[Devon8822]

I read the glossary of describing sound but I still cannot get a grasp of what sound stage is? can anybody help me out?

 

[Golden Monkey]

Listen to some live music with your eyes closed...give it a few minutes for your brain to figure out what your ears are hearing. Now, picture the music being performed as you hear it...where is the drummer sitting? How close is the guitar player to the bass player? What about the singer? Is he off to one side, or more central? Close to the mic, or farther away? How wide does the stage they are playing on seem? Are they in a small, enclosed studio with walls that absorb the sound, or on a big arena floor with lots of space between the band and the walls? Are you sitting close, or way in the back?

That's just some of the aspects to soundstage...as you get better at listening for it, and have equipment with good rresolution, it becomes even more fun to listen for.

 

[jmht]

Musicians are placed on a stage in certain positions.

I usually see the soundstage of headphones/speakers to be comprised of:

1) How accurately and vividly the positioning is reproduced while listening (ie, 1st violins on the front left, horns in the back right....etc etc)

2) Your positioning to the musicians. It's one thing to hear everything in the right places, but does it sound like you're sitting right in front of the vocalist, or are you 10 rows back....or are you all the way in the lobby?

3) The spacial quality of the sound....ie, does it sound 3 dimensional or flat? Are the notes from different instruments distinct and seperate from each other, or does everything sound "on top of" each other like a big lump.

 

[Devon8822]

So when people say the AKG 701 has a big sound stage... they mean that Iron Maiden is playing in a massive stadium? lol, is that right? is a big sound stage a good thing to have? or do you want to be in a small room with Iron Maiden?

 

[Golden Monkey]

Soundstage just represents the overall impression of the sonic presentation, it's not like a DSP effect or anything. It's somehting you'll find used more in comparison between equipment "phone X has a larger soundstage than phone Y"...some phones sound "wider" (AKG, Sennheiser), some sound more "up front" (Grado, Alessandro), some sound "airier", etc.

 

[m11a1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golden Monkey /img/forum/go_quote.gif some sound more "up front" (Grado, Alessandro), some sound "airier", etc.

No....not grados, well at the least the GS-1000.

 

[troymadison]

There's only a few headphones in which I thought had a speaker-like soundstage. The K501 has a very large soundstage but tends to sound distant. The K1000 puts you in the middle and lets you hear everything more clearly with more detail while making the soundstage even much bigger. Can't really comment on the K701 much since I've sold them a long time ago and can't remember why I didn't like them.

 

[Peter Pinna]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devon8822 /img/forum/go_quote.gif So when people say the AKG 701 has a big sound stage... they mean that Iron Maiden is playing in a massive stadium? lol, is that right? is a big sound stage a good thing to have? or do you want to be in a small room with Iron Maiden?

This has to be the funniest question I've ever read on Head-Fi!

 

[Oya?]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devon8822 /img/forum/go_quote.gif So when people say the AKG 701 has a big sound stage... they mean that Iron Maiden is playing in a massive stadium? lol, is that right? is a big sound stage a good thing to have? or do you want to be in a small room with Iron Maiden?

That's where everyone will differ in preference.

A lot of people would want a cavernous stage for things like orchestra music, others will want a more intimate presentation.

 

[Golden Monkey]

I think it would be fun to party with Iron Maiden in a small room, but the place would get so thrashed. Bruce would kung-fu kick your lamps, Steve's groupies would be passed out all over the place, the roadies would spill beer everywhere...it would be a mess...

 

[Devon8822]

Ok so I can get an idea of soundstage... do IEMs have bigger or smaller soundstage? or is that an un-answerable question?

 

[simplefi]

A soundstage is the virtual "area" that the music takes place in with a properly set up speaker rig or a headphone rig. As you can imagine, the soundstage of a speaker system is quite different from headphones.

In a speaker system, the soundstage is usually the area between and slightly beyond the speakers, depending on the setup. The larger and further apart the speakers are, the bigger the soundstage IME.

For headphones, I think of the soundstage as a "headstage" since all the music takes place in your head pretty much. For phones like the AKG k701, the soundstage takes place in a bubble of sound that surrounds your head (astronaut helmet). For Grados, it's in your head (brain cavity).

 

[jordanross]

On a pair of good hifi speakers if you close your eyes it's like you are in the recording room, or stage. I don't get that from my IEM's.

I don't know I have a pair of Triple.fi's and the soundstage only extends out to about an inch or two outside my head, and I also have trouble distinguishing where the musicians are on the soundstage, not entirely though.

Does anyone else think the soundstage on the Triple.fi's sucks coming straight out an iPods headphone out. I'm hoping they will open up with an amp.