[omedon]

Just wondering how important soundstage is to you when choosing phones.

I'll Start:

For me it isn't very important. Many of my recordings are done in studio on multitracks so they don't have a natural soundstage to begin with. I tend to look at reproduced music, and often music in general, as fairly abstract anyways. Often at live events it just sort of hangs and floats in the air. I am also usually dancing too much at those events to really place things and the amplifers & concert sound systems aren't all that natural either.

That said this unnaturalness of studio recording has been bothering a little lately, I am going to explore more live recordings. Perhaps my feelings on the subject will change a little.

I must admit also that during my short 30min audition of HD-650's at a hi-end shop I wasn't impressed by the soundstage. I had big expectations from what I have read on this site but the difference to me at first glance was small. Normally my grado's pretty much have a head stage but some left and right channel instruments stuff seem to come a few inches or feet away from the phone and odd noises in live recordings like a dropped glass or shout can seem to come from as far as 15 feet away, and often I will spin my head around looking for it in my apartment.

BTW most of my listening is done with my eyes open in dim lighting.

 

[kramer5150]

#2, somewhat important, but not the most important aspect.

K240s and HF1 are all the "headstage" I need.

Garrett

 

[CRESCENDOPOWER]

Soundstaging, imagining, macro-dynamics, and purity of midrange are usually what I look for in a headphone system. I came from a world of looking for large loudspeakers that image like bookshelf speakers. This is why I prefer the Senn 580/600/650s with tube amplification.

 

[Teerawit]

It depends on the rest of the strengths and weaknesses of the headphone. If the sum of its weaknesses to me is greater than the benefits of its soundstage, then I still won't choose that headphone.

 

[Vertigo-1]

Pretty important for me, being able to localize things with precision in the headstage, particularly the frontal portion, simply makes the listening experience much less fatiguing overall for me. That way my mind's not trying to constantly do guesswork, and I can almost point right at the instrument or singer or whatever. Size is also important, the headstage should feel like it extends a few inches beyond and around the head. The absolute champ at both of these IMO is the Omega IIs.

 

[PFKMan23]

Fairly important as it allows me to distinguish things like the instruments in pieces and the parts in large scale choirs.

 

[dura]

I used to think soundstage was very important on my speakersystem; so I switched from a Rega Planet to a Arcam CD73; the difference in soundstage was incredible in all three dimensions; the rega managed a hockey goal, the Arcam created a soundstage the size of a soccergoal!
Wow! I was very impressed.
But soon it dawned on me that something was missing, that strange thing called musicality.
The Rega let the tune through, and the emotion, the Arcam magnified everything but somehow musical coherence got lost.
So I ended up buying another Planet....
Conclusion: soundastage is nice, but it's the music that matters; I might have become a PRaT-person.
Both for headphones and speakersystems; I like a spatial sound, so I can hear the difference between everything going on, but the exact location in place I do not care for very much.

 

[White Fox]

I think the only reason that imaging has any importance is because there are no visual cues while listening to just an audio system. As long as I can hear each instrument reasonably clearly and without obvious distortion, I don't care that much how 3-D an instrument sounds or how much space there is between instruments. Tonal balance and dynamics are much more important to me than just soundstaging and imaging.

 

[overlunge]

It's largely dependent of the music I listen to.


Overlunge

 

[Patu]

There should have been more options. My choce would be somewhere between #1 and #2 but I voted for #2. It's very important but not everything. It tells something that I can enjoy Grado sound.

 

[markmaxx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by omedon Just wondering how important soundstage is to you when choosing phones. I'll Start:

I have been talking to Makhail about soundstage alot lately and we tuned my MPX3 for a wider and more forward sound stage. And he is sending me a pair of HD-600s for even more soundstage.

But sound stage is so much more, we also changed the output tubes (5687) for more dynamics! better bass plucks, more solid drum strikes etc, That is also soundstage. Then we pushed the background noise on the marginal recordings back

Things like this are all soundstage.


Quote:

That said this unnaturalness of studio recording has been bothering a little lately, I am going to explore more live recordings. Perhaps my feelings on the subject will change a little.

I hope this thread catches on because this is what I have been thinking of lately.

Quote:

I must admit also that during my short 30min audition of HD-650's at a hi-end shop I wasn't impressed by the soundstage. I had big expectations from what I have read on this site but the difference to me at first glance was small. Normally my grado's pretty much have a head stage but some left and right channel instruments stuff seem to come a few inches or feet away from the phone and odd noises in live recordings like a dropped glass or shout can seem to come from as far as 15 feet away, and often I will spin my head around looking for it in my apartment. BTW most of my listening is done with my eyes open in dim lighting.

My point is I think the source and amp make a big differance in sound stageing as well as your headphone choice, so you may want to give the senns another chance.

 

[Glod]

Sound stage is very important to me. It is one of the major factors in what I only can describe as presence and tangibility of the performance: The feeling of being at the recording venue when closing the eyes. It is difficult to describe. Often, it grows on you and it is not always instantly identifiable when just picking up a pair of headphones to listen. BTW. IME, dirty mains are a prime killer of these features.

In order to facilitate this impression, there are also other important factors like a straight frequency response and adequate dynamics, but I think I find soundstage to be the most important.

 

[Glod]

Lets not forget that there are only so many things you can try to improve the soundstage. If the recording engineers were not that good in microphone placing and perhaps reverberation treatments of the recording hall, there will soon be a limit to what is achievable afterwards. In other words, IMHO the recording it self is instrumental in creating a good soundstage.

 

[markmaxx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glod Lets not forget that there are only so many things you can try to improve the soundstage. If the recording engineers were not that good in microphone placing and perhaps reverberation treatments of the recording hall, there will soon be a limit to what is achievable afterwards. In other words, IMHO the recording it self is instrumental in creating a good soundstage.

Bravo Glod. I can't think a more fusterating aspect of the head-phone hobby than buying a new CD. for $18.00 US. and having the recording be poor!

 

[fewtch]

Soundstage/headstage is the most important aspect of a headphone to me. The amount of detail a headphone has can affect soundstage, cuz it also effects the cues you receive from the recording (reverbations, small sounds, etc).