what causes a big soundstage (audio research)

[rhyno]

why is it Audio Research preamps are known for such large soundstages? is it something they're doing? class A tube gain stage is nothing special, same for dual transformers. but my preamp (Audio Horizons) has a much narrower stage, and i'm wondering if i can do something to address this (ie more capacitance, more PS bypass caps, etc).
mahalo

[stormsonic]

The Tube CAD Journal: Out of Control: The missing sonic controls

Page 5

[cbdb]

How do you know the large stage form the Audio Research preamps are not from distortions (phase anomilies) and the Audio Horizons is correct?

[Bob Richards]

I really like that John Broskie guy at the Tube Cad Journal. One of the few Audio Engineers I'd go out of my way to meet.

[Bob Richards]

This is a quote from the original Blumlein patent application:

Directional hearing sense is due to phase and intensity differences between sounds reaching the two ears, phase differences being more effective for the lower frequencies and intensity differences for higher frequencies.

I've been telling people this for years, after reading some papers by Toole and others. In the upper midrange we sense image localization primarily by amplitude comparisons, so frequency response matching of left and right speakers may be the primary issue. In the lower midrange, it's more about phase or timing comparisons left to right and vice versa. Any time based cue information that we would detect and interpret in the lower midrange is typically blurred or scrambled by the presence of a second set of timing cue information created at playback by inter-aural crosstalk. The Bob Carver "Holographic Generator" is an electronic approach to remedy this, but listener position is critical (tiny sweet spot). Polk made a speaker that did this acoustically. They had a second set of drivers in each cabinet that was fed an inverted and roughly 6dB attenuated feed from the other channel. I've never heard the Polk personally, but I hear that it has a wider sweet spot. If you want the best of imaging, you should understand this. Listening room acoustics typically screws this up as well.

[Nelson Pass]

Originally Posted by Humdinger

I really like that John Broskie guy at the Tube Cad Journal. One of the few Audio Engineers I'd go out of my way to meet.

I second that.

[SY]

John is larger than life- very physically and verbally imposing. Amazingly nice fellow. You'd like him.

[triode3]

Originally Posted by Nelson Pass

I second that.

Damn, now that is serious. Like Einstien going out of his way to meet Feynman.

I would go way out of my way to meet either one of you guys. Both of you need some huge appreciation for all of the knowledge you have bestowed upon us. (and this is coming from an engineer and a physicist).

Thank you.

[a.wayne]

^^ Are you kidding , Papa is easy to meet ......

[triode3]

Forgot to ask, you are saying in your system, without changing anything else, if you replace the ARC with the AudioHorizons the soundstage is narrower, correct?

Without seeing the AH, I kind of doubt adding more capacitance to a power supply will make it wider (or bypassing). As it has been alluded to here, soundstage (in amps/preamps) is a function of accuracy, channel separation, bandwidth, gain, etc.

Hrmm, if you want the AH to sound like the ARC, why don't you buy/keep the ARC? Again, my previous question stands... did you A/B the ARC and the AH in your system?