So I don't know what you are after. Sounds like you want to argue about my subjective experience.
Twenty years back I decided to have better speakers for my TV viewing. I started trying different speakers, amps, and cd players to try them out. At the time most of the more inexpensive options either did not have bass, or were boomy, or the fidelity did not seem right. Sure they were set up that way in the showrooms but even after adjusting the tone controls or whatever could be adjusted none of this seemed to help. This was not a scientific experiment. I also went to a bunch of higher end shops and some audiophile shops at the time to listen to what was available. In the end with limited experimentation I heard an amazing setup where it felt like the piano was in the room and I heard the pieces I used to play there in front of me. Was this speaker placement, proper setup, or I could have gotten this using cheaper components no matter. I bought a system that satisfied me and changed my listening from just getting a better system for the TV to listening to music again. It is subjective but that is what happened. You seem to doubt my experience. I am making no excuses. I subjectively had a good experience listening to music.
Do you doubt soundstage or imaging in a stereo setup? Please show me the psycho acoustic studies to dispute that. I am open to read and discuss if you can point me to this. I am interested in the science and would like a better understanding of the effects that I hear. If they are psychological so be it. Show me the studies etc... If soundstage and imaging are things that can be measured then I would also like to read about that.
The only things I have experimented and seen some change is moving the speakers wider or further from the walls. I did not do a scientific study of the impact on my room but from my perception I heard differences. I think this is corroborated in different studies of room acoustics although I did not do a study obviously. Is that what you really expect when people set up an audio system in their home?
Sheesh - all I asked for was some articles, data, or measures. I think there are studies that can better elaborate on speaker placement than I can answer from my "experience." I think you know that and all you are after is an argument or to denigrate my experience. If you want to add something useful it would be appreciated. Please point me to articles, studies, measures, etc....
Sorry. I did not mean to show you my uncivilized side. When certain kinds of questions are asked in a certain sort of way, there are philosophical questions that are not willing to be ignored. And as with philosophical questions generally, they insist on being asked in a direct, matter-of-fact way that pays no heed to anyone's feelings.
What you had written (originally) suggested to me that you had a sense of the sort of speaker arrangement that leads to a better soundstage. I was curious to hear more about this, because I thought it might help me to understand a little bit about your individual interpretation of "soundstage". Whenever two or more people talk about soundstage, I'm never entirely convinced that they are talking about exactly the same thing. I sometimes ask the philosophical question of whether the people taking part in the discussion have any way of knowing with certainty that they are talking about the exact same thing. Whenever I ask this, people get mad at me. To my way of thinking, if people really are talking about the exact same thing, they should be able to define it in a way by which it is apparent how to go about measuring it (and they wouldn't resent my asking the question).
There is also this: very often people come here and say something that alludes to properties and qualities that are vague and intangible, and therefore incapable of being measured, and then they argue that since the objective measurements do not reveal these critical properties and qualities, that the objective measurements are worthless. I'm not saying that this is what you were doing, only that it is something often done by people who dislike objectivity in audio, and that your original post was close enough to this sort of thing that it wouldn't have been unreasonable for someone to have interpreted it that way. On numerous occasions I have observed someone come along and do this kind of thing in a way that isn't subtle, and for them to then be treated in a perfectly kind, respectful manner by the people who regularly participate in this forum, some of whom are too gullible to realize that they are being taken for a ride.
I dunno. Perhaps it is reasonable for someone to come along and ask other people to explain to them how the customary measurements reveal soundstage, notwithstanding that soundstage is not defined in a way as meaningful as people like me would prefer. Perhaps this is reasonable. I'm just not sure.