amp I noticed what seemed like a dead spot in the soundstage between the speakers, with the sound biased to the left a bit. I switched back to the HK receiver as pre-amp and still wasn't happy.

Last night it occurred to me that the "dead spot" in the soundstage more-or-less corresponded with the location of the M60. Dragged it out of the listening area and the dead spot mostly went away (I guess this is where the advice about not putting your electronics etc... between your stereo speakers comes from).

There is still a noticeable difference in sound between the two preamps, with the HK3270 sounding more natural to my ears and the TubeDAC sounding a bit darker or maybe duller. Interestingly enough switching between the HK3270 amp and Adcom amp has the opposite effect, with the HK3270's amp weaker in the bass and duller as well.. suggesting that the amp and pre-amp cancel each other out a bit. Leaves me wondering which one is closer to "right".

I guess this is how you end up living on CanuckAudioMart or Audiogon buying and selling audio equipment trying to get a handle on what each option sounds like. Starting to realize why the "internet herd mentality" is so popular -- where someone on the internet decides what "the very best product is" in a category, discussion ensues but reaches resolution, and everyone just goes out and buys it.