I'll explain why I think this happened. I played with the maximum allowed boost/cut in DRC and it actually sounded better than the EQ-ed array by itself. But to get a reasonable measurement away from my noise floor the midrange was at a really high level, 111 dB at ~340 Hz after filtering. It basically shook up a lot in the room to get that measurement.
After EQ the midrange was at ~96 dB level, so that measurement I trust way more as a base for the DRC to work on.
Like I said before, I still need to make some measurements with lower ambient noise around. But for that I need to have the house by myself either after working hours or on a quiet Sunday morning. But the DRC after EQ is generally more clear sounding.
I agree on the size thing. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I notice the effects you speak of, some recordings have more space definition embedded than others. The stage width is way beyond the speakers on several tracks. I.m.h.o. that is a good thing, the phase must be right to achieve that.
A lot of recordings, studio work, have nice stereo "effects" but not much natural ambience embedded in the songs. Some are almost plain boring mono sources. Others do open up real well. But there's none of that big image huge lips, bigger than life things often attached to line array reviews going on.
I played with JRiver's effects for a bit and using the Surround Field option gave more body to all the separate instruments/voices without adjusting the width of the apparent stage. Very enjoyable and close to a live feeling of being present AT the recording.
So I investigated a bit further and found out that Surround Field setting is based on the 1930's Blumlein Shuffler technique. Googling that came up with products like the BSG Technologies qøl Signal Completion Stage.
After reading a few reviews on that technology I agree with what was heard with the Signal Completion Stage most of the time. The separate instruments and voiced sounded more real. It isn't EQ you're hearing but a sort of reshuffle of the original stereo signal. Anyway, it works. And quite well I might add. It gives a life like quality to the performance/performers. Some life tracks don't need it. But even a general favourite I see mentioned all the time (probably because we all know it), The Eagles - Hotel Callifornia from Hell Freezes over works better with the effect added.
Close your eyes and you're there. At least that was the feeling I got. So to put it to the test I had my girlfriend take a listen. She was a bit disappointed. Not by the performance, she felt like being there. The audience at the end of the track gave away it was just a recording. That was her beef with the song.
After that she listened to a couple of other songs, for instance, she likes Robby Williams, so I played her Road to Mandalay. I know that song works well as a voice recording. She felt so close, almost as if she was sitting on his lap while he sang to her

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